Dubai International (DXB) · Currency Exchange Guide · Last checked 19 October 2026

Dubai Airport Terminals 1, 2 and 3: Does the Terminal Change Your Exchange Options?

Dubai International (DXB) has three passenger terminals, and people ask whether one of them gives a better exchange rate. The honest answer from the sources we found is that the terminal is not what sets your rate. What the terminal does change is where you can change money, which operators are in reach, how far you walk, and whether you need a bus. This guide sets out what we could confirm about each terminal, and is plain about what we could not.

An earlier version of this page said DXB's three terminals have a similar mix of exchange options, that Travelex and Al Ansari both operate across multiple terminals, that Emirates NBD, FAB, ADCB and Mashreq bank ATMs are across the three, that Terminal 3 is for Emirates only, and that Terminals 1 and 3 are linked airside while Terminal 2 is reached by a free shuttle of roughly 15 to 20 minutes. When we checked, Travelex in all three terminals held up, but the Al Ansari and ATM claims were narrower than the page suggested, the "Emirates only" claim did not match the airport's own page, and the sources disagree about how the terminals connect. Those claims have been replaced or removed below. Where a detail rests on a single source, we say so. Everything was last checked on 19 October 2026.

The short version

• All three terminals have Travelex. Travelex's own announcement of 3 March 2025 places new stores in the Terminal 1 arrivals baggage area, Terminal 2 landside departures and baggage collection, and Terminal 3 departures past security.
• Al Ansari Exchange appears in the airport's directory only in Terminal 1 departures, so we cannot say it is across several terminals.
• Emirates NBD ATMs are listed in the Terminal 2 main terminal and in Terminal 3 departures. We did not find the FAB, ADCB or Mashreq machines the old page named.
• Dubai's dirham is pegged to the US dollar at 3.6725, so you have a fixed number to check any dollar quote against. It does not tell you what a counter charges.
• Which terminal you use depends mainly on your airline, and the airport's own page shows the split is less tidy than for one airline per terminal.
• Sources disagree on how Terminals 1 and 3 connect and on how Terminal 2 is reached. Ask your airline before you rely on a transfer time.
• We found no dated, like-for-like rates by terminal, so we do not claim any terminal is cheaper.

What each terminal has for exchange

The airport's own directory and Travelex's announcement are the two best sources we found. Both are official or company pages, and neither gives rates or opening hours.

• Terminal 1. Travelex has a store in the arrivals baggage collection area, according to its March 2025 announcement. The airport directory lists Al Ansari Exchange in Terminal 1 departures. So an arriving traveller and a departing traveller each have a named operator in reach.
• Terminal 2. Travelex has a store in landside departures and baggage collection. The directory lists Emirates NBD ATMs in the main terminal.
• Terminal 3. Travelex has a store in the departures area past security. The directory lists Emirates NBD ATMs in departures.

Travelex says it now runs 35 stores at DXB, counting its four new ones. That number covers all terminals together and tells us nothing about each terminal, so we do not use it to rank them. A property website's guide to Terminal 1, last modified on 16 January 2026, also lists Al Ansari and Travelex under banking, with no locations or hours.

The practical reading is that you will find an exchange operator in each terminal, but the mix differs. Arrivals and departures matter too: a store past security is no use to someone who has just landed, and a store in the baggage area is no use to someone leaving.

Does a terminal change the rate?

We found no source that compares rates between DXB terminals, and none that says the operators charge different rates in different terminals. The earlier page said terminal "doesn't change your rate much" - that's a fair summary of the absence of evidence, but it's not a measurement, so we reword it: we could not find any evidence of a difference, and we could not find evidence of no difference, either.

What we can say is how to test it yourself: take the mid-market rate on your phone, subtract the counter's rate, divide by the mid-market rate and multiply by 100. That's the counter's gap. Our mid-market guide explains the check. If you pass two counters, do the same sum at both. If the gaps differ, you have your answer for that day.

The peg is your fixed reference

The National, a UAE newspaper, reports the dirham has been pegged to the dollar at 3.6725 since November 1997, and the central bank's published rate table shows the same figure for every day of June 2026. If you carry US dollars, you can compare any counter's quote with 3.6725 directly. For other currencies, you convert to dollars first and then to dirhams, which adds a step.

