A REALISTIC Budget to live in Thailand in 2026

How to Choose a Condo Here in Thailand

Rent is going to vary a lot depending on where you are. Obviously, Bangkok is more expensive than Pattaya, Hua Hin, or Phuket, Chiang Mai, wherever you want to live. For argument’s sake, we’re going to put together some prices for Bangkok.

The two main websites that I like to use are RentHub and Hipflat. With these, you can search by condo. If you find a place that you like, you can search in that condo, and this gives you a really good idea of how much you should be paying in each different part of the city and for each different property.

I have a strong opinion on how to choose a condo here in Thailand. I see people locking in a place before they’ve even left their home country to come out here, and I think that is crazy. My honest best way, if I was to do it again, is what I actually did the right way the first time.

I booked a month-long stay in an Airbnb in the city, and during that month, I got to know the city and all the different areas. I looked at a whole bunch of buildings. I spent time in different parts of the city to see where I would like to live, and ultimately, I found a building that I really liked and rented a place there.

Thailand Rental Crisis and Condo Availability

The great thing about Thailand is that there’s no rental crisis like we have in Australia, where there are dozens of people trying to get the one place. Here, pretty much every single condo has availability.

The best way to do this is to find an area you like, find a building within that area, and make sure there are conveniences nearby, like a 7-Eleven, that you’re close to transport, and that it’s not on a super busy street. These are little basic things like this.

Once you’re ready, you can go into the condo. A lot of buildings rent directly from the office. Many of them have a billboard inside with all the different places for rent available. If neither of those options is available, RentHub and Hipflat will help you find a place available in the condo that you want.

I strongly recommend using these websites to do research and get to know how much you should be paying, especially the size of places. If you’ve been into an apartment that’s 30 square meters, it is tiny, so it’s good to get an idea of what you get for your money.

As a rule of thumb, I find that usually the better the facilities, such as a golf simulator, state-of-the-art gym, and co-working spaces, the smaller the apartments are. I personally prefer buildings from about 10 years ago. I find they’re a little bit bigger.

Prices and How Much You Would Be Paying

Here in Bangkok, a realistic price for a one-bedroom place or a studio would be around 20,000 to 30,000 baht if you’re in the downtown area of Sukhumvit. If you are moving somewhere like Pattaya, it is considerably cheaper.

Sam used to have a place down there that was close to the beach, in an older apartment-style building, but he paid just 6,500 baht for that. You can get places in Bangkok for around 10,000 to 15,000 baht. You’ll either be out of the city center or in a much older building, but that could actually be better for people.

I’m out of the city myself. I live out in the suburbs. I’m in a three-story townhouse and I pay 31,500 baht per month. The bang-for-buck difference that you get by being out of the city center is incredible. I absolutely love living here and I couldn’t imagine going back.

To put all of this together for our ideal budget, we’re going to list this at 25,000 baht. You can adjust this for your budget depending on where you want to live and what sort of place you want, but this is just a nice middle ground that we can use for our budget.

Electricity and Water Bills

My water bill is 79 baht. Water costs next to nothing here. I pay both of these using the apps. My last electricity bill was 3,900 to 4,000 baht, basically. This is pretty standard for this time of year. It’s been really hot and humid lately.

We’ve got three levels and air-conditioning units on each level. The bedroom one is on pretty much 24/7, and the studio one I have on pretty much every single day. If you’re moving out here or planning to move out here, make sure you’re on the right rate.

There is only one electric company here. Everybody pays through the government app, and a lot of landlords charge an extra fee on top of this. They will manage the bill and charge you a different rate. The government rate is around 5 baht, and a lot of them will charge 10 to 15 baht and pocket the difference.

Ask if you can pay the bill yourself through the app. There’s a government app that you can download, the MEA app, and it will show you exactly how much you’re using. You can compare month-on-month data and everything like that. If you have a Thai bank, you can also pay directly through the app. This is how I make my payments each month for both the water and the electricity.

For our budget, we’re going to put the monthly bills at about 5,000 baht. That should cover all of those things. Your electricity will be higher in some months and lower in others. Sometimes it’s insanely hot here all month, and the bill goes up, so I always allow 5,000 baht per month, and whatever you don’t spend gives you a nice little cushion.

