Prices in Thailand 🇹🇭
In Thailand, mobile data costs $0.41, coca-cola costs $0.58 and diesel costs $1.16. That is 14 of the 16 everyday items in the game, priced in US dollars, in THB, and as roughly how long someone on the average local wage works to buy one.
Thailand is among the cheapest countries in the game for prepared food and produce, both grown domestically in quantity. Dairy is the exception, as it is not traditionally a large part of the diet and much of the supply is imported. VAT is 7%, the lowest headline rate of any country in this table apart from the Gulf states, and fresh unprocessed food is exempt on top of that. Between domestic agriculture and a very light consumption tax, the Thai food rows are close to a floor for what these items can cost anywhere in the world.
What things cost
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $4.30 | 135 THB | 74 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $0.58 | 20 THB | 10 min |
| Cappuccino | $2.07 | 69.23 THB | 35 min |
| Milk (1 litre) | $1.79 | 59.87 THB | 31 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $2.08 | 69.57 THB | 36 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $2.94 | 98.33 THB | 50 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $1.33 | 44.48 THB | 23 min |
| Diesel (1 litre) | $1.16 | 38.39 THB | 20 min |
| Electricity (100 kWh) | $12.20 | 403.6 THB | 3.5 h |
| Natural gas (100 kWh) | no data | ||
| Cigarettes (20-pack) | $1.96 | 70 THB | 34 min |
| Beer (330ml) | $1.53 | 54.66 THB | 26 min |
| Spirits (750ml bottle) | $3.83 | 136.8 THB | 66 min |
| Vape e-liquid (1 ml) | no data | ||
| Mobile data (1 GB) | $0.41 | — | 7 min |
| A day's healthy diet | $1.88 | 61.75 THB | 32 min |
Most local-currency figures are printed as the source published them. The cappuccino, milk, egg, apple and petrol rows are converted from US dollars at recent exchange rates; the healthy-diet row is converted the other way. A dash means the source publishes dollars and nothing else. Work time divides the dollar price by an estimated average hourly wage, the roughest number on this page. See methodology.
How Thailand compares
Relative to the rest of the game, Thailand is most expensive for milk, where it ranks 8th out of 32 countries at $1.79, against a global median of $1.54.
It is relatively cheapest for cigarettes at $1.96, which is 40th of 49, only 9 countries in the game are cheaper.
Measured against local earnings rather than dollars, the item that takes the longest to afford here is electricity (100 kWh), at roughly 3.5 hours of the average wage. Dollar prices and work-time prices often rank countries very differently, and that gap is usually the more interesting number.
What the state takes
Standard rate in Thailand: 7% VAT. Ordinary groceries: fresh unprocessed food exempt. Where these come from.
Play a puzzle
Thailand comes up in the daily puzzle roughly once every 49 days, paired with a different item each time. Play today's puzzle or browse the archive of past rounds.
Other countries
- Argentina
- Australia
- Bangladesh
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Czechia
- Egypt
- France
- Germany
- Ghana
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Lebanon
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Norway
- Pakistan
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Tanzania
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uruguay
- Vietnam
Why a country's prices look the way they do
- Why poor countries are cheap, and why it is not what you thinkThe real answer has nothing to do with profits or standards. It is a sixty-year-old piece of economics about haircuts, and it explains most of the price map.
- A fifth of what you paid was tax, and you never saw the lineConsumption tax is the largest single wedge between two countries' prices for an identical product, and the one shoppers are least able to see.
- The salary comparison you keep seeing online is wrongConverting a wage at the market exchange rate answers a question nobody asked. Purchasing power parity answers the one you meant, and has its own traps.
- How to compare two countries without fooling yourselfCost-of-living comparisons go wrong in the same six ways every time. What follows is a method that survives contact with a real decision.