Round to the Nearest Cent
Rounding to the nearest cent keeps two decimal places, because a cent is one hundredth of a dollar and is the smallest amount US money is actually settled in. Anything from $47.385 up rounds to $47.39; below that it rounds to $47.38. Sales tax, tips and interest are all legally computed and then rounded at exactly this step. All values on this page use standard half-up rounding.
Round to the Nearest Cent reference last updated · reference source
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What this tool does
Rounding to the nearest cent keeps two decimal places, because a cent is one hundredth of a dollar and is the smallest amount US money is actually settled in. Anything from $47.385 up rounds to $47.39; below that it rounds to $47.38. Sales tax, tips and interest are all legally computed and then rounded at exactly this step. All values on this page use standard half-up rounding.
How to use the Round to the Nearest Cent
- Check Number to round: 47.386.
- Check Round to: places.
- Check Decimal places: 2.
- Review the Round to the Nearest Cent result and its exact-value comparison table.
- Verify assumptions before applying the result.
Formula
Round half up at the chosen precision: decimal places count digits after the point, significant figures count digits that carry meaning from the first nonzero digit, and nearest-multiple rounding snaps to a grid such as the nearest 100.
- x
- Number to round
- mode
- Round to
- places
- Decimal places
- figs
- Significant figures
- multiple
- Nearest multiple of
Ties round half up (away from zero for the magnitude shown in most school contexts); financial rounding rules such as banker's rounding are not applied.
Worked example
Round to the Nearest Cent: Number to round = 47.386; Round to = places; Decimal places = 2. Rounding to the nearest cent keeps two decimal places, because a cent is one hundredth of a dollar and is the smallest amount US money is actually settled in. Anything from $47.385 up rounds to $47.39; below that it rounds to $47.38. Sales tax, tips and interest are all legally computed and then rounded at exactly this step. All values on this page use standard half-up rounding.
Inputs
- Number to round47.386
- Round toDecimal places
- Decimal places2
- Significant figures3
- Nearest multiple of100
Result
- Rounded value47.39
- Decimal places2
Round to the Nearest Cent — worked examples
| Number | Rounded |
|---|---|
| 19.994 | 19.99 |
| 19.995 | 20 |
| 47.382 | 47.38 |
| 47.386 | 47.39 |
| 3.14159 | 3.14 |
| 0.004 | 0 |
| 0.005 | 0.01 |
| 1299.999 | 1300 |
Results explained
- Rounded value
- Rounded value from the formula above. Ties round half up (away from zero for the magnitude shown in most school contexts); financial rounding rules such as banker's rounding are not applied.
- Decimal places
- Decimal places from the formula above. Ties round half up (away from zero for the magnitude shown in most school contexts); financial rounding rules such as banker's rounding are not applied.
Frequently asked questions
Rounding to the nearest cent keeps two decimal places, because a cent is one hundredth of a dollar and is the smallest amount US money is actually settled in. The reference table on this page shows 8 worked examples computed with exactly that rule.
An exact half-cent is the tie point: amounts at or above it round up to the next cent. Beware the classic trap — a value typed as 2.005 is stored in binary a hair below the exact decimal, so software that rounds the stored binary value (including this page) can show 2.00; currency-critical systems round from decimal strings instead to avoid exactly this.
Use it whenever a money amount must be payable: invoices, receipts, tax returns and bank interest all finish at the cent, never at a fraction of one.
47.386 rounds to 47.39. You can verify it in the table on this page, or type any other value into the calculator above.
Because jurisdictions choose where rounding happens: some round the tax on each line item, others round once on the invoice total, and the two methods can differ by a cent or two on a long receipt. Both are legal — the rule that matters is which one your state or country prescribes, which is why accounting software has a specific setting for it.
No. Banker's rounding (round-half-to-even) is used in some scientific and financial standards to reduce bias over huge datasets, but this page — and the parent rounding calculator — always rounds a halfway value up, which is the convention taught in schools and used for tax forms.
Yes, with one nuance: the engine rounds halves toward positive infinity, so 47.5 rounds up to 48 at the nearest dollar while -47.5 becomes -47. Away from exact halves, negative values round to the nearest candidate just like positive ones.