Living in Thailand

Cost of Living in Bangkok, Thailand

The blog post to answer your question of "How much money do you need each month to survive in Thailand?"

Zaw Thet Tin @ Alex Hicks

01 Dec 2024 — 9 min read

Before I relocated to Bangkok, I did some research on the cost of living and now I have settled down. In this blog post, I would like to share how much it costs to live here. This will be a lifestyle of living in a condo, using public transport for commuting, having regular inexpensive meals, going out once or twice on weekends, etc...

Visa options and prices

The first thing you will need is a Visa. Here I would like to share some options. You can live as a student or as a digital nomad, or you can be an employee of a Thai company.

Non-Immigrant "ED" Visa (Education Visa Type)

They offer programs like Thai language learning to acquire a student Visa. You can open bank accounts with that. This is the option I chose to live long term. It is an online program and doesn't need to attend classes in person so you can live anywhere. I chose to do it with an agent so don't know much about the actual process but I get a total of 15 months to live in Thailand.

The cost of the Education Visa will depend on the type of program you choose. During our stay in Thailand, we tried two programs, the certificate for the Thai language program from Northen Chiangmai University and the Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Ramkhamhaeng University. Below is some information on the total cost of the programs.

The certificate for the Thai language program from Northen Chiangmai University - For this program, we hired agents to do it for us and we don't know which category cost how much but the total is 53,000 baht. This is an online program and we get 1 and a half years of Visa.

The Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Ramkhamhaeng University - This program costs around 4,500 baht for University fees. You need to fulfill 125 credits (1 subject equals 3 credits - a total of 42 subjects to finish) with a maximum duration of 8 years. 1 credit costs 25 baht so you will need to pay a total of 3,500 for studying. Let's simplify. You can get a maximum of 8 years of Visa and will cost you below 10,000 baht. Please note that you need to take the Thai language test before admission. The program will be teaching in the Thai language and language fluency is a must. You can attend either in person, online, or via recorded videos.

There will be countless many other programs and the price may vary.

Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)

This is a newer type of Visa. This is for someone who has a remote type of work in their home country or freelancers with great income. This doesn't count if you have a remote job from Thailand companies. They have another type of Visa, Non-Immigrant Visa "B", for working as an employee in a Thailand company.

The cost of DTV varies depending on the country you are applying from. For example, at the time of this writing, if you apply from Laos, it is 10,000 baht but if you apply from New Zealand, it is around 40,000 baht. Please do your research for the accurate price. The Visa is valid for 5 years and every 6 months, you need to leave the country and re-enter. Or every year, you leave the country and re-enter and live for 6 months. Then extend for another 6 months without leaving the country

Non-Immigrant Visa "B" (Work Visa Type)

This is the type of visa you get when you are employed by a Thailand company. Mostly your company does it for you so you don't need to know about much. You can extend year after year. The price seems to be around 10,000 but we don't know much about that.

Accommodation

The price of accommodation starts from around 4,000 THB per month. Those are apartment rooms and just a baseline and won't be so good to live in. Condo rooms start from around 8,000 THB per month and you can get a great deal if you are patient enough and search thoroughly. Mostly those rooms are far from public transport so you will need to take a bike or taxi to connect to public transport. There are many bus lines so you can take them but traffic will be a disappointment. But with the price range of 10,000, you can get a great room to live in great locations around Bangkok that are close to the public train system.

The difference between the apartment rooms and condo rooms is the cost of electricity and the facilities. There is a price range the Government charge and every condo rooms follow that but apartment rooms don't follow. Instead, they can charge you as much as they defined. Another thing is the condo rooms are mostly equipped with energy-efficient home appliances but apartment rooms are mostly equipped with the cheapest home appliances. This factor also contributes to your final electricity bill. For example, I am charged around 700 Baht per month living in a condo room while one of my friends who lives in an apartment room needs to pay up to 4000 THB. Crazy, isn't it? The combined price of 4000 for rent and 4000 for electricity is almost the same as a condo room but with a much lower living standard. My friend finally moved to the condo room by the way. To be honest, I don't recommend living in an apartment room. The price to value is not worth it.

Wifi

Wifi services start from around 500 baht per month. For me, I chose the 600 baht per month option since I prefer faster internet. To get wifi service, choose the internet service provider and you can fill in an online form and they will give you an appointment date they can come and install for you. It is a quick process in my case since the condo already connected the cable to each room. They just need to connect the router and provide their internet.