The peg is a reference, not the rate you will get. Counters add a margin. We found no dated figure for how far a Dubai counter normally sits from 3.6725, so we can't tell you what a normal gap is.

A worked example, with made-up numbers

The numbers below are invented. They are not any operator's real quote.

You hold 500 US dollars and want dirhams.

• At the peg, 500 dollars is 500 times 3.6725, which is 1,836.25 dirhams.
• Suppose a counter in one terminal offers 3.58 dirhams per dollar. You'd get 1,790 dirhams. The gap from the peg is 0.0925, divided by 3.6725, which is about 2.5 per cent.
• Suppose a counter in another terminal offers 3.52. You'd get 1,760 dirhams. The gap is 0.1525, divided by 3.6725, which is about 4.2 per cent.
• The difference between the two is 30 dirhams on 500 dollars.

Nothing in this example comes from a real terminal. The point is that the same sum works in any terminal, and that a gap of this size is worth noticing before you hand over notes.

Which terminal will you be in?

For most travellers the terminal is decided by the airline, and the sources we found describe it differently.

• Dubai Airports' own transfers page says Terminal 1 has D Gates, Terminal 2 has F Gates and Terminal 3 has A, B and C Gates. It says the A, B and C Gates are primarily used by Emirates, flydubai, United and Air Canada. So Terminal 3 is not Emirates alone.
• Airport.online, a commercial site with no date on the page we read, lists over 60 international carriers in Terminal 1, including British Airways, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Air France, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. It lists flydubai and Air India Express in Terminal 2, and describes Terminal 3 as reserved for Emirates and select flydubai and Qantas flights. That page contradicts itself in places, so treat it as a lead.
• Bayut, a property website with no date on the page, says Terminal 3 handles Emirates flights only, and says about 50 airlines operate from Terminal 2. That differs from the airport's page.

Because the airport's page names other airlines in Terminal 3, we dropped the old "Emirates only" statement. We also dropped the examples of Delta and Lufthansa in Terminal 1 that the earlier page gave, because Delta is not named in any source we found, and Lufthansa appears only in a commercial list. The rule that holds is to check your ticket and your airline's page, since the airport itself tells passengers to consult their airline or the Guest Experience Ambassadors on arrival.

How the terminals connect

This is where the sources disagree, so we set it out as it is.

• Airport.online says Terminals 1 and 3 are linked by pedestrian walkways and moving travelators, so connecting passengers can walk between them. It gives 5 to 20 minutes, and its own summary says 5 to 30.
• Bayut says a free 24-hour shuttle bus runs between Terminals 1 and 3 and takes 15 to 25 minutes.
• Airport.online also says Terminal 2 is about 7 kilometres away and is reached by a shuttle bus about every 20 minutes, taking 15 to 25 minutes. Bayut does not mention a Terminal 2 shuttle.
• The airport's transfers page, which has no date, says nothing about shuttle schedules or times, and does not say how Terminal 2 connects to the others.

Two commercial sources therefore disagree on whether Terminals 1 and 3 are linked airside by walkway or by bus, and only one of them describes Terminal 2's link. The earlier page said Terminals 1 and 3 are connected airside and Terminal 2 has a free shuttle of 15 to 20 minutes. We cannot confirm either part from an official source. If you are changing terminals, treat 25 minutes as a rough upper figure from the sources we saw, and ask your airline for the real arrangement.

The Dubai Metro's Red Line has stations at Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, according to airport.online and Bayut. Neither lists a station at Terminal 2. Both say an nol card is needed. We have not checked this against the Roads and Transport Authority, so confirm it before you plan around it.

What this means for changing money

This section is our reading of the sources above. It is not a sourced fact.

• If you land in Terminal 1, the Travelex store in the arrivals baggage area is the one named for arrivals. Al Ansari is listed in departures there.
• If you land in Terminal 2, the Travelex store in landside departures and baggage collection is the one named. There is also an Emirates NBD ATM in the main terminal.
• If you land in Terminal 3, the sources name a Travelex store in the departures area past security and Emirates NBD ATMs in departures. We found no arrivals-side exchange listed for Terminal 3.
• If you are connecting through, do not assume a store is open or reachable from where you are. The directory pages we read list no hours.
• If you only need a little cash for a taxi or the metro, change a small amount, and compare the rest later in the city.

