One of the joys and frustrations of traveling in a different country than your own is learning how to quickly convert a foreign currency to one whose value you understand. Unless you are a math genius, you may find yourself doing on-the-spot division or wasting precious international data when you get a meal receipt or see a cool gift at a store. I know I certainly have.
When I was recently in Mexico City, Mexico, I was scrambling to convert the local pesos to U.S. dollars when, suddenly, my friend quickly shared exactly what our dinner would cost, down to the cent.
My friend had used the built-in Calculator app on her iPhone to do the math, and it’s a game-changing feature that saved me so much time on the rest of my vacation. I am now a Calculator app evangelist, and I want to share how easy it is to use:
First, you need to know that this feature requires the iOS 18 software update in order to convert currencies in your Calculator app. Calculator is also available on iPad with iPadOS 18.
But if you’ve done this update, go to the Calculator app, then select the calculator icon at the bottom left of the screen. From there, toggle on the “Convert” option. You will then be able to choose which currencies you want to convert, from Albanian lek to Yemeni rial, or in my case, from U.S. dollars to Mexican pesos. They will appear as top and bottom values on your calculator, and you can tap each input field to write in numbers. The white font represents the original currency field.
What’s great about this feature is it doesn’t require the need to download a third-party app, and you can use it even when you are saving data and are on “Airplane” mode. In other words, you can use this feature when your phone is offline.
But why stop there? The Calculator app doesn’t just convert money. You can also use the app to convert between different units like area, weight, volume, data and temperature. Don’t know what 500 grams of spaghetti means? Put in the app to see that it’s about a pound of pasta. Still wondering if 30 degrees Celsius means a hot day? Put it in the app, and you’ll learn it is 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
And if there’s a particular conversion you need to remember, go to the List button in the upper left corner of the Calculator app. You will see the past conversions you have done whenever you hit the equals button.
For people who do not have iPhones, there are still other conversion options, too. Android users can use the Xe money transfer app or the Currency Converter Plus app ― two of the most popular examples ― for their currency conversion needs.
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As for me, I’m never going on another trip without using this Calculator feature. Many things during travel are out of your control. You may not be able to prevent plane delays, food poisoning or your friend group vibe, but you can plan for having a quick stress-free way to quickly do math conversions on your phone.