The official currency of Lithuania is the Euro and Lithuania is Euro-area member state. One Euro is made up of 100 cents. Euro coins are available in denominations of 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, €1 and €2. Banknotes are available in denominations of €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500. The highest two denominations (€200 and €500) are rarely used and some shops might not accept them.
Before we switched to the Euro, Lithuania’s official currency was the Litas. This has now ceased to be legal tender thus it’s no longer accepted anywhere in the country. You can see Litas and explore the history of Lithuanian Money in the Money museum.
You may exchange currencies at the airport, hotels (check with your hotel if the service is available), specialised currency exchange offices or banks. You may also withdraw money from an ATM.
Payments by cash are widely accepted in Vilnius. However, there are few retail places that do not accept payments in cash, so we advise to check with the staff before making the purchase.
Credit and debit cards are widely accepted in Vilnius. Most popular are Visa and MasterCard. You may use your credit or debit card to pay for public transportation (in Narvesen shops; cash only on the vehicles), city bikes Cyclocity, most cafes, restaurants, bars, shops and taxi.
There’s a good network of 24-hour ATMs throughout Vilnius. Most of them have an English language option; and they accept Visa (Plus), Cirrus and Maestro (both operated by MasterCard). AmEx is accepted only by Citadele ATMs.
ATM withdrawals, credit card transactions and debit card transactions from a Euro-area account are considered domestic in the Euro-area Member states, so they don’t attract any additional foreign exchange fees or international transaction fees in Vilnius (your home back chargers for out-of-network withdrawals or transactions apply).
You can find the nearest ATM using the following online locators:
In Vilnius we are open to new and exciting technologies. Many of them are used for making payments to make life in Vilnius as convenient and effortless as possible. Contactless payments (near field communication (NFC)) are already widely accepted in most retail places in Vilnius. Thus, you will be able to use your contactless card, mobile contactless payment app or wearable devices to make payments (for limitations and conditions check with your service provider).
A number of services in Vilnius can be paid for directly through apps in your mobile device. You may buy public transport tickets (e.g. trafi), use bike, car and electric scooter sharing services and order taxi (e.g. City bee, Cyclocity, Spark, dropbike, uber, etaksi), order food (e.g. wolt, dserve) and do many more things.
If you have a contract with a Lithuanian mobile operator then payments can become even easier. In-store payments can be initiated by scanning a QR code or NFC tag at the point of sale (e.g. through using MoQ). This type of payments is available in over 500 retail places in Vilnius.
Crypto currencies are also accepted as a payment method by some retailers in Vilnius including hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and airlines. You can find most places accepting cryptocurrencies here or here.