Phone and Internet

Phone and internet are insanely cheap here, very affordable. Many of the companies offer bundle packs. My phone is with True, and my home Wi-Fi is with AIS. I’ve always done it this way.

It doesn’t seem to happen anymore, but years ago, one of them would go down, and if my True phone went down, my AIS Wi-Fi would be working. I haven’t had problems with either of the services for years now, actually.

I’m on an unlimited package for my phone. I pay, I think, 299 to 300 baht per month for the unlimited package. My Wi-Fi costs 500 baht per month for 500 megs up and 500 megs down. There are cheaper options available.

In my old condo, I had a package for 250 baht per month, and that was great. That was definitely fast enough for me to use. When I moved here, I had to get a whole new thing installed, so I went with the faster package. For the super high-speed internet, I pay just 500 baht a month.

The DTV and Retirement Visa

There are two main visas that we will look at here. The first one is the DTV, the digital nomad visa, which is, in my opinion, the best visa to move out here to Thailand if you aren’t qualified for the retirement visa yet.

For the DTV, you will need to pay 10,000 baht at the time of application, but that’s it. That’s all you pay, and then you have a five-year visa. Every six months, or every 180 days, you will either need to leave the country or pay for an extension. This is something that you will need to factor in.

You can take really cheap trips to neighboring countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. I think my last trip to Vietnam was like $150 return. The flights are really cheap if you book them a long way out.

If you are over 50, there is the retirement visa option. This looks like a really great option, a really good visa, and it’s very affordable. You’ll pay initially 5,000 baht for the visa, and then, from my reading, it seems to be a 1,900 baht yearly extension that you will need to do every single year.

90-Day Reporting

For both of these visas, you will need to do the 90-day reporting. I pay an agency for that. I think I pay about 500 baht. There are agencies that you can pay, and they take care of everything for you. The visas, while not a big cost, are something you still need to remember, especially if you’re on the retirement visa and need to make that payment every year.

Insurance

Insurance is something you’re going to want to have here. I’ve been hit by a motorcycle while standing on the side. I was standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross the road. I got hit on the footpath by a motorcycle. These things happen. Accidents happen all the time here.

Thailand has one of the largest motorcycle accident rates per capita in the world, and the hospitals here, while they are world-class and amazing, are not cheap. The last thing you want to do is land yourself with a giant hospital bill that you need to pay here.

For insurance, I use SafetyWing. All my friends use SafetyWing. I think the majority of the expats here would use SafetyWing. It’s one of the best values for money out there, and it has been my go-to for years. It’s also great even if you’re just traveling out here.

For up to 39 years old, you’ll pay $62.72 every four weeks. If you’re over 40, you pay $102. Once you’re 50, it goes up. Basically, it goes up depending on your age. Your visa and other costs come down if you’re at retirement age and on the retirement visa. Your insurance is more expensive, but the cost of the visa and not having to take those flights every six months is much cheaper, so it kind of balances out.

Insurance Coverage

The coverage includes medical treatment, hospitalization, ambulance, lost luggage, motor accidents, and injuries from leisure sports and activities. These are all really good basic coverage that you should have here. The adventure sports add-on is an extra $10, and you can toggle this on and off each month.

If you are going to do anything like dirt-bike riding, kite surfing, or any of those crazy things, you can toggle on the adventure sports package and be covered. If you want more coverage, they also have the complete package, and this is basically just a much higher overall limit. You can see coverage of up to $1.5 million for medical treatment.

I’ve had friends make claims through SafetyWing, and they were very prompt with payment. Thankfully, I haven’t had to do that myself. For our visas and insurance, we’re going to put this at 5,000 baht per month for our budget. You can make it an exact number, but 5,000 baht is just a nice, easy, round number for us to use.

Transport and Getting Around

This brings our grand total for the fixed costs for the month to 35,000 baht, assuming that your rent is 25,000. This will essentially be a fixed cost each month. You can adjust this if you’re getting a cheaper place, a more expensive place, or whatever, but these are our fixed costs.

Transport and getting around will vary depending on where you’re living. If you live in Bangkok, you might not want a motorcycle. If you live in Pattaya or Hua Hin, having a motorcycle or even a car does make your life a whole lot easier.

If you are going to be living downtown, in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok, I wouldn’t recommend getting a motorcycle. You can get one, but I almost never rode mine when I had it there. I hate riding in the city.

