Last updated: 12 October 2026 Prop firm pages and trading courses often say the forex market trades “over $7 trillion a day”. The current official figure is higher. Every three years central banks around the world survey FX dealers for the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). This page sets out the totals from every survey since 1986, with the breakdown by instrument, currency and currency pair, so you can cite the right number.
The world traded $9.51 trillion a day in foreign exchange in April 2025, up 27% from $7.47 trillion in April 2022, according to the Bank for International Settlements (net-net basis, all instruments).
Spot trading rose to $2.95 trillion a day, up 42% in three years, while FX swaps rose 6% to $4.02 trillion and are still the largest instrument (42% of the total).
The dollar is on one side of 89.1% of all trades. The euro’s share fell to 28.5% (from 33.4% in 2013) and sterling to 10.2%, while the renminbi rose to 8.6% from 2.2%.
The longest series starts at $206 billion a day in 1986 (net-gross basis, which counts some trades twice). On that basis April 2025 was $12.56 trillion, about 61 times as much.
Daily FX turnover, every survey since 1986
| April of | Total, net-net ($bn/day) | Total, net-gross ($bn/day) | Spot ($bn/day) | FX swaps ($bn/day) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | — | 206 | — | — |
| 1989 | 539 | 744 | 305 | — |
| 1992 | 817 | 1,115 | 394 | 324 |
| 1995 | 1,182 | 1,633 | 494 | 546 |
| 1998 | 1,527 | 2,099 | 568 | 734 |
| 2001 | 1,239 | 1,705 | 386 | 656 |
| 2004 | 1,934 | 2,608 | 631 | 954 |
| 2007 | 3,324 | 4,281 | 1,005 | 1,714 |
| 2010 | 3,973 | 5,045 | 1,489 | 1,759 |
| 2013 | 5,357 | 6,686 | 2,047 | 2,240 |
| 2016 | 5,066 | 6,514 | 1,652 | 2,378 |
| 2019 | 6,581 | 8,279 | 1,979 | 3,198 |
| 2022 | 7,468 | 9,823 | 2,085 | 3,798 |
| 2025 | 9,510 | 12,557 | 2,952 | 4,015 |
Each figure is the average daily turnover in April of the survey year, in billions of US dollars. Net-net removes double counting between dealers inside a country and across borders; net-gross only removes it inside a country. The BIS publishes net-net from 1989 on.
By instrument
| Instrument | 2019 ($bn/day) | 2022 | 2025 | Share of 2025 total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spot | 1,979 | 2,085 | 2,952 | 31.0% |
| Outright forwards | 998 | 1,157 | 1,747 | 18.4% |
| FX swaps | 3,198 | 3,798 | 4,015 | 42.2% |
| Currency swaps | 108 | 124 | 164 | 1.7% |
| Options | 298 | 303 | 632 | 6.6% |
By currency (share of trades)
| Currency | 2013 share | 2019 | 2022 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 87.0% | 88.3% | 88.4% | 89.1% |
| EUR | 33.4% | 32.3% | 30.6% | 28.5% |
| JPY | 23.0% | 16.8% | 16.7% | 16.9% |
| GBP | 11.8% | 12.8% | 12.9% | 10.2% |
| CNY | 2.2% | 4.3% | 7.0% | 8.6% |
| CHF | 5.2% | 4.9% | 5.2% | 6.3% |
| AUD | 8.6% | 6.8% | 6.4% | 6.1% |
| CAD | 4.6% | 5.0% | 6.2% | 5.8% |
| HKD | 1.4% | 3.5% | 2.6% | 3.9% |
| SGD | 1.4% | 1.8% | 2.4% | 2.4% |
Each trade has two currencies, so the shares add up to 200%.
Top 10 currency pairs
| Pair | 2019 ($bn/day) | 2022 | 2025 | Share of 2025 total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 1,581 | 1,697 | 1,970 | 20.7% |
| USD/JPY | 871 | 1,009 | 1,370 | 14.4% |
| USD/CNY | 270 | 492 | 781 | 8.2% |
| GBP/USD | 630 | 710 | 715 | 7.5% |
| USD/CAD | 287 | 408 | 492 | 5.2% |
| AUD/USD | 359 | 380 | 467 | 4.9% |
| USD/CHF | 227 | 291 | 455 | 4.8% |
| USD/HKD | 220 | 178 | 347 | 3.6% |
| USD/SGD | 110 | 169 | 215 | 2.3% |
| USD/INR | 110 | 114 | 181 | 1.9% |
Sources
- BIS Data Portal: OTC derivatives turnover (WS_DER_OTC_TOV) — bulk CSV download, file dated 10 June 2026, read 12 October 2026. Filters: risk category foreign exchange, reporting country and counterparty country ‘all countries’, all counterparties, all maturities, all execution methods.
- BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey 2025 — survey background and definitions. The BIS headline when the survey came out was “$9.6 trillion per day”; the figure in the BIS database today, used here, is $9.51 trillion.
Method
We filtered the BIS bulk file to the global foreign-exchange totals and read the values exactly as published (in millions of US dollars, shown here in billions). Currency and pair figures are net-net. Instrument figures are net-net; options are the BIS options series; a small ‘options and other’ is the BIS options serieslsquo;other instruments‘options and other’ is the BIS options seriesrsquo; series is left out. Non-deliverable forwards are a subset of outright forwards and are in the CSV only where the BIS reports them.
Caveats
These are dealer-reported OTC volumes for one month (April) every three years. They include interbank trading, hedging and swaps, and are not a measure of retail or prop-firm trading. Prop firm evaluations are simulated and do not show up in these numbers.
Coverage widened over time (more countries report now than in 1986), and the 1986 figure is only available net-gross, so early years are not strictly comparable with recent ones. The BIS can revise past values.
How to cite this
Prop Data Lab, “How Big Is the Forex Market? BIS Turnover Data, 1986 to 2025”, updated 12 October 2026, https://propdatalab.com/forex-market-size-bis-triennial-survey/
The table and the CSV are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: copy, chart or republish them, commercial use included, as long as you link back to this page. Figures are from the Bank for International Settlements; please also credit the BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey.
Common questions
How big is the forex market per day?
$9.51 trillion a day on average in April 2025, according to the BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey (net-net basis). In April 2022 it was $7.47 trillion.
What is the most traded currency pair?
EUR/USD, at $1,970 billion a day in April 2025 (21% of all turnover), then USD/JPY at $1,370 billion.
How often is the BIS survey done?
Every three years, in April. The next one is due in April 2028.
Does this include prop firm trading?
No. It counts trades reported by dealers. Prop firm evaluations run on simulated accounts and are not part of it.