Tip of the Day : Similarities and Differences Between MONEY and SMALLMONEY Data Types

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SQL Server Tip of the Day - February 11, 2026

Similarities and Differences Between MONEY and SMALLMONEY Data Types

In SQL Server, each column, local variable, expression and parameter has a related data type.  A data type is an attribute that specifies the type of data that the object can hold, such as monetary data.  SQL Server has two data types that can hold monetary data, namely the MONEY data type and the SMALLMONEY data type.

The following article shows the similarities between the MONEY data type and the SMALLMONEY data type.

Similarities

  • Both data types represent monetary or currency values.
  • Both data types are accurate to a ten-thousandth of the monetary units they represent.
  • Both data types does not need to be enclosed in single quotation marks (').
  • A period is used to separate partial monetary units, like cents, from whole monetary units.

Differences

MONEY

SMALLMONEY

Range is from -922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807

Range is from -214,748.3648 to 214,748.3647

Uses 8 bytes of storage

Uses 4 bytes of storage

SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2008

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