For some average prices for getting around, the cheapest BTS ticket is 17 baht, the maximum is 65 baht, and you can buy a day pass for 150 baht to ride the BTS all day. The MRT subway is similarly priced.

I recommend using Grab and Bolt to get around. It’s a little harder to book Grab and Bolt in the downtown area, but getting taxis and getting them to put on the meter is a whole thing. I almost never do it these days. I just use Grab and Bolt.

If you are down in Pattaya, they have the baht bus, and that is now 15 baht. It is 15 baht for everybody, no matter how far you go, even if you get on at Jomtien Beach and go all the way through to Pattaya. If you ask, they will tell you a different price.

Motorcycle Prices

If you did want to buy a motorcycle or car, the best place to do that is on Facebook Marketplace. A Honda Click can cost 12,000 to 14,000 baht. New ones are 60,000 baht. A realistic budget to buy a motorcycle starts at around 10,000 baht if you want a little scooter like this.

Honda Waves can be cheaper. You can get cheap ones for 8,500 baht. The plastics might be faded, but all in all, if it’s just something you ride every now and then and leave outside in the rain and you don’t really care about it, 8,500 baht for a motorcycle is crazy.

Entertainment

Entertainment is going to vary so much from person to person depending on whether you’re single, in a relationship, a drinker, a non-drinker, and what you like to do for fun. If you’re a drinker and like to go out partying, this is where the majority of your money is going to go.

Once I got a girlfriend and settled down and stopped going out drinking and partying all the time, I had much more money left at the end of each month, which was a pleasant surprise, not something I was expecting. Drinking and partying is where the majority of your money will go if you’re into that kind of lifestyle.

Drinks can get expensive here. You can still get beers for around 60 to 80 baht, especially in local places, but if you’re going out in the bars, clubs, and nightlife areas, you can be paying up to 200 to 250 baht for a drink. If you’re into fancy rooftop bars, buckle up.

For me, a typical night out would be around 2,000 to 4,000 baht. It would vary a lot depending on what sort of night that is. If you are single, you’re out drinking and partying a lot, this is likely going to be your biggest expense.

If you’re not into that or you’re in a relationship, let’s talk about some fun date things that you can do. A movie night. The movies are considerably cheaper here than they are in Australia. The two of us can go on a movie date night for under 1,000 baht. We will go to the ones where you get the couch at the back, and the couch is quite a reasonable price. Popcorn and drink meals are super reasonable, at 250 to 350 baht.

Food as an Expense

Eating out varies a lot, but my girlfriend and I love to go out to eat. It’s something that we do for fun all the time, and we get most good meals for under 1,000 baht for the two of us. We go to Sushi Roe, which is my favorite sushi place here.

We’ll pay between 600 and 800 baht for the two of us. We’ve got a couple of favorite Korean barbecue places that we like to visit, and they’re usually around 800 to 1,000 baht for the two. The majority of places here actually do packages, like all-you-can-eat packages, and you choose the tier that you want. The price is locked in.

If you’re into Thai food and want to eat in local restaurants, the price has gone up. You can still get meals for around 60 baht, but they’re far less common these days. I would say 60 to 120 baht is a pretty good average for a basic Thai meal, something like pad kra pao, pad Thai, or green curry.

Western food is where it starts to get expensive. If you live out here, eventually you don’t get sick of Thai food, but you don’t want it for every single meal. I still love a lot of Western food. Burgers and pizzas are not cheap, unfortunately. Western food comes at a price here.

For a Western meal, if you get it delivered on Grab or whatever, you’re typically looking at around 300 baht per meal as an overall benchmark. A burger for 300 baht is a good sort of price point. Pizzas are expensive here.

There’s not much cattle in Thailand, so there’s not much milk or dairy. A lot of it ends up coming from places like Australia, so there are import taxes and fees on that. Cheese and dairy products are actually quite expensive here. A good pizza will run you 450 to 500 baht, and many of them are quite stingy on the cheese here. I always get extra cheese as an option to make it more like what you expect from a normal pizza.

The Costs That No One Talks About

These are things that you need to account for. Number one is replacing things like your phone or a laptop. You will need to do this every now and then. I just got a new iPhone at the start of this year. It was expensive.

