Convert EUR to CAD Euro ↔ Canadian dollar Free Online Secure
Type an amount in Euro and read it in Canadian dollar at once. The page uses the European Central Bank's reference rate, and tells you which day that rate is from.
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Common amounts — Convert EUR to CAD (Euro ↔ Canadian dollar)
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| 5 | |
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The last thirty days
Where these codes and rates come from
The three letters in EUR, USD or JPY are not an abbreviation someone invented for a website: they are ISO 4217, a standard in which the first two letters are the country's own code and the third is usually the initial of the currency. The figures on this page come from the European Central Bank, which publishes one set of reference rates each working day, around 16:00 Central European time, agreed between the central banks of the Eurosystem. They are a daily snapshot meant for statistics and accounting, not a live trading feed — which is exactly why they are the same number for everyone, rather than whatever one bank happened to quote at one moment.
Where you meet an exchange rate
You meet an exchange rate four or five times a year without thinking about it: booking a trip, paying an invoice issued abroad, buying from a foreign shop, reading a salary offer in another currency, or checking what a card charge really cost. In all of these the reference rate is the honest middle, and the price you actually pay sits a little to one side of it. Knowing the middle is what lets you see how wide that margin is.
Questions people ask
Is this the rate my bank will give me?
No, and no page can promise one. This is the European Central Bank's reference rate: the midpoint published once a day for statistics. A bank, a card scheme or an exchange office adds its own margin on top — usually between half a percent and three percent, sometimes more at an airport counter. Use this figure to judge the offer you are given, not to predict it.
How often does the figure change, and what happens at weekends?
The European Central Bank publishes once each working day, in the afternoon, Central European time. There is no publication on Saturdays, Sundays or TARGET holidays, so on those days the page shows the last working day's rate and says which day it belongs to. The chart alongside is one year of the same daily series.
Is the answer exact?
Where both units are defined in terms of one another by whole numbers, yes — the page says so above the figure, and the only rounding is in how many digits are shown. Where the ratio has no finite decimal, the page shows twelve significant digits and says the relation is approximate rather than pretending otherwise.
Does anything I type leave my device?
No. The arithmetic runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded and there is no server to upload it to. Load the page once and it keeps working with the network switched off.
A dollar with a bird on it: Canada seen from the euro area
Why a European needs the Canadian dollar
Canada is one of the favourite long-haul destinations of Europeans, a country of lakes, forests, mountains and friendly cities that seems at once familiar and enormous. It is also a major trading partner of the European Union, and the home of hundreds of thousands of people with family ties to Europe. All these connections eventually lead to a small arithmetic problem: how many Canadian dollars is a euro worth today? To Convert EUR to CAD is the first step in planning a trip to Banff, ordering maple syrup, paying a Canadian freelancer or comparing a salary offer from a Toronto firm. This page does it at the European Central Bank's reference rate, and shows the date of the rate with every result.
What the following text explains
The text below is about the pair itself. It explains why the Canadian dollar is called the loonie, why economists call it a commodity currency, how the rate responds to oil and to interest rates, what the euro buys in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and the Maritimes, and how to pay without losing money to hidden fees. The amount you type never leaves your browser.
How the page works
Euros in, Canadian dollars out
Every time you Convert EUR to CAD here, check the date beside the result, because it tells you how fresh the rate is.
Type the number of euros. The page multiplies it by the published rate, which states how many Canadian dollars one euro buys, and shows the result with the date of the rate. At weekends and on holidays you see the last published rate, and the page says so instead of presenting a stale figure as fresh.
The table and the thirty-day line
Travellers who Convert EUR to CAD a few times a year find the line a handy check on whether the loonie has been behaving.
A table of common amounts, from one euro to five thousand, lets you read off a price in a shop without retyping it. A line below shows the last thirty days of reference rates, which helps you judge whether the Canadian dollar has been steady.
The return trip
To see Canadian dollars in euros, for example when a Canadian client sends you an invoice, Convert CAD to EUR applies the same rate in the opposite direction.
Why the figure is a benchmark
The reference rate is a midpoint agreed once a day at about 16:00 in Frankfurt. A bank or exchange office will give you a bit less when you sell euros, and the gap is its fee. Use the figure here as the yardstick against which to compare their quotes.
The loonie and its family
Why it is called the loonie
In 1987 Canada replaced its one-dollar note with a gold-coloured coin showing a common loon, a bird of the northern lakes. People immediately began calling it the loonie, and the nickname became so popular that traders now use it for the currency itself. The two-dollar coin, introduced in 1996, is the toonie.
Polymer notes
Canadian banknotes are made of polymer with a transparent window containing a holographic image. They were introduced between 2011 and 2013 and last longer than paper. The notes carry portraits of prime ministers and, on the fifty-dollar note, an Arctic icebreaker.
