OBJECTIVES: Contraception represents one of the hallmarks on women´s health. However, the most recent data reported related to contraceptive use in Brazil dates back to 2006. Therefore, our study aimed to describe contraceptive use patterns reported by Brazilian women in 2012. METHODS: Sample data were extracted from the 2012 Brazil National Health and Wellness Survey (NHWS), an internet based general health survey, which is stratified to be representative of age and gender. Of the 12,000 total respondents, 4,560 were women from 18-49 years old, of which, contraceptive methods related questions were applied. Information about women whose partners had vasectomy were not captured. Descriptive analyses and contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) were based on the weighted data. RESULTS: Overall, 63% of the surveyed women from 18-49 years old were using any contraception method during the past 6 months and included married (39%) and single (33%) women. Young women from 18-34 years (68%) were the most representative age group, Calculated CPR regardless of marital status and CPR only for married women were 63 % and 66%, respectively. Among contraceptive methods, modern contraception were most used, including condoms (44%), pill for birth control (44%), and injection (9%). Use of vaginal ring, patches and implant represented less than 1% each. Additionally, traditional methods were reported in more than 5% of the women. Pills for non-birth control use were reported by 20%. CONCLUSIONS: Patterns reported worldwide previously from 2013 were consistent when compared to updated information of Brazilian contraceptive use from NHWS, with lower prevalence use compared to developed countries. Data was similar when evaluating the use of modern’s contraceptive methods and worldwide average of CPR for married women. In conclusion, awareness of contraception importance and related alternatives are needed in the country, which can lead to optimization of educational and awareness programs for women.