I’m not one of those people who buys a new phone every year. I think it had been about four years since my last upgrade, but this is something I needed to do, and I paid around 55,000 to 57,000 baht for the new iPhone Pro Max. A laptop is another one. I do work on my laptop. I will upgrade that at some point.

I’m still fine with what I have now, but that’s going to be a couple of thousand dollars as well. For those people who want to come out here and live on the dream of a thousand dollars a month, having to purchase one of these things will basically ruin your entire budget.

You may think you don’t need to replace your phone, but things happen. It can get lost, damaged, or stolen. It’s important to factor these things into your budget, even if you don’t need it every year.

Taking Trips

You may think, “Hey, I’m going to move out to Thailand, and I’m never going to go anywhere.” That may be the case for the first year or the first couple of years, but eventually you may want to take trips. You may want to go back home, or you may have to visit friends or family for a wedding or a funeral.

Factoring in these trips home, my trip back to Australia that I take at Christmas every year is super expensive for that time of year. Actually getting there is okay. It’s the flight out of Australia back here in January that kills me. If you are on a visa that requires you to leave the country and re-enter as well, you are going to have to get these flights.

Gifts and Special Occasions

This is one that’s easy to overlook. You are going to have to buy gifts for people at some stage. Christmas presents, but it’s always someone’s birthday and you will need to make these purchases. It may not be right away. You may move over here single and think you don’t need to buy gifts for anyone, but if you get into a relationship, then that will change.

Repairs and Replacements

You might drop a plate, break kitchenware, crash your motorcycle, or pull a hook off the wall and rip a whole chunk out of it, then have to get that repaired. This doesn’t need to be a big amount that you put away each month, but it is something you need to be prepared for should the worst happen.

An Extra Security Deposit

You may need to move for some reason. You may have neighbors move in who throw parties every night and smoke weed, stink up the place, and make you hate where you’re living. You’re going to need to come up with the next security deposit for the place that you’re going to move into before you get the one back for where you’re living now, if you get it back.

If the move here takes a massive chunk out of your savings, this is something you still need to be ready for or actively save for throughout the year should the worst happen and you need to move.

Rough Budgets

Let’s put together some rough budgets for how much you will spend on spending and saving, removing the fixed costs. The first one I recommend is 10,000 baht per week for spending and saving, and you can break this down.

I would do five days at 750 baht and then two weekend days at 3,125 baht. This is a great way to balance it. It ensures that you can eat nice meals and enjoy yourself while you’re here, and then you can also have a bit of money for a weekend if you want to have a bit of a blowout, have some fun, or go on a date.

The next one is just a little bit higher, but far more comfortable, and what I think is quite a realistic budget. If you can afford up to 13,000 baht per week, that would allow you five days at 1,000 baht and two weekend days at 4,000 baht.

This is not just for spending and going out drinking. This is also for the money that you’re saving for unforeseen things, needing to replace your phone, taking trips, and birthday presents. You should be saving a little bit of money every single month, and this needs to be factored into your budget.

Full Budget Ideas

The first budget is 78,000 baht per month, using 35,000 baht as our fixed costs, plus the 10,000 baht per week that we said for spending and saving. You can adjust this if you’re going to be living in Pattaya or in a much cheaper condo. Adjust down that fixed price, and this is a comfortable amount to live on.

The second budget example, and a really comfortable amount to live on, is 91,000 baht per month, with the same fixed costs at 35,000 and the weekly spending and saving at 13,000 baht.

This will all sound like a lot, but when you live here, the reality is that you do end up spending more than you think. My original budget when I moved out here was insanely tight.

My original budget when I moved out here was 1,700 Australian dollars per month, and I had the spending and saving money down to 4,670 baht per week. I would do five days at 450 baht and two days at 1,200 baht. I made this work five years ago. Do I think it’s still realistic now? I don’t.

The price of everything has gone up. You could make it work, but only for a very short period of time. This is not a sustainable way to live.

How Much Do I Spend in a Typical Month

I spend between 100,000 and 120,000 baht per month, and this is covering everything. Something to factor in is that I do quite a bit of travel. I’ve taken four trips this year already. I will probably do one or two more before the end of the year.

I also have a project car, which I’m spending a little bit of money on, but not a crazy amount. My cost per month has averaged out at around 100,000 to 120,000 baht per month.