Convert Korean Won to Vietnamese Dong
Convert Korean won (KRW) to Vietnamese dong (VND) at the mid-market rate and see, in millions of dong, how far your won budget stretches on the ground in Vietnam.
🔒 Unit conversions are computed in your browser (exchange rates via public API only).
The won-dong rate is really a story about how strong the won is against the dollar
The dong isn't fully free-floating; Vietnam's central bank (SBV) manages it within a narrow band against the US dollar, so the dong itself tends to drift only gently versus the dollar. That means most of the day-to-day movement in the won-dong rate comes from the won side, i.e. from the USD/KRW rate rising or falling. When the dollar is broadly strong and the won weakens, the same 10,000 won buys fewer dong; when the won firms up, you get more. Glancing at the USD/KRW trend in the weeks before a trip is usually enough to guess whether your dong will stretch further or less.
The dong has a lot of zeros, so read a million dong as roughly a low-fifties-thousand of won
Dong prices carry big face values: a coffee runs tens of thousands of dong, a bowl of pho around 40,000-50,000 dong, a hotel night anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions. If the rate were, say, 1 KRW = 18 VND, then 10,000 won is about 180,000 dong and one million dong is somewhere in the low-fifties-thousand of won. Keeping that single anchor, 'a million dong is about 50,000-plus won,' lets you judge a menu price on the spot. Going the other way, drop the last three zeros and multiply by a bit more than half, so 500,000 dong lands near 30,000 won.
The mid-rate on screen isn't the dong you actually get on the ground
This page shows a mid-market rate based on public exchange-rate data, the reference number before banks, money changers, and card networks add their spread and fees. Vietnam still runs heavily on cash, so notes are effectively required at markets, street stalls, and smaller towns; rather than converting all your won to dong in Korea, many travelers carry US dollars and change them to dong at local gold shops (tiem vang) or in-town exchanges, where the rate is often better. If a card terminal offers to bill you in won (DCC), always choose to pay in local dong instead. Because the face values are so large, 200,000 and 500,000 notes, or 20,000 and 200,000, look alike, so always count the zeros.
Frequently asked questions
Is the rate shown here the same as what I'll actually get at a bank or money changer?
No. This is the reference mid-market rate, and in practice a bank's or exchange's spread and fees get added on top. Airport counters and cash exchanges in particular carry a wide spread, so you may walk away with fewer dong than the screen suggests, it's worth comparing against in-town changers or gold shops.
How often is the rate updated? Does it change on weekends?
The dong isn't quoted by Korea Eximbank, so this tool pulls a mid-market rate from public exchange-rate data once per business day and serves it from a cached file. On weekends and holidays no new value comes in, so the last business day's rate carries over, and the page shows which date it's based on.
Should I change money to dong in Korea, or wait and do it in Vietnam?
Vietnam is cash-heavy, so having some dong on hand is convenient. That said, changing won straight to dong in Korea is often worse than carrying US dollars and converting them to dong at a local exchange or gold shop, a two-step swap that frequently gives a better rate. Rather than converting a large sum at once, change smaller amounts as you go and put bigger purchases on a card billed in local dong to cut both risk and cost.