Bring your own currency or US dollars to Thailand?
Article updated: 2026-09-28
Best rate USD · Bangkok: 33.65 — Superrich Thailand — Headquarter Rajdamri 1 · Oct 24, 13:59 → Details
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The advice to “take US dollars, they are accepted everywhere” is aimed at travellers whose home currency Thai shops do not want. For readers of this page it is usually wrong, and it costs money twice: once at the bank at home that sells you the dollars, and again at the Thai counter that buys them. The question is not whether dollars are accepted. It is whether your own notes are bought at a rate as good as the dollar’s, and for pounds, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars the answer on the site’s data is yes, near enough.
Here is what Thai shops actually paid on 2026-09-24, from the 181 shops the site tracks. The boards refresh every few minutes, so use the Bangkok page for today.
What the shops buy, and how close to mid-market
The spread is the gap between the best shop’s buy rate and the mid-market rate. It is the real cost of changing that currency in Thailand at a good counter.
| Currency | Shops buying it | Best buy | Mid-market | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 181 | 33.34 | 33.3669 | -0.08% |
| GBP | 180 | 44.10 | 44.2231 | -0.28% |
| CAD | 177 | 23.60 | 23.6740 | -0.31% |
| AUD | 181 | 23.40 | 23.5054 | -0.45% |
| NZD | 177 | 18.85 | 18.9477 | -0.52% |
| EUR | 181 | 37.95 | 38.0305 | -0.21% |
Every one of these is bought by nearly every shop in the country, and the worst spread on the list, the New Zealand dollar, was half a per cent. The US dollar was the tightest at 0.08%, which is a real advantage, but a small one: on the equivalent of US$1,000, the difference between the dollar’s spread and the pound’s was about 65 baht.
Now put the home-side cost next to that. Buying US dollars at a bank or bureau in London, Sydney, Toronto or Auckland typically costs a few per cent over mid-market before you have left the country. That single step is many times larger than the 0.2 to 0.5% you would save by handing a Thai counter dollars instead of your own notes. Bring what you have.
Reader by reader
US travellers. Your currency is the best-bought note in Thailand, and by a margin. Bring it. The only thing to get right is the denomination, below.
UK travellers. Pounds were bought by 180 of 181 shops at 0.28% under mid. Bring pounds. Two cautions: Scottish and Northern Irish notes are treated as a different currency (see below), and £50 notes fetched slightly more than smaller notes at some shops, though the gap was 0.05 baht, about 0.1%, at the shop that topped the pound board.
Australian travellers. Bought by 181 shops at 0.45% under mid, and at a single rate regardless of note size on the boards in our data. Bring Australian dollars.
Canadian travellers. 177 shops, 0.31% under mid, single rate. Bring Canadian dollars.
New Zealand travellers. 177 shops, 0.52% under mid, single rate. Still far cheaper than converting to US dollars at home. Bring New Zealand dollars.
The small-note penalty
This is where more money is lost than in the choice of currency. Thai shops pay by denomination on some currencies, and the US dollar has the steepest ladder. One example board from 2026-09-24: US$50 and 100 notes 33.19, US$5 to 20 notes 32.82, US$1 and 2 notes 32.32. Twenties cost 1.1%, singles 2.6%. At the top-ranked Bangkok shop the ladder was gentler but still there: US$100 33.33, US$50 33.28, US$5 to 20 33.18, US$1 and 2 32.75.
Euros had a ladder too (€100 to 500 at 37.90, €50 at 37.85, €5 to 20 at 37.80 at one shop) and pounds a shallow one. Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars were quoted at a single rate.
So: if you are bringing US dollars, bring hundreds, and make sure they are clean and recent. If you are bringing Australian, Canadian or New Zealand notes, the denomination does not matter on the boards we saw. The notes Thai counters refuse outright are covered in banknotes Thai booths refuse.
Currencies to leave at home
Some currencies are bought, but at a spread that makes them a bad way to carry value into Thailand:
- Scottish and Northern Irish notes. Listed as a separate line, “SCOT”, by 125 shops, best buy 42.70 against 44.10 for Bank of England notes: 3.2% less for the same pound. Swap them at a bank in the UK before you fly.
- Norwegian, Swedish and Danish kroner. Bought by 91 shops at 14.8%, 8.0% and 7.7% under mid respectively.
- Roubles 6.6% under mid. Indian rupees 3.8%. Philippine pesos 1.3%. Dirhams and riyals 1.5 to 1.7%.
And some are barely bought at all. The Lao kip was bought by 66 shops at nearly 20% under mid, the Myanmar kyat by 129 shops at a rate so far from mid-market it is effectively unsellable, and the Cambodian riel by no tracked shop anywhere in Thailand. If you are arriving from Laos, Cambodia or Myanmar with leftover local cash, spend it before the border.
For anyone holding one of these, the case for US dollars is real: buy dollars at home, where the spread on your currency is set by a competitive market, rather than selling it in Thailand where it is not.
Who does not need to bring cash at all
- Anyone with a card that charges no foreign transaction fee. Hotels, malls and most restaurants take cards. The cash you need for markets, taxis and street food can come from one counter visit or one ATM withdrawal at the flat 220-baht fee. See Wise, Revolut or a plain debit card.
- Anyone on a short trip. On a few hundred dollars’ worth of spending, the entire difference between the best and worst currency choice on the first table is a coffee.
- Anyone who already converted to dollars. The dollars are bought at the tightest spread in the country. Bring them in hundreds and do not convert back.
- Anyone with baht left from last time. Baht is the one currency that needs no exchange at all.
Which shop pays most for your particular currency changes day to day; the Bangkok page ranks all 86 city shops by currency, and every board is shown against the mid-market rate.