Money, SIM Cards and Internet in Kyrgyzstan

The som and current rates

Kyrgyzstan uses the som (KGS). As of mid-July 2026 the official rate is 87.45 som per US dollar and about 99.7 per euro, and the dollar rate has been stable for months. Exchange offices happily take dollars, euros, Russian rubles and Kazakh tenge; anything else is hard to change even in Bishkek.

Cash versus cards

In the cities you can live on a card: supermarkets, chain cafes, malls and hotels in Bishkek, Osh and Karakol take Visa and Mastercard without fuss. Everything else runs on cash — bazaars, marshrutkas, guesthouses, yurt camps, roadside canteens, national park entry fees. Locals pay by QR code through apps like MBank, but those need a local account, so they won't work for you. The rule of thumb: cards are fine inside city limits, cash is mandatory beyond them — and keep small bills for marshrutkas and markets.

ATMs: limits and fees

Foreign Visa cards work in almost every ATM, Mastercard in most. The per-withdrawal cap is typically 25,000–30,000 som (≈$285–345) as of July 2026. Local ATM fees for foreign cards range from zero to 800 som (≈$9), most often 150–500 som (≈$2–6) — traveler reports disagree on which banks are free, so for a large sum it pays to try a couple of different machines. Decline any offer to charge your home currency (dynamic currency conversion) — the rate is always worse. ATMs exist only in cities and district towns: stock up on cash in Bishkek, Karakol, Naryn or Osh, because there is no topping up in the mountains.

Changing money: Mossovet

Bishkek's best rates cluster at the Mossovet intersection (Kievskaya and Abdrakhmanova streets), where a dense strip of exchange offices competes on tiny spreads and many stay open late. Bring US bills that are new and clean: torn, marked or old-series notes get a worse rate or are refused outright, and $100 bills fetch a better rate than small denominations. Money is counted in front of you — recount it before stepping away. Airport rates are noticeably worse; change only enough for a taxi and a SIM there.

SIM cards and eSIM: O!, MegaCom, Beeline

There are three operators: O!, MegaCom and Beeline. Registration is mandatory — every official shop scans your passport, so buy from a branded store, not a street stall. July 2026 prices:

Airport packs cost two to three times city prices for the same data, but you're online the moment you land. O! usually wins on price and city speeds, MegaCom on coverage in remote valleys, with Beeline in between. O! stores issue eSIMs; international travel eSIMs (Airalo and the like) work but cost several times more per gigabyte — fine for the first hours, wasteful for the whole trip. Staying longer than a month? Ask in the store about phone IMEI registration — the rules for long stays have been changing.

Internet in the mountains: download everything first

4G is solid in cities and along the main valleys — the north shore of Issyk-Kul has signal almost the whole way. Step out of a valley, though, and there is nothing at all: Altyn-Arashan, most of Son-Kul, Kel-Suu, Enilchek, the passes and the trekking routes are dead zones, and while the odd yurt camp has satellite internet, you can't count on it. Before leaving town, download offline maps — Organic Maps or OsmAnd (both descendants of maps.me, with trails, springs and tracks; maps.me itself still works too) — plus an offline translator pack and PDF copies of bookings and tickets.

Power and plugs

220 V, 50 Hz, European type C and F sockets — EU plugs fit directly, UK and US travelers need an adapter. Yurt camps run on solar panels or generators: sockets are shared, scarce and busy every evening. A 20,000 mAh power bank covers a couple of mountain nights.