Which Bangkok exchange counters stay open latest, and what late costs you
Article updated: 2026-09-17
Best rate USD · Bangkok: 33.24 — Superrich Thailand — Headquarter Rajdamri 1 · Sep 20, 08:58 → Details
There is an unhelpful pattern in Bangkok exchange. The counters with the best rates keep the shortest hours, and the counters that stay open longest charge for the privilege. The head offices in Pratunam and Silom are business operations that close in the early evening. The airport counters run all night at the worst rates in the country. Everything else sits between the two.
This article is about that middle ground, and about the honest answer to “where can I change money at 21:00 in Bangkok”, which is: fewer places than you would like, and none of them at the best rate of the day.
The shape of the day
Morning to late afternoon. Everything is open. The head offices of the major chains, the branch networks, the bank counters. This is when the best rates in Thailand are available, and if your exchange can happen in this window it should.
Early evening. Head offices start to close. Bank exchange counters close with the branches. Standalone shopfronts in Pratunam and Silom wind down. Rates available to you get slightly worse simply because the tightest counters are no longer in the set.
Mall hours. Mall branches are the late option in Bangkok, and they close with the mall — typically somewhere around 20:00 to 21:00, with the exact time varying by mall, by branch and by day of the week. CentralWorld, Terminal 21, MBK, Iconsiam and the other big centres all host branches of the major chains, and a mall branch is the realistic answer for an evening exchange.
After the malls close. You are down to the airport counters, hotel front desks, and ATMs. All three are expensive, in that order from bad to worse to flat-fee.
Why we do not print a closing time here
Opening hours in Thailand are genuinely variable. They differ between branches of the same chain, they change on public holidays, they change during Songkran and the New Year period, and individual branches adjust for their own reasons. A closing time written into an article is wrong within months and dangerously wrong on the evening you rely on it.
So this site publishes each shop’s hours alongside its live board rather than in prose. Check the Bangkok page or the shop directory before you set off, and check it today rather than remembering what it said last week.
What waiting until evening costs
The gap between a head-office counter and a mall branch of the same chain is real but not enormous — mall rents are higher and the rates run slightly behind. On the equivalent of US$1,000, a gap of half a per cent is around 175 baht.
The larger gap is between a mall branch and the alternatives once the malls have closed:
- Airport arrival counters run several per cent behind the city, which is the whole subject of airport versus city rates.
- Hotel front desks are the worst rate you will be offered anywhere in Thailand, and they are offering it precisely because you have run out of options.
- An ATM costs a flat 220 baht per withdrawal plus your own bank’s foreign transaction fee. That is 4.4% on 5,000 baht and 1.1% on 20,000, so if you must use one late at night, take a large amount once. See Thai ATM fees.
The practical conclusion is not “never change money in the evening”. It is that the evening premium is small if you use a mall branch and large if you wait until the mall closes.
The chains and where they sit
Bangkok’s counters cluster by area rather than by hour, and the areas are covered in where to change money in Bangkok. For hours specifically, the useful distinction is:
Head offices — Superrich Thailand on Ratchadamri, SuperRich 1965 in Silom, Grand Superrich nearby. Best rates, business hours.
Standalone branches — Vasu, X-One, K79, T.T. Currency Exchange, Twelve Victory, Mamy, Lion, Damini and others across the city. Hours vary widely by location; a branch in a busy tourist street often runs later than one in an office district.
Mall branches — the same chains inside the shopping centres, running on mall hours, slightly behind on rate, air-conditioned, and easy to find.
Bank counters — inside bank branches, closing with the branch, and usually a worse rate than a dedicated changer anyway.
Rather than memorising this, filter by what is open now. That is what the live pages are for.
The habit that solves it
Change money in the morning or early afternoon of a day when you are already going past a good counter. Change enough for two or three days rather than topping up daily. Keep the bulk in the hotel safe and carry what you need.
That removes the entire problem. Almost everyone who ends up hunting for an open counter at 21:00 got there by changing small amounts repeatedly, which also means paying the worst rate they encounter more often than they need to.
If you are arriving in the evening rather than running out mid-trip, the calculation is different and is covered in landing after midnight: change the minimum at whatever is open, and do the real exchange tomorrow.
Who does not need to think about hours at all
- Anyone changing during the day. If your exchange happens between morning and late afternoon, every counter in Bangkok is available to you and this whole article is irrelevant.
- Anyone who already has enough baht for the next few days. The right response to “the good counters are closing” is usually “I do not need them tonight”.
- Anyone spending on a card. Hotels, malls, restaurants and larger shops in Bangkok take cards. If you only need cash for street food and taxis, a few hundred baht carries you to tomorrow morning.
- Anyone with a modest shortfall. If you need 2,000 baht to get through the evening, one ATM withdrawal at a flat 220 baht is a perfectly sensible answer, and hunting across the city for a counter to save 40 baht is not.
- Anyone at the airport late at night with no baht. Your options are the arrival counter or the ATM, and both are fine for a small amount. Change what you need to leave the building.
The counters worth walking to are worth walking to during the day. In the evening, use a mall branch and accept a small premium. After the malls close, take the smallest amount that gets you to morning — at that point you are not choosing a rate, you are choosing a queue.