The official currency of Sweden is the Swedish krona, abbreviated SEK and written with the symbol kr. As of September, 2026, one US dollar is worth approximately 9.60 Swedish kronor.

The word krona derives from the Latin corona, meaning crown, which reached Swedish through multiple languages. The name was adopted in 1873 when Sweden joined the Scandinavian Monetary Union with Denmark and Norway and moved to the gold standard. Denmark and Norway adopted the equivalent term krone. In English the currency is sometimes called the Swedish crown.

The krona is issued and managed by Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, which also sets interest rates and oversees monetary stability.

Current Swedish banknotes carry portraits of notable twentieth-century Swedes on the front, paired with nature scenes on the reverse that connect to each individual. The 20 krona note depicts children’s author Astrid Lindgren, the 50 krona note features musician Evert Taube, and the 100 krona note shows actress Greta Garbo. The 200 krona note honors film director Ingmar Bergman, the 500 krona note carries soprano Birgit Nilsson, and the 1,000 krona note depicts former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. Swedish coins show King Carl XVI Gustaf alongside national symbols including the Three Crowns and abstract imagery representing natural elements such as the sun, wind, and water.

The krona was introduced in 1873, replacing the riksdaler when Sweden entered the Scandinavian Monetary Union.

The krona today is a fiat currency with no commodity backing. The gold standard was eventually abandoned, and the Scandinavian Monetary Union stopped functioning after the First World War before being formally wound up in 1924. The krona’s value has since been determined by market forces.

Sweden has formally committed to adopting the euro once qualifying conditions are met, but a 2003 referendum rejected the change and the krona remains in use.

The krona carries a range of informal nicknames in everyday Swedish. Common terms include spänn, stålar, slant, pix, and daler. A thousand kronor may be referred to as a lax, lakan, or lök, while a 500 krona note is sometimes called a röding.

Sweden was the first country in the world to experiment with negative interest rates. The Riksbank briefly pushed its deposit rate below zero in July 2009 and maintained negative rates from 2015 through 2019.

The Swedish krona tends to move in the same direction as the currencies of its Scandinavian neighbors, particularly the Danish and Norwegian krone, reflecting the close economic ties between the three countries.

Sweden has also investigated the creation of a digital krona known as the e-krona. The proposed instrument would be issued by the Riksbank and would offer an electronic alternative to physical cash.

Swedish banknotes are printed by De La Rue, a British company, making Sweden one of the countries that contracts currency production abroad.