USD to CNY

Who exchanges dollars for yuan, and what for

If you're looking up USD to CNY, chances are you want to pay a supplier in China, support family there, or cover expenses for a student living or studying in the country. Take an importer in Ohio buying parts from Shenzhen, the invoice could ask for payment in dollars one month, then yuan the next, and how you fare depends directly on the exchange rate. For someone sending part of their income home from Boston to Chengdu, the real concern is how much ends up in the family account, and how quickly it gets there.

At the current mid-market rate, changing 1000 dollars lands you 6,655.32 CNY. Treat that as a benchmark. The sum your recipient actually receives depends entirely on the provider you use, and that's exactly what our table above takes into account.

A currency steered by policy

Yuan, renminbi and CNY all refer to the same currency, so don't let the terms trip you up when sending money. Each trading day, the People's Bank of China publishes a central rate. The onshore yuan cannot move more than a certain margin from this official peg, so the way this pair trades looks quite unlike, say, the dollar versus the euro where market supply and demand rule freely.

There's also the offshore version, CNH, which is mostly traded in Hong Kong and a few other places, facing fewer rules. So rates for CNH and CNY tend to be close, but can part ways on occasion. Consumer transfer companies often don't specify which rate they're quoting from. The dollar-yuan rate shifted by -6.42% across the past year, holding between 6.6553 and 7.1266. Changes usually respond to interest rate gaps, developments in trade or tariffs, shifts in Chinese economic figures, and to what the central bank signals about its preferred path for the yuan.

Getting funds into China

When you send dollars to China, they nearly always end up as yuan in a local bank account. The recipient's bank finalizes the credit. Most everyday payments inside China use Alipay or WeChat Pay, but if you're sending internationally, the money almost always settles to a bank account, usually one linked to UnionPay, rather than heading straight to a digital wallet. Always check with your chosen provider which payout types are actually available before you send.

Two points often cause delays. One: the recipient's name, written perfectly to match the bank account, in both pinyin and sometimes in Chinese characters. Two: Chinese banks will often need to know the motive for the incoming funds, family support, business, tuition, or invoice payment, because foreign exchange control rules are more tightly enforced there. Make sure the purpose you list for your provider matches what the recipient will tell their bank, and have paperwork like invoices in hand for business deals. You'll find more advice (and the specific documents you might need) in our guide to paying overseas suppliers.

Comparing costs and checking the real price

At the moment, our best-priced provider sends 6,622.38 CNY for every 1000 dollars you transfer. When you're dealing with 5000 dollars, Wise offers the top payout. The ordering can differ quite a bit depending on your transfer size, mainly because fixed charges hit smaller amounts much harder. Don’t focus just on fees, a zero-fee offer can actually cost you more if the exchange rate given is far from the mid-market.

Take Wise for example: on 1000 dollars, you’ll see a fee of 4.95 USD, and the complete cost, exchange rate markup included, totals 0.50%. Another major player, Western Union, works differently: their cost comes to 2.88% for the same transfer amount. Sending from bank to bank? You could face deductions from intermediary banks along the way, but only discover this shortfall once the yuan arrive. If you want to see where banks hide their commission, read more in our article on bank exchange rate markup. We’ve explained how we order and rank providers on How we compare.

About timing, holidays, and sending more

China's banking system shuts for several days during the Spring Festival and National Day in early October, which means payment queues will build up. So if your payment is tied to a tuition or invoice due date around these holidays, it's safer to send a week ahead of schedule. Starting your transfer on a US public holiday or late on Friday introduces another wait, this time for American banks to reopen.

Larger amounts usually draw more questions. Both sending and receiving banks may request details on the payment’s origin if you're sending tens of thousands of dollars. You might want to look over how banks report large transfers before starting. If you’re a business sending regular CNY payments, it’s possible to lock in a rate now, using a forward contract, instead of accepting whatever is posted on the day you send. For sending the other direction, try CNY → USD; or if you’re comparing dollars to euros, go to USD → EUR.