Money in Mozambique: Currency, ATMs, Costs & Tipping

Money in Mozambique, the short version

Mozambique runs on the metical (plural meticais, written MT or MZN) — and, just as importantly, it runs on cash.

Smaller notes especially. Small businesses won’t break a MT 1,000 bill if you’re buying something cheap, so a stack of MT 100s and 200s will get you further than a wallet of big ones.

Bring a Visa card for hotels, lodges, and bigger restaurants, and a backup of clean US dollars or South African rand for everything in between. Today’s rate:

After a day or two on the ground, you’ll stop converting in your head — the prices start to make their own sense.

ATMs: where they work, where they don’t

Honest version: ATMs in Mozambique are fine in the cities and patchy everywhere else.

• Maputo, Beira, Nampula, and other major towns — multiple working ATMs, generally reliable. BCI, Millennium BIM, Standard Bank, and Absa are the main networks; Visa and Mastercard both work.
• Smaller towns (Vilankulo, Tofo, Pemba, Inhambane) — a handful of ATMs that usually work. They run out of cash on weekends and after public holidays, and one bank’s machine being down doesn’t mean the others are.
• Islands and remote areas — none. The Bazaruto islands have no ATMs at all.

Per-transaction cap is usually around MZN 5,000 (~$80 USD). If you need more, do multiple withdrawals in a row — your bank fee will sting, but it’s the only way. Some ATMs cap lower, especially in smaller towns.

Our advice. Don’t make a single ATM the linchpin of your trip. Withdraw when you see a working machine, carry a backup card on a separate network, and keep some clean USD or ZAR notes as a final fallback.

Cards, cash, and what to bring

Where cards work

Hotels, lodges, dive shops, and mid-range restaurants in tourist areas take cards. Visa is by far the most reliable — bring one if you can. Mastercard works in many places but gets refused often enough to not be your only card. American Express and Diners are mostly not accepted at all. Outside that — local restaurants, markets, chapa drivers, tuk-tuks, small shops — assume cash only. Even in places that have a card machine, expect it to occasionally be “broken” (which sometimes means broken and sometimes means “we’d rather have cash today”).

Backup currency

Always carry some US dollars or South African rand as a fallback. Both are widely recognised; rand is especially useful if you’re driving up from South Africa. Euros work in some places but aren’t universally accepted.

A few rules that catch people out:

• Newest USD series only. Notes printed from 2013 onward (the current redesigned series) are strongly preferred; older designs are often refused outright. The 2009-or-later rule is the absolute floor — anything older than that won’t even be looked at.
• Bigger notes earn better rates. A $100 bill exchanges at a noticeably better rate than a $20, and a $20 better than smaller. If you’re bringing USD specifically to exchange, bring high denominations. Keep a few small notes for tips and emergencies.
• Spotless condition. Tears, ink marks, stamps, writing, even faded corners will get notes turned away — exchange counters are stricter than you’d expect. Withdraw fresh from your bank before you fly.

Exchanging money

Banks (BCI, Millennium BIM, Standard) and licensed casas de câmbio exchange currency at fair, posted rates. Hotels will exchange small amounts for guests, usually at a slightly worse rate. Avoid unofficial street changers — the rate they wave at you is bait, and the count rarely lands where it should.

If you’re travelling with us, just ask. We can sort exchange for you at the going bank rate, no markup, no queue — useful if you’ve landed late, the banks are closed, or you’d rather not spend half your first morning hunting for a casa de câmbio. Same goes if you’d rather pay tour balances in USD, EUR, or ZAR — happy to take it.

Take the rate with you

A lockscreen for your trip.

Save it as your phone's lockscreen — quick price reference at the market, in a tuk-tuk, or when a vendor hands you a price you can't quite parse.

Pick your home currency

MT → USD MT → EUR MT → ZAR MT → GBP

Download USD wallpaper

iPhone: save the image, open it in Photos, tap the Share icon, then Use as Wallpaper → Lock Screen.
Android: save the image, open it in Photos or Gallery, tap the menu, then Set as wallpaper → Lock screen.

A rough estimate, as of April 2026 — for the current rate, check the live converter higher up the page.

What things cost

Approximate prices in MZN with USD equivalents at MZN 64 to the dollar. These hold roughly nationwide; tourist hubs and remote islands trend higher.

• Local meal at a barraca or simple restaurant: MT 300–600 ($5–10)
• Mid-range restaurant main: MT 800–1,500 ($12–25)
• Beachfront seafood platter for two: MT 2,500–4,500 ($40–70)
• Local beer (Laurentina, 2M, Manica): MT 80–150 ($1.50–2.50)
• Bottle of South African wine at a restaurant: MT 800–1,800 ($12–28)
• Fresh juice or smoothie: MT 100–250 ($1.50–4)
• 1L bottled water: MT 50–80 ($1)
• Tuk-tuk in town: MT 50–150 ($1–2.50)
• Mid-range double room per night: MT 3,000–6,500 ($50–100)
• Souvenir capulana: MT 300–700 ($5–11)

Imported goods — wine, electronics, branded toiletries — cost more than you’d expect, sometimes more than at home. Local food, transport, and crafts are genuinely good value.

