What is the currency of Brazil?

The currency of Brazil is the Brazilian real. Its symbol is R$ and its international currency code is BRL; the plural form in Portuguese is reais.

Brazil introduced the current real on 1 July 1994 as part of the Plano Real, an economic programme designed to control the country’s severe inflation. It replaced the cruzeiro real. At launch, one real equaled 2,750 cruzeiros reais, reflecting the enormous price increases that had preceded the reform.

The word real means “royal” in Portuguese and was also used for older Portuguese and Brazilian currencies. Modern Brazilian money is divided into 100 centavos. Coins include 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 centavos and 1 real, while banknotes commonly range from R$2 to R$200.

A frequent mistake is answering “peso,” because several Latin American countries use that name. Brazil’s real is distinct from currencies such as Argentina’s peso and Mexico’s peso, despite the countries’ geographic proximity.