Goodbye penny
Canada stopped producing the one-cent coin in 2012, and today cash totals are rounded to the nearest five cents. Card payments are exact, so this affects only cash.
Dollar versus dollar
The dollar sign is shared with the United States, Australia and others. The code CAD, or the symbols C$ and CA$, removes any doubt, and this page uses CAD.
A commodity currency
Oil, gas and metals
That link explains why anyone who has to Convert EUR to CAD for a payment next quarter should glance at the oil price too.
Canada exports large quantities of oil, natural gas, minerals, timber and wheat. The Canadian dollar tends to follow the price of oil in particular, because Alberta's oil sands bring in a great deal of foreign currency. When oil rises, the loonie usually rises with it, and when oil falls, it follows.
Interest rates and the neighbours
The Bank of Canada sets its policy rate independently, but its decisions are closely related to those of the United States Federal Reserve, since three quarters of Canadian trade goes south. When the American dollar rises, the Canadian dollar often falls against the euro as well, though the relation is not exact.
Risk appetite
Because it is linked to commodities, the Canadian dollar tends to weaken when investors are fearful and to strengthen when they are optimistic. For a European, this means that a financial scare can make a trip to Canada cheaper.
A trade link: Europe and Canada
CETA and its effect
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union has applied provisionally since September 2017. It removed most tariffs on goods, simplified rules for professionals and opened public contracts. Trade between the two sides has risen since, along with the number of invoices that have to pass from euros to Canadian dollars.
Exporters and importers
Buyers who must Convert EUR to CAD for every order often agree with the seller on a rate that holds for a month.
European companies that sell machinery, wine, cheese and cars to Canada usually invoice in euros or in Canadian dollars depending on the market. Canadian exporters of timber, minerals and seafood to Europe generally quote in US dollars or euros. A clause that adjusts the price when the rate moves more than a set amount is common.
Student and worker exchanges
Working-holiday programmes let young Europeans spend up to two years in Canada, earning Canadian dollars. Savings brought home are converted back at a rate that may differ widely from the rate on arrival.
What a euro buys in Canada
Big cities
When you Convert EUR to CAD for a city break, add the sales tax and the tip before you decide whether the budget is enough.
Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are expensive in housing but reasonable in eating out. A coffee costs the equivalent of two to three euros, a lunch from ten to fifteen, a night in a mid-range hotel from a hundred to a hundred and fifty. If you Convert EUR to CAD for these figures before you go, the numbers on menus will stop looking foreign.
National parks and ski resorts
It is wise to Convert EUR to CAD for the lift ticket and the rental separately, because the second is often forgotten.
Banff, Jasper, Whistler and the Laurentians are among the world's best outdoor destinations. Park passes are inexpensive, lift tickets in Canada's big resorts cost from seventy to a hundred and twenty euros a day, and accommodation is dearest at Christmas and in February.
Taxes added at the till
So before you Convert EUR to CAD for a purchase, add five to fifteen per cent for the tax.
Prices in Canada are shown without sales tax, which is added at the till and varies by province, from five per cent in Alberta to about fifteen in the Atlantic provinces. A price of C$100 may therefore mean C$105 to C$115 in the end.
Tips
Tipping of fifteen to twenty per cent is expected in restaurants, bars and taxis. Terminals usually offer suggested percentages. A visitor should add the tip to the budget when converting.
Paying in Canada
Cards and cash
Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including contactless taps for small sums. Cash is helpful in rural areas and for tips.
The terminal that offers euros
Some terminals offer to charge you in euros. Choose Canadian dollars, because the conversion by the operator is usually three to six per cent worse than your bank's.
Cash machines
Bank-owned machines give the best rates. Stand-alone machines in convenience stores often charge fixed fees and apply poor conversions. If a screen offers to convert into euros, decline.
Everyday units in Canada
A country of two systems
Canada officially went metric in the 1970s, and distances, speeds, temperatures and weather forecasts are in kilometres and Celsius. But people still talk about their height in feet and inches, their weight in pounds and their recipes in cups. A European visitor should be ready for both.
Height, weight and cooking
When a Canadian says he is six feet tall, he means about 183 centimetres; Convert FT to M gives the exact figure. A recipe in cups can be translated with Convert cups to fl oz, which relates the American cup to fluid ounces.
Time zones
Canada has six time zones. Vancouver is on Pacific time, nine hours behind Central Europe, and Toronto is on Eastern time, six hours behind. For the east coast, Convert CET to EST gives the gap, and for the west coast Convert CET to PST.
Studying, working and settling in Canada
Tuition for international students
Canadian universities such as Toronto, McGill and British Columbia attract students from all over the world, and international tuition fees are far higher than those paid by residents, often between twenty and forty thousand Canadian dollars a year. Fees are stated in Canadian dollars, and a European family that pays from a euro account is exposed to the rate on the day of each instalment. Many families convert the whole year's tuition at once, and keep the living costs for monthly conversions.
