Thailand 450-baht entry fee: what’s planned, for whom, when

1. Where the project stands at 5 November 2026

A proposal under consultation, not a tax in force

450 baht per person Foreign visitors Air arrivals first No publication found

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports presented the proposal in a Public Relations Department (PRD) press release dated 17 August 2026, after the National Tourism Policy Committee reviewed the principles on 14 August. The proposal was then put to public consultation. The PRD press release sets out a timeline, not a date for collecting the fee.

What the sources report as of this date

• The proposed amount is 450 baht per person, whatever the arrival mode (PRD, 17 August 2026).
• Public consultation ran from 24 August to 28 September 2026, with 5,954 responses (Nation, 25 August and 7 October 2026).
• No publication in the Royal Gazette has been found as of the consultation date, and no Cabinet decision is reported.

Pixidia advice: don’t pay anything under this name. A site that asks you to pay an « entry fee » before any official publication is not a Thai government site. To check, look at the PRD website and the FCDO travel advice for Thailand on GOV.UK before every trip.

This card doesn’t cover the fee. It’s for anyone with a free day in Bangkok: a day trip to Ayutthaya, the former capital of the kingdom.

Ayutthaya: UNESCO temples day trip, small group, from BangkokPartner link

See dates

2. The timeline, and why it still gives no date

The 17 August 2026 press release doesn’t set any absolute date. It splits the project into two phases, and starts each one from a step that hasn’t happened yet: publication of the announcement in the Royal Gazette. Phase 1 covers air arrivals and starts 180 days after that publication. Phase 2, which targets land and sea arrivals, would start about 360 days after phase 1.

The table below lists the remaining steps, as the sources describe them. None has a firm date as of the consultation date.

Source: Nation, public consultation (25 August 2026) and PRD press release (17 August 2026), checked on 5 November 2026.

The most cited target, the first quarter of 2027, is not an official date. Thai Examiner presents it as a goal still to be confirmed after the Cabinet has reviewed the proposal (Thai Examiner, 7 October 2026). For an air phase to start in the first quarter of 2027, the Royal Gazette publication would have had to happen between early July and early October 2026. No such publication has been found. This is an inference from the 180-day timeline, not official information.

The reverse calculation is just as useful. If the text were published on 5 November 2026, the air phase could not start before 4 May 2027, and the land and sea phase would not come until about a year later. For a trip this winter, the thing to watch is the Royal Gazette publication: if it doesn’t happen, an arrival this winter would not fall under the air phase.

3. Who would be affected, and who isn’t explicitly

The proposal targets foreign visitors entering Thailand. It does not target Thai citizens, but that exclusion is not spelled out in the press release. Press coverage, including Tourmag and Le Petit Journal, infers it from the « foreign visitors » wording. So this is not an exemption you can rely on: it is a likely reading that the published text would need to confirm.

The proposal does, however, include a list of exemptions. It comes from the draft put to consultation, summarised by the Nation on 25 August 2026. The PRD doesn’t repeat it, and each category is still subject to criteria that haven’t been published.

Source: Nation, public consultation (25 August 2026), checked on 5 November 2026. Provisional list, not repeated by the PRD.

Two points deserve a careful read. First, the Nextstep Hua Hin site, which details the proposal, warns that a retirement letter or another long-stay permit should not be treated as an exemption without explicit rules. If you travel on a status like that, don’t assume you are exempt. Second, private-sector players are asking for exemptions for border traders and frequent cross-border travellers (Nation, 40071948). No decision has been reported on that.

The proposal doesn’t address these cases at this stage.

4. Payment, proof and multiple entries

How it would be paid, if the proposal goes ahead

The payment method hasn’t been settled. Several channels are being considered, according to the PRD and Thai Examiner: payment built into the plane ticket, online payment on an official site, a mobile app, or self-service kiosks at entry points. The plane ticket is the most supported channel in the consultation, with 36.26% of responses, but it has not been formally adopted. Airlines opposed the previous tax, according to Toutelathailande.

What isn’t defined yet

• The proof to present: receipt, online confirmation, QR code or insurance certificate. No source specifies it.
• Where it would be checked: the text doesn’t say whether the proof would be verified at the border or earlier.
• What happens to multiple entries, covered below.

Pixidia advice: keep your booking and travel insurance documents, but don’t try to pay an « entry fee » on a third-party site. Some online offers may present themselves as paying this fee; as of the consultation date, nothing is payable.

The proposal provides that someone who has paid can enter and leave several times within 30 days without paying again, provided they are covered by the planned insurance (Nation, 40070226, and PRD). This would mainly concern frequent land travellers. The conditions are not settled. Nextstep Hua Hin reminds readers that a 30-day payment window is « not an immigration authorisation »: it replaces neither the visa, nor the stay rules, nor the entry checks.

5. Insurance, revenue and sensitive figures

The government presents the fee as a way to fund the development of tourist sites, the protection of natural resources, promotion, and insurance covering death and medical costs for those who pay, « subject to policy terms » according to the PRD. The ministry targets at least 8 billion baht of revenue a year after collection and insurance costs, paid into the Tourism Promotion Fund (PRD, 17 August 2026; Thai Examiner, 7 October 2026). No source details the coverage, the provider, the limits or the length of the insurance linked to the payment. This article therefore does not put a figure on any coverage.

