Currency

Formatting for the same currency can be different for users who have different language settings on their devices. One person’s app may say EUR 10 while another’s may say €10. It’s important to know our guidelines for communicating currency and to apply them correctly, but some aspects are beyond our control.

The examples here are given in US currency, but the guidelines apply to all currencies everywhere.

Note: The following are guidelines primarily for currency formatting in content such as in article body copy.

Product or platform specific requirements in applications such as lists, tabular data, or certain UI elements may adopt a different approach if more suitable.


Expressing Values

Always use currency symbols and numerals to express amounts, including in headers and body text, even at the beginning of a sentence. It’s preferable to writing longer text, and it’s more scannable.

$58

Fifty eight dollars


Whole Values

  • Use the dollar sign ($) before the amount

  • In body text, for whole amounts (with no cents), don’t include a decimal or trailing zeros

$25

$25.00


Values lower than $1

  • Use a zero (0), a decimal point, and the cent value to 2 decimal places.

  • For the zero (0) value, use the 0, instead of spelling out zero.

  • When a fee is waived for some reason, like a special promotion, don’t refer to it as being free. Instead, say it’s $0

  • For other incentives where there’s no specific value attached, it’s OK to use free

$0.15

$0

15Β’

15 cents

zero


Negative Values

Use a minus sign (hyphen) to indicate a negative number.

-$30

-$0.29


Currency Ranges

Use the currency symbol before each value in the range, and separate the values with an en dash (–), with no spaces before and after

Feel free to mix whole and partial values. Don’t add trailing zeros to a whole number just to match the decimal spaces of another value in the range

$25–$70

$50–$68.50

$30.50–$40


Lists or tabular data

Any place where dollar amounts appear in a list, use trailing zeros to keep the decimals aligned properly, for scannability and comprehension.

It’s rare for things like prices to be whole values. Adding the trailing zeros makes it clear that the values shown are exact.


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