Paying in Cambodia: Riel, US Dollars and KHQR

Cambodia does not have a main currency and a tolerated foreign one. It runs two at once, and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) says so plainly: because the economy is dollarised, US dollars are "widely accepted as a substitution" for riel, in what it calls a highly cash-based society. For a visitor, the practical question is not which one to choose but which one to hand over for which amount.

Should you pay in dollars or riel in Cambodia?

Think of the dollar as the unit for anything that costs a dollar or more, and the riel as the coins you would otherwise be missing. US banknotes stop at USD 1, while the NBC's list of riel banknotes in circulation runs from 50 and 100 riel up to a 200,000-riel note issued in October 2024. That is why amounts under a dollar are settled in riel, and why a dollar bill paid for something small often comes back as a handful of riel notes.

At the NBC's official rate of KHR 4,057 per dollar, published for 28 September 2026, 1,000 riel is worth about 25 US cents and a 100-riel note about 2.5 cents.

A sensible split for a first visit is dollars in small denominations (USD 1, 5 and 10) for day-to-day spending, larger notes kept for hotels and tickets, and a few thousand riel collected from change for tips, water and short rides. Paying small amounts with a USD 50 or 100 note puts the seller in the position of finding change in both currencies.

Why the dollar is so entrenched

The riel was reintroduced on 20 March 1980, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. At a March 2026 launch of an NBC and UNDP policy brief, UNDP's representative said the influx of official development assistance in the 1990s contributed to dollarisation.

The scale is still large. The NBC's 2024 annual report puts foreign-currency deposits at 90.9% of all deposits and foreign-currency loans at 88.2% of all loans. The same report gives the 2024 average rate as KHR 4,071 per dollar, so the riel has moved only slightly against the dollar.

A common misreading is that Cambodia is about to phase out the dollar, or, the opposite, that the riel is a token currency visitors can ignore. Neither matches the central bank's own description. The NBC and government say they promote the riel through market mechanisms and riel-denominated instruments, and said in 2025 that the volume of riel in circulation had grown by an average of 15 percent a year over two decades. For a visitor this means dollars will keep working, and riel will keep being handed back as change.

Which US dollar notes will be refused?

The condition of a dollar note matters more in Cambodia than in the United States. The US State Department's Cambodia page, last updated in June 2026, says ripped, torn or stained US bills are generally not accepted. It also reports many cases of fake or novelty USD 50 and USD 100 bills in Cambodia, and advises counting and looking carefully at any dollars you are given before walking away.

The UK Foreign Office's safety advice, current on 27 September 2026, adds that travellers have been given fake dollar bills as change in shops and clubs, and asks you to check that notes you receive are genuine and not damaged or torn. Refuse a damaged note when it is offered as change; you may find it harder to spend than the seller did.

The NBC has worked on this. It issued press releases in July and August 2024 on coordinating and facilitating US dollar banknote circulation, including a meeting with Siem Reap banks, and in July 2025 the Ministry of Tourism credited the central bank with the acceptance of old or damaged US dollars. The releases themselves are image files we could not read, so we cannot say which banks exchange damaged notes or on what terms. Bring crisp notes and treat a bank as the place to try, not a market stall.

Can tourists pay with KHQR in Cambodia?

Yes, if you set up a way to scan. KHQR is the national standard QR code, designed so that one code at a merchant accepts payments from any participating provider instead of a separate code for each bank. The NBC's 2024 annual report counted 4.5 million merchants registered to use KHQR. There are two ways for a visitor to pay one.

Route 1: the Bakong Tourists app

The NBC's own visitor wallet was launched in August 2024 in Siem Reap. NBC release titles show card linking added for Mastercard in November 2024 and Visa in January 2025. The App Store listing describes the steps: register with an email address, complete a selfie identity check, top up at the airport or your hotel or link a physical Visa or Mastercard, then scan to pay in dollars or riel.

The listing does not state limits, fees or how to withdraw an unused balance, and we found no official page that does. When we read it on 27 September 2026, the US App Store rating was 1.6 out of 5 from 28 ratings, with reviewers mentioning card-linking and payment problems. Treat it as useful but not as your only way to pay.

Route 2: your own banking or wallet app

Cambodia has been linking KHQR to other countries' QR systems. A link does not always work in both directions from the start: some phases let Cambodians pay abroad before visitors can pay in Cambodia. The inbound links we could confirm, meaning visitors scanning KHQR in Cambodia with their home app, are these:

Cambodia's state news agency reported in July 2026 that five ASEAN links were operational, with Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and that international travellers can pay by scanning national QR codes across partner networks. The pages we read did not say which Thai, Lao or Vietnamese apps can scan KHQR, so check inside your own banking app before you travel. The NBC also lists an October 2024 launch of cross-border QR payments via Alipay+, but its release is not machine-readable and we could not confirm which wallets are covered. An NBC release title shows Japan's link launched in July 2025 as Phase 1, covering JPQR payments in Japan; the pages we read did not say when Japanese users will be able to scan KHQR.

What to set up before you land

Decide by where your phone comes from. If your home bank or wallet is in the table above, test that its scanner opens and accepts overseas QR payments before departure, and carry dollars as the fallback. If it is not, install Bakong Tourists at home, where you have stable data, complete the identity check, and link a card; if the card link fails, you still have cash.

Either way, carry more small dollar notes than you think you need, keep riel change in a separate pocket, and spend the riel before the airport. For the Angkor temples, the ticket counters take cash dollars and cards, as explained in our Angkor Pass guide.