Toman to afghani: why money earned in Iran buys less at home

What a toman is

In daily talk in Iran, one toman is 10 rials. The rial is the official currency, but people say prices in tomans: a price of "50,000 tomans" is 500,000 rials. Always ask whether a number is in rials or tomans before you agree to anything.

Iran's parliament voted in October 2025 to cut four zeros from the rial, so that a new rial would equal 10,000 old ones. The bill still needed the approval of the Guardian Council, and the change would be phased in over up to three years. We found no report that it has taken effect. If it does, banknotes will show smaller numbers while prices stay the same, so the question "old or new?" will matter too.

Before you hand over or accept money, say the unit out loud: rials, old tomans or new rials. A number can mean ten times more or less, depending on the unit.

Why your wage buys less at home

Your wage is paid in tomans. To spend it in Afghanistan you must sell those tomans for afghanis, and what an exchanger pays depends on what a toman is worth that day. Two things push that value down:

• The toman falls against the dollar. In July 2026, the dollar reached a new record of about 1.918 million rials (about 191,800 tomans) on Iran's free market, reported by ARY News from Iran International. The same report says the IMF expects inflation of nearly 69 percent in Iran in 2026.
• Prices in Iran rise too. When a currency falls, imports cost more, so the wage also buys less inside Iran.

The same thing happened in 2018. After the US left the nuclear deal in May of that year, the rial lost about half its value against the dollar, according to AFP. One Afghan worker in an Isfahan car factory told AFP his pay fell from about 18,000 to about 6,000 afghanis a month. RFE/RL, citing Reuters, told of a grocery worker in Isfahan whose pay went from about $280 a month to under $100. The same report says the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found that falling remittances from Iran were already hurting the economies of Herat, Badghis and Ghor.

Photo: Sayfullah Al Maslul · CC0

Where the rate comes from

Money exchangers trade tomans among themselves, mostly at Sarai Shahzada in Kabul, and the rate moves through the day. sarafi.af publishes those rates, and this site's rate page shows the toman in afghanis, with examples for 100,000, 1,000,000 and 10,000,000 tomans, updated every half hour. For how the market sets a rate, read how the afghani's rate is set. Herat, next to the Iranian border, trades tomans heavily, so its local rate can differ a little from Kabul's.

Before you change or send money

1. Open the rate page and note the toman rate and the time it was set.
2. Ask two exchangers for their buy price, in writing or on a screen, and compare what you would receive in afghanis, not only the rate.
3. Ask about any fee before you hand over money.
4. Remember that the rate on a Friday or a holiday is the last close, often Thursday's.

The loss happens while your money waits as tomans. The rate you see today is not a promise for next week, in either direction. Never rely on a promised rate from someone who is not an exchanger you can find again.

What it means for a family at home

Families who live on money from Iran feel a fall in the toman quickly: the same transfer is worth fewer afghanis. The IOM reported in 2019 that this was already hurting Herat, Badghis and Ghor.