How Much Does the Thailand Digital Arrival Card Cost in 2026?
Search for the TDAC and you'll find prices from zero to over a hundred dollars, which is exactly why travelers keep asking what the card really costs. Here is the honest answer: what the Thai government charges, what filing services charge, what you're paying for in each case, and the other entry costs worth budgeting before you fly. New to the TDAC? Start with our complete Thailand Digital Arrival Card guide.
Verified: October 28, 2026
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The official TDAC is free
The Thai government does not charge anything for the Thailand Digital Arrival Card. Filing it yourself on the official Immigration Bureau portal at tdac.immigration.go.th costs 0 baht for every traveler, every time. If a website tells you there is a mandatory government fee for the TDAC, that is false.
So why do paid services exist?
The same reason paid tax software exists for a free tax form: some travelers want help. Assisted-filing services typically charge between US$20 and US$100 per application. Our own prices are $40 (Standard, under 24 hours), $60 (Priority, under 12 hours) and $90 (Ultra Premium, under 4 hours) per application. The price covers the first traveller, and each additional traveller costs less. The total is always shown before checkout.
What an assisted filing actually includes
A legitimate service charges for its own work, not access to the government form: guided data entry, manual application review, group handling, customer tracking and document backup, and email support. The official portal is self-service and already supports groups of up to 10, permitted updates, and TDAC/QR download at no charge.
How to spot TDAC scams
Red flags: sites claiming to be the government or charging a "government fee", prices that only appear at the final payment step, no company contact details, and "visa included" claims — the TDAC is not a visa and no arrival card site can sell you one. Any honest service says clearly that it is independent and that a free official channel exists.
Children and families
Every traveler needs their own TDAC, including infants — but the official portal doesn't charge for anyone, regardless of age. Paid services price per traveler, and some — including ours — charge less for each additional person and let you file the whole family in one group application, so the details are only entered once.
The entry costs that actually matter
The TDAC is the cheapest part of entering Thailand. Budget instead for: proof of funds (immigration can ask visa-exempt visitors to show 20,000 baht per person, roughly US$550–620), travel insurance, and onward-travel proof if you're on a one-way ticket. Getting those wrong costs far more than any filing fee.
Every way to get a card, and what each one costs
| Route | What you pay | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Official portal, tdac.immigration.go.th | Nothing | Free self-service filing, groups of up to 10, permitted updates, and TDAC/QR download |
| Independent assisted service | Its disclosed service fee | Guidance, review, support, and document handling supplied by that company |
The government charge is zero in both cases. A paid company is selling optional assistance, not an official card or government fee. Check the current functions in the official TDAC FAQ.
Where the "government fee" story comes from
Two things feed it. The first is honest confusion with Thailand's other entry costs, which are real: Visa on Arrival is 2,000 baht, a tourist visa costs whatever your local Thai embassy charges, and a separate arrival fee has been debated for years. Travellers hear "fee for entering Thailand" and attach it to the newest form.
The second is less honest. Sites that resemble government portals — official-looking crests, domains with "gov" or "thailand" strung into them — sometimes present their own charge as a mandatory levy. That claim is simply false. No part of the arrival card is charged for by the Thai government.
What arriving in Thailand actually costs
The card is the cheapest line on this list, which is why arguing about it is usually a distraction from the parts that can genuinely cost you the trip.
| Cost | Amount | Who it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival card, official portal | Free | Everyone |
| Visa | Nothing if you enter visa-free | Most tourists |
| Visa on Arrival | 2,000 baht, plus 10,000 baht per person shown in cash | The nationalities eligible for it |
| Funds you must be able to show | 20,000 baht per person, 40,000 per family | Visa-exempt arrivals, if asked |
| Tourist entry fee | Not being collected today — see below | Nobody yet |
| Travel insurance | Your own choice | Not a legal requirement, strongly advisable |
Only one of those is a fee in the ordinary sense. The 20,000 baht is not taken from you — it is money you must be capable of showing, and then spend on your own holiday.
Every government fee, and which ones you can rely on
Fee tables for Thai visas are everywhere and they age badly. This one separates the figures that are fixed and stable from the ones set by whichever embassy you apply to — because a table that presents both with the same confidence is how you end up at a counter with the wrong amount.