Three sample daily budgets

How much you’ll actually spend depends entirely on how you travel. Rough per-person, per-day figures:

Shoestring — MT 1,500–2,500 ($25–40) Barraca meals, local beer, chapas between towns, simple guesthouse beds. Skips paid activities.

Mid-range — MT 5,000–9,500 ($80–150) A mix of local and restaurant meals, comfortable accommodation, a tuk-tuk when it’s hot, one tour or activity every couple of days. This is what most of our guests spend.

Treat-yourself — MT 12,500+ ($200+) Lodge accommodation, full-board, daily excursions, sundowners with the good rum. Island lodges run higher again — published rates of $400–800 per person per night are normal.

These figures assume you’ve already paid for your flights and your big-ticket excursions (a Bazaruto day trip or a multi-day dhow safari). They cover the day-to-day, not the trip total.

Tipping

Tipping isn’t deeply ingrained in Mozambican culture, but in tourism it’s expected, and it matters. Wages in the industry are modest, and a fair tip can be a meaningful share of someone’s day.

A working guide:

• Restaurants: 10% if a service charge isn’t already on the bill (check — some places add 10% as taxa de serviço).
• Tour guides: MT 300–500 per guest on a day trip; MT 500–1,000 per guest per day on multi-day trips.
• Boat crews: MT 200–400 per guest on a day trip. Tip them separately from the guide where you can, or tell the guide the envelope is for both.
• Hotel housekeeping: MT 100–200 per night, left on the pillow or with reception.
• Porters: MT 50–100 per bag.
• Drivers (private transfer): MT 200–500 for the trip, more for long distances or extra help with bags.

Tip in meticais where you can — it’s what your tip earner will actually spend. USD or rand tips work, but staff have to find somewhere to exchange them, and small foreign notes sometimes can’t be exchanged at all.

A few things we wish we’d known

• Carry small notes. Drivers, market vendors, and small shops often can’t break a MT 1,000 bill, especially early in the morning. Withdraw a stack of MT 100s and 200s when you can.
• The new note series is from June 2024. Both old and new notes are legal tender, but if you’re handed something that looks suspiciously dog-eared or pre-2006, ask for a swap — some businesses get sniffy about the older series.
• Keep the entry receipt safe. The slip immigration hands you on arrival sometimes gets asked for at hotels and definitely at the visa extension office. Photograph it.
• There’s no “tourist price.” Bargaining at markets is normal, but most fixed-price businesses (restaurants, shops, tour operators) charge the same to everyone. If a price feels off, ask politely — you’re more likely to be misreading the menu than being scammed.
• Mobile money exists but isn’t for you. M-Pesa and e-Mola are widely used by Mozambicans but require a local number and ID to register. Don’t bother on a short trip.

A short history, in case you’re curious

The metical’s name comes from the Arabic mithqāl — a unit of weight, and the name of a gold dinar that traded across much of Africa until the 19th century. A reminder that the East African coast, Mozambique included, has been knit into Indian Ocean trade routes for a thousand years before any of this looked like a country.

The currency itself is younger. It replaced the Portuguese escudo on 16 June 1980, five years after independence — President Samora Machel announced it as a symbol of the country shedding colonial scaffolding. By the 1990s, runaway inflation had turned everyday prices into dizzying numbers (a beer cost tens of thousands of meticais), and on 1 July 2006 the government lopped three zeros off — 1,000 old meticais became 1 new metical. The currency code MZN dates from that reset. If you ever read an old guidebook quoting prices in the millions, that’s why.

A new series of notes and coins entered circulation in June 2024, replacing the old eighteen-year-old design. Both the old and new series are legal tender side by side, but you’ll see the new ones more and more.

What’s on the notes and coins

Worth a glance before you crumple them into your pocket.

• Every banknote (MT 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000) carries a portrait of Samora Machel — Mozambique’s first president and independence leader — on the front. He is, quietly, everywhere in this country.
• The reverses are a wildlife tour: rhino, kudu, giraffe, lion, buffalo, elephant — a near-complete Big Five plus a kudu thrown in. A nod to Mozambique’s national parks (Gorongosa, Niassa, Limpopo).
• Coins are quirkier — a kingfisher, a cotton plant, a farm tractor, and a timbila (the wooden xylophone of the Chopi people, recognised by UNESCO as part of Mozambique’s intangible cultural heritage). A pocketful of small change is a small portrait of the country.
• Coins in circulation since the 2024 update: 1, 2, 5, and 10 meticais. You’ll mostly handle notes — coins turn up as small change at markets and tuk-tuks.

Still not sure?

Money questions are easier to answer with a real itinerary in front of us. Send us a WhatsApp with what you’re planning and we’ll give you a realistic budget, tell you which towns have working ATMs the week you’re there, and flag anything that catches travellers off guard. While you’re at it, look at our Bazaruto day trip for a sense of what excursions cost.

Once you’re here, we’ll take care of the logistics. See our other travel tips for visas, packing, and what to expect on the ground.

Last reviewed: 30 April 2026. Exchange rates and prices fluctuate — always confirm the current rate at xe.com before you travel. Sources: Banco de Moçambique (currency reference), Wikipedia: Mozambican metical for currency history, our own day-to-day experience running tours from Vilankulo, and conversations with guests who’ve travelled the country end to end.