USD · Currency strength
How has your money fared against the world?
Starting from , watch its strength against the world's majors, month by month, since 1999.
USD vs basket of majors · Jan 1999 → May 2026
-9.8%
USD has lost ground against a basket of majors. · best vs USD: CHF +81% · worst: ZAR -63%
Twenty-seven years, line by line
USD vs world currencies, 1999–2026
Each line shows how much one unit of the foreign currency would buy in USD terms, indexed to 100 at the start of the window. Above 100 = the foreign currency strengthened (your USD weakened). Below 100 = the opposite.
Range
From
Jan 1999
To
May 2026
Show / hide currencies
Currency data starts partway through the window: its line begins at its first available month.
Ranked, every currency, against your USD
The full scoreboard.
Sorted from biggest gain to deepest loss versus USD. Each tile is the same line you can isolate in the chart above, just zoomed in on its own scale.
CHFSwiss Franc
+81.3%
CZKCzech Koruna
+56.1%
SGDSingapore Dollar
+32.8%
CNYChinese Yuan
+21.9%
AUDAustralian Dollar
+14.7%
THBThai Baht
+13.9%
CADCanadian Dollar
+10.6%
NZDNew Zealand Dollar
+10.2%
TWDTaiwan Dollar
+7.5%
EUREuro
+3.1%
DKKDanish Krone
+2.6%
PLNPolish Złoty
+1.0%
HKDHong Kong Dollar
-1.0%
SEKSwedish Krona
-15.9%
NOKNorwegian Krone
-17.9%
GBPBritish Pound
-17.9%
KRWKorean Won
-21.1%
JPYJapanese Yen
-26.4%
MXNMexican Peso
-40.8%
INRIndian Rupee
-54.4%
BRLBrazilian Real
-63.0%
ZARSouth African Rand
-63.4%
In real money
What USD back in 1999 turned into.
Same trajectories, different unit. If you had held the equivalent of USD 100'000 in each currency at the start of the window and never touched it, here is where you would stand today.
Biggest winners
CHFSwiss Franc
USD 181'254
+USD 81k · +81.3%
CZKCzech Koruna
USD 156'114
+USD 56k · +56.1%
SGDSingapore Dollar
USD 132'770
+USD 33k · +32.8%
Stayed at home
USDkept in USD
USD 100'000
unchanged
Deepest losers
ZARSouth African Rand
USD 36'571
USD -63k · -63.4%
BRLBrazilian Real
USD 36'982
USD -63k · -63.0%
INRIndian Rupee
USD 45'619
USD -54k · -54.4%
Standouts from this window
Three lines worth a second look.
CHF gained +81% against your USD.
Anyone holding CHF instead of USD over this window came out clearly ahead. The kind of move worth a five-minute Wise transfer to capture.
ZAR dropped -63% against your USD.
If you'd been earning in ZAR but spending in USD, your monthly take-home effectively shrank by that much. Without anyone giving you a pay cut.
PLN swung as much as 104% but ended only +1% from where it started against USD.
PLN took the round trip. The journey was bumpy but the destination ended up back near where it started against USD.
Wise · International transfersAffiliate · we may earn a commission at no cost to you
Stop losing margin on every transfer.
Holding the wrong currency over 27 years cost the average household more than any bank fee ever could. Wise uses the real mid-market rate the chart above is built on, charges a transparent up-front fee, and converts in seconds, not days.
Real mid-market rate, no hidden spread
Flat, visible fee disclosed upfront
50+ currencies, settlement in hours
Regulated in 175+ countries16M+ customersMid-market FXTransparent fees
What to do with this
Four next steps sized to the question.
Start investing
Ensure your money works for you, even in your currency. A beginner-friendly guide to building wealth that outlasts exchange-rate swings.
Read the guide→
Build wealth that beats FX risk
Long-term currency risk evaporates when you own globally diversified assets. Run your FI number.
Plan→
Where do wages go furthest?
PPP-adjusted salaries by country. A different way to see what your money really buys around the world.
Compare→
Track your net worth across currencies
Free portfolio tracker that consolidates accounts in multiple currencies into one base of your choice.
Open→
Frequently asked
It's the indexed exchange rate of each currency against your chosen base, normalized to 100 at the start of the window you picked. If the line for EUR goes from 100 to 120, it means EUR has gained 20% against your base over that window. It's a relative measure — strength only exists vs another currency.
Because most of the world prices things in USD and most readers are familiar with it as a benchmark. But the dropdown lets you switch to any of the 24 tracked currencies — pick the one that's actually in your wallet for a more meaningful view.
European Central Bank reference rates, fetched via Frankfurter.app. These are the same daily rates the ECB publishes for the euro, cross-rated to USD and the other majors. We sample one rate per month (last available business day) for chart readability.
January 1999 — that's when the ECB started publishing reference rates following the launch of the euro. Some currencies (notably HKD before 2003 and KRW before 2010) only joined the dataset partway through; those segments are skipped in the chart for those years.
No — and the difference matters. Inflation is about how much you pay at home for the same basket of goods (measured by your country's CPI). Currency strength is about how much your money buys abroad versus another currency. They're related but distinct: a currency can hold steady on FX markets while domestic inflation eats your real wages, or it can collapse on FX while the local price level stays flat for a while. The classic example is Argentina — soaring inflation AND a collapsing peso together. Most countries don't move in lockstep on both axes.
No. The data is fetched in batches and snapshotted monthly. For live FX quotes use a dedicated source — this page is for the long-arc view, not for timing trades.