Foreign cash can be bought from a bank or credit union, from a currency dealer, or at an exchange desk in an airport or hotel, where travel.gc.ca says fees tend to be very high. Each of them sells the currency at a price, the exchange rate it quotes. The Bank of Canada publishes one indicative rate per currency each business day, and its terms say those rates may differ from the ones financial institutions give. How a quote compares with the Bank’s rate is explained below, with the CAD to USD rate after it. Sending money to someone in another country is a separate job, covered on international money transfers.
Where can you exchange currency in Canada?
- Banks and credit unions. According to travel.gc.ca, a financial institution will sell you foreign currency by phone or online and have it sent to your local branch, where you pick it up. One bank’s page, for example, says it keeps US dollars, euros and pounds sterling at most of its branches and has other currencies delivered to a branch on order (the bank’s page).
- Currency dealers. FINTRAC lists foreign exchange dealing, swapping one currency for another, as a money services business service, and such a business has to register with FINTRAC before it starts operating in Canada. travel.gc.ca also mentions websites that take currency orders and ship the cash to your home within a couple of days.
- Airport and hotel exchange desks. travel.gc.ca treats these as the place for cash in an emergency: their fees tend to be very high, even desks that advertise no commission may charge hidden fees, and it calls them “the most expensive places to change money”.
- ATMs abroad. Once you arrive, travel.gc.ca notes, more cash can come out of an ATM. Daily withdrawal limits by bank are on ATM withdrawal limits, and bank fees on bank fees.
Before a trip, travel.gc.ca suggests asking the destination country’s embassy or consulate in Canada whether its currency may be brought in or taken out. Anyone entering or leaving Canada has to declare money or monetary instruments they carry worth CA$10,000 or more, as travel.gc.ca explains. Bringing savings into Canada is covered on proof of funds.
How does the rate you get compare with the Bank of Canada rate?
The Bank of Canada publishes its daily average exchange rates once each business day by 16:30 ET, each one stated as the price in Canadian dollars of one unit of the other currency. Its terms and conditions say, in short: Bank of Canada exchange rates are indicative rates only, derived from averages of transaction prices and price quotes from financial institutions. They may differ from the rates provided by financial institutions and other market sources, and are not intended to be used as the benchmark rate for executing foreign exchange trades.
A bank’s or dealer’s rate is its own price for buying or selling the currency. One bank’s foreign exchange page puts the gap like this: the rates reported in the news are the ones banks and other market players trade at in the wholesale market, while its clients’ deals, smaller and needing more handling, get a retail rate (the bank’s page).
Comparing a quote with the Bank of Canada’s rate for the same day shows how far apart the two are. The figures in this example are made up.
Say you change $1,000 into US dollars. At a reference rate of C$1.40 per US dollar, that buys US$714.29. A quote of C$1.44 per US dollar gives US$694.44, which is US$19.85 less. The quoted rate is 2.86% above the reference rate.
The Bank of Canada’s exchange rates pages give its rates for other currencies in the same form, so a quote in euros or pounds can be checked the same way.
What is the CAD to USD exchange rate?
On October 19, 2026, the Bank of Canada’s rate was C$1.4097 per US dollar, so one Canadian dollar was worth US$0.7094. The Bank publishes a new rate each business day on its daily exchange rates page.
Converted at the Bank of Canada rate on October 19, 2026:
| Canadian dollars | In US dollars | US dollars | In Canadian dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| C$100 | US$70.94 | US$100 | C$140.97 |
| C$500 | US$354.69 | US$500 | C$704.85 |
| C$1,000 | US$709.37 | US$1,000 | C$1,409.70 |
| C$5,000 | US$3,546.85 | US$5,000 | C$7,048.50 |
| C$10,000 | US$7,093.71 | US$10,000 | C$14,097.00 |
The table uses the Bank’s indicative rate; a bank’s or dealer’s quote is a separate rate, read against this one as in the example above.
Annual averages, in US dollars per Canadian dollar and in Canadian dollars per US dollar, the form the Bank of Canada publishes, with the lowest and highest daily rate where available:
| Year | Average, US$ per Canadian dollar | Average, C$ per US dollar | Daily range, US$ per Canadian dollar |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | US$0.6368 | C$1.5704 | |
| 2007 | US$0.9316 | C$1.0734 | |
| 2011 | US$1.0110 | C$0.9891 | |
| 2016 | US$0.7548 | C$1.3248 | |
| 2020 | US$0.7454 | C$1.3415 | |
| 2023 | US$0.7409 | C$1.3497 | |
| 2024 | US$0.7300 | C$1.3698 | US$0.6937 to US$0.7510 |
| 2025 | US$0.7154 | C$1.3978 | US$0.6848 to US$0.7376 |
| Year to October 19, 2026 | US$0.7208 | C$1.3873 | US$0.7007 to US$0.7399 |
Sources: the Bank of Canada’s annual average series (2017 on), the mean of the Bank of Canada’s legacy daily noon rates (2011 and 2016), the US Federal Reserve’s annual G.5A release (2002 and 2007), and, for the year-to-date row and the daily ranges, the Bank of Canada’s daily series. The longer daily series is on the Bank of Canada’s exchange rates pages.
In 2011 the Canadian dollar averaged above par, at US$1.011.
What the Canadian dollar is worth is set by the foreign exchange market, and the Bank of Canada says it very rarely intervenes to support it.
Paying abroad: cards, ATMs and dynamic currency conversion
- Credit cards. travel.gc.ca says credit card issuers typically charge fees for international transactions. It also cautions against taking cash from an ATM on a credit card, since the fees and interest are usually very high. Cards with no foreign transaction fee are compared on credit cards with no foreign transaction fee.
- Debit cards. A debit withdrawal from an ATM abroad costs extra in fees, and a debit card may not work in every ATM or be accepted by every shop or restaurant in another country, travel.gc.ca notes.
- Prepaid travel cards. Some financial institutions offer prepaid cards loaded in foreign currencies, which can carry higher fees than credit or debit cards; travel.gc.ca adds that some hotels and car rental companies may refuse them and that foreign banks’ ATMs may not take them easily.
- Dynamic currency conversion. Some shops, restaurants and ATMs abroad offer to charge in Canadian dollars instead of the local currency, which travel.gc.ca lists as dynamic currency conversion. travel.gc.ca’s advice is to choose the local currency, because converting to Canadian dollars at the counter brings high conversion rates and transaction fees.
Large amounts, US-dollar accounts and converting to invest
- US-dollar accounts at Canadian banks are compared on US dollar accounts.
- Sending a large sum to someone abroad, and what a transfer costs including the exchange rate, is on international money transfers.
- Converting between Canadian and US dollars inside a brokerage account, including the method known as Norbert’s Gambit, is covered on Norbert’s Gambit.
- How exchange-rate moves change the value of US investments is explained on currency exchange and your investments.
Related pages
Sources
The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between October 6, 2026 and October 19, 2026. How we check facts.
- Bank of Canada: Terms
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- cbsa-asfc.gc.ca: Guide for residents returning to Canada
- federalreserve.gov: FRB: G.5A Release-- Foreign Exchange Rates -- January 3, 2007
- federalreserve.gov: G5A