Proof of funds
Anyone who has to Convert EUR to CAD for an official application should print the page with the date visible.
Immigration rules for students and workers require proof that you have enough money to support yourself. The amounts are stated in Canadian dollars. When you Convert EUR to CAD to prepare a bank statement, use a date close to the application and keep the printout, because officials may check the figures against their own rates.
Working holidays and first jobs
Young people from several European countries can obtain a working-holiday permit for one or two years. Wages are in Canadian dollars, and tax is withheld at source. Many travellers open a local account on arrival and keep a euro account at home for savings.
Health insurance
Health care is provided by the provinces, but newcomers often wait a few months for coverage and need private insurance in the meantime. Premiums are in Canadian dollars and are a fixed cost that does not depend on the rate but looks different in euros.
Buying and renting in Canada
The housing market
Housing in Toronto and Vancouver is among the dearest in the world relative to incomes. A small flat in either city can cost between half a million and a million Canadian dollars, and rents of two thousand a month for a one-bedroom are common. In smaller cities and the Prairies, prices are a fraction of that.
Foreign buyers
Several provinces and the federal government have, at different times, imposed taxes or restrictions on foreign buyers of residential property. Anyone planning a purchase should check the current rules and add the transfer taxes and legal fees to the converted price. For the area of a flat, Convert FT2 to M2 turns a Canadian listing in square feet into square metres.
Renting as a newcomer
Landlords may ask for references and proof of income, and a newcomer without a local credit history often offers a larger deposit. The first month's rent and a deposit are paid at the start, so budget for two to three months of rent in cash.
Sending money across the Atlantic
Canadians in Europe, Europeans in Canada
Immigrants and their families move money in both directions, for support, for property and for inheritance. Transfers between a euro account and a Canadian account pass through correspondent banks, which add fees. Specialised services publish a rate and a fee in advance and are usually cheaper than banks.
The margin ladder
On a thousand euros, a good transfer costs between five and ten euros in margin, a card payment about twenty, a bank counter thirty and an airport kiosk fifty or more. Compare every quote with the reference rate on this page.
Timing and notice
Transfers across time zones may arrive a day late, and public holidays differ between the two continents. If a payment is due on a certain date, send it two working days ahead.
Quebec and the French connection
A French-speaking province
Quebec is the one Canadian province where French is the only official language, and many French and Belgian visitors feel at home there. Prices are posted in Canadian dollars, with the comma as the decimal mark, as in France: 12,50 $. A French reader finds the notation familiar, while an English reader may misread it.
Maple and the markets
Maple syrup, cheeses and smoked meats are Quebec specialities, sold in markets in Montreal and Quebec City. Syrup is sold in bottles of different sizes, and the labels often give volume in millilitres and in fluid ounces. If you wish to compare, Convert mL to fl oz relates the two.
Trains, flights and distances
Canada is huge, and domestic flights are costly. A train from Toronto to Montreal takes about five hours, and the price is in Canadian dollars. The distances are given in kilometres, and a European finds them easy to read.
Neighbours of the pair
The American dollar and others
Many Canadian prices are linked to the United States, and for a European the euro-dollar pair is on Convert EUR to USD. For exchange with the pound, Convert EUR to GBP is the usual page, and for Australia, another dollar country, there is Convert EUR to AUD.
The Canadian side
Canadians who travel in Europe use Convert CAD to EUR to see what a euro price is worth at home.
Mistakes when you Convert EUR to CAD
Mixing the dollars
A price with only a dollar sign in Canada is a Canadian dollar price, but on a global website it may be a US price. Check the code.
Forgetting sales tax and tips
Prices are shown without tax, and tips are expected. Add them to the converted figure.
Paying twice for convenience
Changing euros at home and the leftover dollars back at the airport loses two margins. Plan your cash or use a card.
An old rate
A rate from last month may be out by several per cent. The date next to the result is there for that reason.
Short answers
How do I Convert EUR to CAD here?
Type the euros into the first field. The page shows the Canadian dollars at the latest reference rate, with its date.
Is the rate the same on weekends?
It is Friday's rate, shown with its date, because the markets are closed.
Do you store the amount?
No. It stays in your browser.
Your amount stays with you
Only the table of rates is fetched. The number you type never leaves your browser, and no account is needed. It is a quiet way to Convert EUR to CAD without telling a website what you plan to spend.
In short
To Convert EUR to CAD, type the euros and read the Canadian dollars at the latest reference rate of the European Central Bank, with its date. It is the midpoint of the market, so any counter will give a little less. Pay in Canadian dollars, remember the tax and the tip, and compare every quote with the reference.