ATMs and card payments

The airport directory lists Emirates NBD ATMs in the Terminal 2 main terminal and in Terminal 3 departures. It says nothing about fees or withdrawal limits. We found no source for ATM machines in Terminal 1, so we say nothing about it.

If a machine or card terminal offers to charge you in your home currency, choose dirhams. That offer is Dynamic Currency Conversion, and our guide to it explains why we recommend declining. Our guide to ATMs versus forex cards covers how the fees stack. The same choice comes up at the tills in Dubai Duty Free, and our guide to paying in dirhams or your home currency there shows how to check the total against the peg.

Cash you carry

The UAE government's customs page says passengers must declare cash, financial instruments, precious metals and valuable stones when the total is above AED 60,000, or the equivalent, on arrival and on departure. A property website's article of February 2026 gives the same figure. The government page shows no date. For most holidaymakers this does not matter, and it applies the same way in all three terminals.

Opening hours

We did not find opening hours for any exchange counter at DXB. Neither the Travelex announcement nor the directory pages we read gave them. If you land at an awkward hour, do not count on a particular counter being open, and have a card or a small amount of cash for the first leg.

What we could not confirm

• That the terminal changes the rate. We found no rate comparison by terminal.
• That Al Ansari Exchange operates in more than one terminal. The directory lists it in Terminal 1 departures only.
• That FAB, ADCB or Mashreq ATMs are in any terminal. The old page said so and we found no source.
• Whether Terminals 1 and 3 are linked airside by a walkway or by a bus, and how long the link takes.
• How Terminal 2 is reached, how often the shuttle runs, and whether it is free. One commercial source describes it.
• Which airlines use each terminal today. The sources differ, and the airport tells passengers to ask their airline.
• Opening hours for any exchange counter.
• What a normal gap from the 3.6725 peg is at DXB counters.
• Whether an exchange operator is listed on the arrivals side of Terminal 3.

A simple plan

1. Check your ticket for your terminal, and ask your airline how to reach it if you are connecting.
2. Note the mid-market rate for your currency, and for dollars keep 3.6725 in mind.
3. Find the operator named for your terminal and your arrival or departure side, and work out its gap from the reference.
4. Change only what you need for the next few hours, and compare the rest later.
5. Choose dirhams if a machine asks how you want to be charged.

FAQ

Does the terminal change the exchange rate at Dubai airport?
We found no evidence that it does, and no rate comparison by terminal. Use the peg of 3.6725 for dollars and the mid-market rate for other currencies to judge any quote.

Is Travelex in all three terminals?
Yes. Travelex's March 2025 announcement places stores in each of Terminals 1, 2 and 3, and the airport directory lists Travelex in all three.

Is Al Ansari Exchange at Dubai airport?
The airport directory lists it in Terminal 1 departures. We found no listing in the other terminals.

Is Terminal 3 only for Emirates?
No, according to the airport's own transfers page, which says the A, B and C Gates are primarily used by Emirates, flydubai, United and Air Canada.

How do I get to Terminal 2?
Sources differ and none of the official pages we read describe it. One commercial source describes a shuttle bus about every 20 minutes. Ask your airline.

Sources and how we checked them

Checked on 19 October 2026. Where we call something confirmed, at least two of these sources agree. Several are travel or property sites, and none give rates.

• Travelex, company, Travelex launches four new stores at Dubai International, 3 March 2025.
• Dubai Airports, official site, Travelex, Al Ansari and Emirates NBD directory pages.
• Dubai Airports, official site, transfers page (undated).
• Property Finder, property website, Dubai Airport Terminal 1 guide, modified 16 January 2026.
• Airport.online, commercial travel site, DXB terminal guide (undated).
• Bayut, property website, Dubai International Airport guide (undated).
• The National, news, UAE dirham and dollar peg, published 22 November 2024 and updated 28 August 2025.
• Central Bank of the UAE, official rate table, June 2026.
• UAE Government portal, customs clearance page (no date shown).
• Property Finder, property website, cash declaration article, 25 February 2026.

Editorial note: The counter, rate and airport information in this guide is editorial and is not paid for. Rates and fees change, so confirm the final rate at the counter before exchanging.