Currency
Formatting for the same currency can be different for users who have different language settings on their devices. One personβs app may say EUR 10 while anotherβs may say β¬10. Itβs 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. Itβs preferable to writing longer text, and itβs more scannable.
$58
Fifty eight dollars
Whole Values
Use the dollar sign ($) before the amount
In body text, for whole amounts (with no cents), donβt 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, donβt refer to it as being free. Instead, say itβs $0
For other incentives where thereβs no specific value attached, itβs 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 (β), with no spaces before and after
Feel free to mix whole and partial values. Donβt add trailing zeros to a whole number just to match the decimal spaces of another value in the range
$25β$70
$50β$68.50
$30.50β$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.
Itβs 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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