The Thai baht: notes, ATMs & getting the best rate

The notes and coins you'll actually use

Thai banknotes come in five denominations, each a different colour, which makes them easy to tell apart fast at a market stall:

• 20 baht — green, the workhorse small note for street food and motorbike taxis.
• 50 baht — blue.
• 100 baht — red, the most useful everyday note.
• 500 baht — purple.
• 1,000 baht — grey-brown, the largest; hard to break at small shops early in the day.

Coins in circulation are 1, 2, 5 and 10 baht. The 10-baht coin (silver rim, brass centre) is the one for vending machines, BTS ticket machines and tollways. Tiny 25 and 50 satang coins turn up as supermarket change but buy almost nothing. Every note and coin carries an image of the King, so treat money respectfully — Thais never step on a dropped banknote to stop it blowing away, and defacing currency is genuinely frowned upon.

The smartest ways to get baht

There are four common routes, and the cheapest depends on whether you need cash or are happy going cashless:

• Exchange booths — the best rate for cash. In Bangkok the Super Rich chains (orange and green), Vasu and similar changers post rates close to mid-market. Bring clean foreign notes and your passport.
• ATMs — convenient but every Thai ATM adds a flat 220-baht fee for foreign cards (covered next). Fine for a quick top-up, expensive for small repeated withdrawals.
• Multi-currency cards — Wise and Revolut let you hold and convert at the real mid-market rate and spend or withdraw in baht; often the cheapest blended option for newcomers.
• Bank wire (SWIFT) — for large sums, especially property. Slower and with a fixed fee, but the only route that produces the paperwork a condo purchase needs.

Avoid changing more than a small amount at the airport or your hotel — those rates are the worst you’ll see. Change just enough to reach the city, then use a booth. To sanity-check any rate you’re quoted, run the figure through our currency converter first.

The 220-baht ATM fee — and how to dodge it

This is the fee that surprises every new arrival. Every Thai bank ATM charges foreign (non-Thai) cards a flat fee of around 220 baht per withdrawal, no matter the amount — and that’s on top of whatever your home bank charges and any exchange-rate markup. Take out 2,000 baht and the 220 stings; take out 20,000 and it barely registers. The defences:

• Withdraw the maximum your card and the machine allow in one go (often 20,000–30,000 baht) to spread the 220 baht across more cash.
• Use a fee-refunding home bank — some accounts (e.g. certain online or travel-focused banks) rebate foreign ATM charges.
• Carry a Wise or Revolut card, which keeps the conversion at mid-market — you still pay the 220-baht Thai fee, but skip the bad home-bank rate.
• Open a Thai bank account once you qualify — withdrawals from your own bank’s ATMs are free. See our opening a Thai bank account guide.

The DCC trap: always choose 'THB'

When a Thai ATM or a card terminal in a shop offers to bill you “in your home currency” — showing the price in dollars, pounds or euros instead of baht — that is Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), and it almost always costs you money. The machine locks in a padded exchange rate, often several percent worse than your bank’s, and pockets the difference.

The fix is one habit: always choose to be charged in Thai baht (THB). On screens it may read “continue without conversion” or “pay in THB”. Let your own bank or the Visa/Mastercard network do the conversion instead. Over a year of cards, ATMs and restaurant terminals, this single choice quietly saves more than any other money tip on this page.

Exchanging cash the smart way

If you prefer carrying some foreign cash to change on arrival, a few rules get you the best rate and avoid rejection at the counter:

• Bring clean, newer notes — booths reject torn, written-on or heavily creased bills, and older-series notes sometimes get a worse rate.
• Larger denominations get better rates — a single 100-USD note usually beats five 20s.
• Major currencies only — USD, EUR, GBP, SGD and AUD exchange easily; obscure currencies get poor rates or are refused.
• Carry your passport — booths must record ID for larger exchanges.
• Compare the board — the “we buy” column is the rate you get; the spread between booths can be meaningful for big sums.

Going cashless: cards, PromptPay & QR

Thailand is rapidly going cashless, but not evenly. Malls, supermarkets, chain restaurants and hotels take cards happily; street stalls, small eateries, markets and many taxis still want cash or a QR transfer. The local rails are worth knowing:

• PromptPay — Thailand’s instant bank-to-bank transfer system, tied to a phone number or ID. Once you have a Thai account, scanning a vendor’s QR to pay is everywhere and free. See PromptPay & mobile banking.
• Mobile banking apps — K PLUS, SCB Easy and Bangkok Bank Mobile handle transfers, bills and QR payments; this is how most residents pay rent and utilities.
• Foreign cards by QR — some tourist-facing apps now let visitors pay Thai QR codes, but coverage is patchy; don’t rely on it as your only method.

Until your local account is open, keep enough cash for the cash-only half of daily life — budget roughly with our cost of living guide.

Bringing money in for a condo

If your reason for caring about baht is a property purchase, the method matters as much as the rate. Thai law requires a foreign condo buyer to bring the purchase funds into Thailand from abroad in foreign currency and convert to baht inside Thailand. The receiving Thai bank then issues a Foreign Exchange Transaction (FET) form proving the money came from overseas — and the Land Office requires that form to register foreign freehold ownership under the 49% quota.

In practice that means a SWIFT bank wire to a Thai account, not cash carried in your luggage and not a domestic-feeling transfer. Tell your Thai bank the wire is for a condo purchase so they issue the FET form correctly. Full detail in our FET form (Tor Tor 3), sending money to Thailand and buying a condo step by step guides.

Frequently asked

Sources & References

• Bank of Thailand

Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.