Mobile Data and Calls

The expense for mobile data and calls will depend on our usage so it may vary from person to person. But in my opinion, spending 350 baht per month for mobile data is enough to use. For calls, it will cost you 100 baht for 4 hours of talk within 30 days. The pricing will differ based on the provider. I was talking about the provider I used, "True Move". So 500 baht per month is enough for my case but you might cost more depending on the talk time you need.

Meal

The price of a regular inexpensive meal in Bangkok is around 60 baht. It will cost you around 200 for the same meal in tourist areas and downtown areas. But for most of the areas, 60 baht is the average price for a meal. A soft drink will cost you around 50 baht. So the total will be 110 baht for a meal. But I prefer to assume around 200 baht per meal because I mostly ended up eating multiple options. For me, 2 meals per day is enough. So I need 400 per day for eating. That will be 12,400 baht per month if we assume 31 days.

Groceries

The cost of groceries can vary from person to person since we all have different needs. So I just want to share mine here. For me, I estimate it around 2500 baht per month. Mostly, I don't need to spend that amount every month. Only when all groceries run out at the same time. But sometimes I need to spend around 3,000 or 3,500 if I buy extra kinds of stuff. So 3,000 per month should be a better estimate.

Drinking Water

Two types of drinking water you can get here, from a coin machine or a water bottle from a grocery store like "Seven-Eleven". From the coin machine, it is 1 baht per liter and 14 baht per liter for a water bottle. We should take around 3 liters on average per day from a healthy perspective. So if you drink water from a coin machine, it will be 3 baht per day and 93 baht per month. If you drink a purified water bottle, it will be 42 baht per day and 1,302 baht per month.

Electricity Bill

This expense will vary greatly depending on whether you live in a condo or an apartment. At the time of this writing, the cost of electricity per unit price defined by the Thai Government is around 4.2 baht per unit. If you live in a condo, you will be paying the exact price but if you live in an apartment, the price depends on your landlord. They can charge as much as they want, sometimes twice the Government price. Also, the total cost of the electricity bill will depend on what type of home appliances you use.

For my particular case, it cost me around 700, 800 per month. I use the microwave daily for meals. I don't like air-conditioning much so I mostly use around 10 to 12 hours daily. If you open the air-conditioning all day long, maybe it will cost you around 1,500 to 2,000 probably. Since the apartment rooms may cost you twice the Government price, if you live in an apartment, it may cost you around 4,000. This is the real price one of my friends needed to pay.

Water Bill

The water bill will be around 20 baht per unit and usually costs around 100 to 200 baht per month. For me, it cost me around 120 per month. That includes laundry every two days and usual usage for bathing and washing dishes, etc... The water bill is roughly the same for both living in a condo or apartment I guess.

Clothing

The clothing expense will depend on how much you wanna look good. For me, 1,500 per month is enough. I like Uniqlo clothes since they are functional clothes that give me comfort. They cost, for example, around 500 baht for a T-shirt and 1,500 baht for a pair of pants. For me, I prefer minimal clothing and I don't need to buy every month. So putting aside 1,500 baht per month should be enough for both clothing and shoes. It could be more for your case.

Transportation Charges

My career as a software developer allows me to work fully remotely so I only need to spend on transportation expenses to go out mostly during weekends.

Commuting with Train

Every month I top up around 1,000 baht for train cards. It might cost on average around 50 baht for a single trip. And since I only go out on weekends, it is enough but if you need to go to work every day, you will need to spend more than that. May be around 2,000 or 3,000 if you also count in weekend hangouts. Trains cost you more but they are very predictable and you can calculate the exact time you can get to a destination. So the price is worth it. I choose other types of transport only if there are no train routes available to those areas.

Commuting with Bus

It is regularly cheaper to take a bus. It costs around 8 to 15 baht for a regular bus and around 20 to 30 baht for air-con buses. But traffic is a disappointment in Bangkok (probably in every country) and commuting by bus is very unpredictable. Sometimes, you might get to a destination in 30 minutes but sometimes it might take up to 2 hours during rush hours for the same destination. If we estimate the expense of commuting to work every day by a regular bus, that may be around 650 or 1,000 baht if you count weekend hangouts as well.

Thank you for reading. Was this article helpful? What do you have in mind? Please let us know in the comments. If you live in Thailand as a foreigner, there is a process of reporting the stay every 90 days. We have a blog post that you will find helpful.