Fixed, and the same wherever you are:
| What | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arrival card | Free | Charged by nobody, anywhere |
| Visa on Arrival | 2,000 baht | Cash, in baht, at the counter |
| Extension of a visa-exempt stay | 1,900 baht | 30 days, at any immigration office |
| Extension of a Visa on Arrival | 1,900 baht | 7 days, and that is the ceiling |
| Destination Thailand Visa | 10,000 baht | Plus 500,000 baht shown in your own account |
| Overstay | 500 baht per day | Capped at 20,000 baht, reached at 40 days |
| Tourist entry fee | Nothing today | 450 baht endorsed in August 2026, not being collected |
Set by the embassy you apply to, and genuinely variable:
Tourist visas, Non-Immigrant categories, retirement and education visas are priced by the Thai embassy or consulate handling your application, collected in local currency, and revised from time to time. Published figures for these circulate widely and disagree with each other — the single-entry tourist visa is quoted as both 1,000 and 2,000 baht by sources that both sound authoritative.
So the honest instruction is: get the fee from the embassy you are actually applying to, on the day. Anyone printing a confident number for these is quoting something they read somewhere.
The 450-baht tourist fee: where it actually stands
This one generates more wrong answers than any other cost question, because it has been announced, revised and postponed repeatedly.
As things stand: nothing is being collected. In August 2026 a national committee endorsed a flat 450 baht for every foreign visitor arriving by air, land or sea — replacing an earlier proposal that split it into 300 baht by air and 150 by land and sea. That endorsement is not the end of the process. It goes to a 30-day public hearing, then back to the committee, and then to the Cabinet for approval before any collection can begin.
Reading a filing service's price before you pay
Fees between about US$20 and US$100 are all defensible for different levels of service. What separates a fair price from a bad one is not the number, it is whether you can see what you get for it. Four things worth checking on any site, including this one:
- Is the total shown before you enter card details? A price that appears only at the final step is a price designed not to be compared.
- Is per-traveller pricing spelled out? A family is where an unclear price gets expensive.
- Does the site say plainly that the official portal is free? Honest services say so. We say so at the top of this page.
- Is there a named company and a way to reach a person? Something will eventually go wrong at an inconvenient hour.
What the fee buys, stated plainly, is checking and timing. The form is asked in your own language, the fields that actually cause trouble at immigration — name against the machine-readable line, passport number, the arrival date on an overnight flight — are checked against your passport by someone before submission, the card goes in inside the 3-day window without you having to remember, and your QR code is kept somewhere you can get it back from. If none of that is worth money to you, the official portal is free and we would rather tell you so than sell you something you do not need.
If you have already paid a site that did nothing
It happens, and it is recoverable more often than people expect.
- Check whether a card was actually filed. A real submission produces an email carrying a QR code with your name and passport number on it. A payment receipt is not a card.
- File a correct card yourself. Do this first, inside the 3-day window, before chasing anyone. Entry is the urgent problem; the money is not.
- Then dispute the charge. Card issuers treat "paid for a service that was never delivered" as a straightforward chargeback, and a screenshot of the site claiming a government fee helps.
The order matters. Travellers who spend the last evening before a flight arguing with a support address, rather than filing a fresh card, arrive without one.
Quick answers
Filing it yourself? Our field-by-field TDAC form guide walks through every question, including the ones that trip people up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Thailand Digital Arrival Card free?
Yes. The official TDAC on tdac.immigration.go.th is free of charge for all travelers. Paid websites are optional assistance services, not a government requirement.
Why would anyone pay for a free form?
For the same reasons people pay for tax-filing software: language support, error checking before submission, group filing for a family, document backup, and support. If you're comfortable using the official portal yourself, you don't need a paid service.
Is the TDAC fee a visa fee?
No. The TDAC is an arrival card, not a visa, and it has no government fee at all. Visa costs are separate and depend on your nationality — many visitors enter Thailand visa-free and pay nothing.
Do children need their own TDAC, and does it cost extra?
Every traveler needs an individual TDAC, including babies. On the official portal this is free. Paid services generally charge per traveler, though group applications keep the work to one form.
Sources checked
- Immigration Bureau: TDAC FAQ · October 28, 2026
- Immigration Bureau: TDAC user manual · October 28, 2026
- Tourism Authority of Thailand: 30-day and 15-day visa exemption rules from 15 September 2026 · October 28, 2026
- Tourism Authority of Thailand: proof of funds for foreign visitors · October 28, 2026
- Royal Thai Embassy, Brussels: visa exemption conditions · October 28, 2026
