The commercial dollar rate with the time it was taken, a two-way converter and the conversions people look up most.
US Dollar Today: R$ 5,1307.
The dollar is the price everything else in the Brazilian exchange market is measured against: the euro, the pound and the peso all reach the real through it. What you see at the top of this page is the commercial rate — the price at which banks trade dollars with each other, the reference used in trade contracts and remittances. It is not the price of a banknote at an airport counter. Three forces do most of the moving: the gap between Brazilian and American interest rates, which decides how rewarding it is to hold reais; the market reading of Brazilian public accounts, which is why the quote reacts to a budget vote; and the global appetite for risk.
The pair has a short and eventful history. The real was born in July 1994 worth slightly more than one dollar and was held near there until January 1999, when Brazil let it float and the rate jumped past R$ 2,00 in weeks. Then came the shocks the chart still carries: the 2002 election year that took it close to R$ 4,00, the commodity boom that pulled it back under R$ 1,60 by 2008, the recession of 2015 and 2016, the pandemic in 2020. What thirty years of that chart teach is not where the price goes next — nobody knows — but how it travels: in jumps, then sideways for a long time at the new level.
The number here comes from a stored quote that a scheduled job refreshes every half hour, and the instant it was taken is printed under it. On a business afternoon it is minutes old; on a Sunday it is Friday closing price, because the market is shut. And the honest part: this commercial rate is not what you pay. A bureau de change, a bank or a card operator adds its own spread and the IOF tax on top, so the dollar you actually buy is always dearer than the dollar you read here. The rate field is editable for exactly that reason — type the number your bank quoted and see the difference in reais.
From the interbank market feed, stored here by a job that runs every 30 minutes — the exact date and time of the quote sit right below it. Press "Refresh rate" and the page goes to that same feed live, from your browser, and rewrites the value. Until you click, no request is made at all.
Because this is the commercial rate, a wholesale reference traded between banks. What you pay carries a spread the institution sets, plus the IOF tax, whose rate the government has changed more than once in recent years. Ask for the final rate with everything included and compare it here.
They are two different markets. The commercial dollar prices trade and financial flows in large volumes. The tourism dollar prices banknotes handed across a counter, with handling, insurance and transport costs, so it is always the higher of the two. Cards follow the commercial rate plus the operator spread and IOF, not the tourism quote.
Because the attraction of holding reais depends on the gap between Brazilian and American interest rates. When the Fed raises, the reward for staying in dollars goes up and part of the flow leaves. Copom decisions move the pair for the same reason.
No. The market trades on business days within set hours, so on a Saturday, a Sunday or a holiday you are seeing the previous session close. If refresh does not move the number, that is usually why — not a failure of the page.
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