The Ministry of Public Health supports the proposal on condition that part of it funds insurance. The argument is that hospitals have recorded large unpaid bills for foreign patients, and that insurance would shift that risk onto insurers (Nation, 40071967, 7 October 2026). The figure cited is 7.02 billion baht of unpaid bills for the 2024 reference year: 16.96 billion billed, 9.94 billion collected, across 32 hospitals. That amount covers several categories of foreigners, not only tourists.

The Thai Hotels Association supports the principle of 450 baht but opposes compulsory insurance for all visitors. It proposes optional supplementary insurance at the immigration point, and raises several objections: coverage it considers too small, a 30-day period that doesn’t match a stay of 7 to 10 days, and a possible effect on the purchase of personal insurance (The Star, 15 October 2026). These reservations have not been resolved.

6. The sources don’t all say the same thing

Before you trust any article, including this one, you should know where the sources disagree. We flag these points without settling them.

• The amount before August 2026. In April 2026 the press still cited 300 baht by air and 150 baht by land (Nation, 40064625; The Star, 3 April 2026). The PRD press release of 17 August 2026 sets a single amount of 450 baht. Earlier announcements no longer describe the current proposal.
• Air only, or all modes. The press release sets 450 baht whatever the arrival mode, but phase 1 only covers air arrivals. Some articles present the fee as air-first, others as covering all arrivals. The reading kept here: all arrivals are eventually targeted, but in phases, and the date for the land phase is not set.
• Length of the consultation. Sources say the consultation lasted either 30 or 35 days. The dates reported by the Thai press (24 August to 28 September 2026) give a window of about five weeks. The exact number of days makes no practical difference to a traveller.
• The 1,450 baht total. VisasNews gives a total of 1,450 baht by adding the entry fee and another tax. That total would assume both taxes are in force, which they are not. It should not be written up as a real cost.

7. Taxes and rules not to confuse

The table below separates the 450-baht entry fee from nearby rules, some of which are already in force.

Sources: Nation, postponement of the departure tax (22 October 2026); TAT News, AOT charge (May 2026); FCDO, Thailand entry requirements, checked on 5 November 2026.

The departure tax needs a note. The 1,000 baht figure was reported by the press and doesn’t appear in the official text we could consult. The Finance Minister announced its postponement on 22 October 2026, and the Nation article says the 450-baht fee « is not cancelled ». The two proposals are not linked: don’t add them together. The 30-day visa, for its part, is an entry rule, not a tax: no payment is attached to it.

8. What the rule would change for your profile

At the consultation date, the fee doesn’t change anything about a trip. The profiles below show what to keep an eye on if the proposal goes through.

• Tourist staying under 30 days, arriving by air. This is the case most directly targeted by phase 1. Watch for publication in the Royal Gazette and the announcement of a payment method. A payment built into the plane ticket is the most supported channel in the consultation, without being formally adopted; the on-arrival step still has to be confirmed by the published text.
• Traveller arriving by land. This falls under phase 2, with no date. For a land crossing, check the Cambodia border situation in our dedicated article before you plan the route.
• Family with young children. Children under two appear on the draft’s exemption list, subject to criteria that haven’t been published. Don’t treat it as settled before the final text.
• Resident, retiree or long-term traveller. The proposal doesn’t address these cases. A retirement letter or long-stay permit should not be assumed to be exempt.
• Transit passenger or crew member. Transit and crew appear on the provisional list. Again, the criteria aren’t known.

For the stay rules and the organisation of your trip, see our visa-free stay article and the full Thailand itinerary.

9. What other guides don’t tell you

Online answers found during the research mix solid facts with assumptions. Here are five points checked against the PRD press release and dated Thai press, either missing from those answers or stated inaccurately there.

• The timeline depends on a Royal Gazette publication that had not been found as of the consultation date. The air phase starts 180 days after the Royal Gazette publication, and the land phase about 360 days after the air phase. No absolute date is therefore set. PRD press release (checked 5 November 2026, source dated 17 August 2026).
• The departure tax postponement doesn’t concern the entry fee. The Finance Minister postponed the departure tax on 22 October 2026, but the reported text specifies that the 450-baht fee is not cancelled. Nation, 40072627 (checked 5 November 2026, article dated 22 October 2026).
• Thai citizens are outside the scope, but that isn’t an exemption. The text targets foreign visitors. The published text doesn’t state an exemption for Thai citizens, and the press doesn’t turn it into a formal rule. Nation, 40070226 (checked 5 November 2026, article dated 25 August 2026).
• The consultation drew 5,954 responses, with 80.5% support for the proposal and 78.3% agreement on the amount. These figures measure the views of consultation respondents, not of all travellers. Nation, 40071948 (checked 5 November 2026, article from October 2026).
• The 7.02 billion baht of unpaid bills doesn’t only concern tourists. It covers 2024, 32 hospitals, and several categories of foreigners. It serves as an argument for the proposal, but it doesn’t measure the cost of tourism alone. Nation, 40071967 (checked 5 November 2026, article dated 7 October 2026).