The cost of living in Chiang Mai, Thailand is an inherently hot topic. What other city offers such a comfortable standard of living – delicious local and international food, community happenings and meet-ups, modern conveniences, and an endless array of housing options – for so little!
So the big question is: How much does it cost to live in Chiang Mai? Here’s a look at every last dollar baht we spent over the past year.
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In case you’re new to our website, here’s a quick introduction:
We’re a married American couple in our early 30s and have been living in Chiang Mai, Thailand for four years.
We currently rent a small Western-style house very close to Chiang Mai’s Old City. We get around town on a motorbike that we bought when we first moved here.
When we aren’t doing blog-related tasks, we spend our free time going to the gym, studying Thai, cooking elaborate meals, binge-watching Netflix shows, hanging out with friends, and traveling.
As far as lifestyles go, we are ‘middle of the road’ type of people. Comfort, health, and safety are important to us and we usually choose the option that is the best value for our money.
Ok, now that THAT picture is painted, here’s what you’re really looking for:
Average Monthly Cost of Living in Chiang Mai
As with all of our cost of living posts, we’re completely transparent about what we spend. We made sure to include recurring costs as well as one-time or extraordinary expenditures such as:
- our annual round-trip flight to the USA
- Thai visas and the associated upkeep
- ATM and money transfer fees
- doctors visits and health insurance
- blog operation costs
| Chiang Mai Expenses | Cost in Thai baht | Cost in US dollars |
| Rent + Household Items | ฿15,868 | $456 |
| Groceries, Eating Out, Drinks | ฿27,196 | $782 |
| Bills (Utilities + Subscriptions) | ฿5,198 | $149 |
| Motorbike, Gas, Taxis | ฿1,964 | $56 |
| Health + Wellness | ฿10,102 | $290 |
| Expat Expenses | ฿8,519 | $245 |
| Travel + Entertainment | ฿10,537 | $303 |
| Blog Maintenance | ฿11,938 | $343 |
| TOTAL SPENDING | ฿91,322 | $2,624 |
Rent & Household Items
Average Monthly Cost: 15,868 THB / 456 USD
We’ve rented the same two-bedroom house for the past three years. It has everything we could want in a home: Western-style kitchen and bathrooms, comfy (non-wooden) furniture, a washing machine (!), efficient AC units, and a small fenced in yard for our cat.
Could we pay half as much for a similar house outside of the city? Yes, but it’s important for us to be within walking distance of the Old City Moat since Angela doesn’t drive a motorbike.
As far as household expenses go, we’ve purchased a few kitchen appliances, organizational units, and an air purifying unit (Lazada has been a godsend!). To make our house feel like a home we’ve bought plants and decorative flowers as well as things to keep our home clean (trash bags, sponges, dish soap, laundry detergent).
Our cat doesn’t cost us much. His expenses (medication, food, kitty litter) are lumped into this category as well.
| ITEMIZED HOUSEHOLD ITEMS | ||
| Rent: 2 bedroom house (per month) | ฿14,000 | $403 |
| Set of 6 small ceramic soup bowls | ฿300 | $9 |
| Laundry detergent (1.5 L) | ฿89 | $2.50 |
| Three-tiered shoe rack | ฿999 | $28 |
| Purina One cat food (1.4 kg) | ฿309 | $9 |
| Exam + 10-day meds for cat | ฿720 | $21 |
Groceries, Eating Out, Drinking
Average Monthly Cost: 27,196 THB / 781 USD
Our consumable items include dine-in or to-go restaurant meals, groceries from indoor grocery stores, fresh produce from our outdoor market, as well as coffee and alcohol. This category makes up the largest part of our cost of living in Chiang Mai and is nearly double our rent.
We cook most of our meals at home – all but maybe four or five meals per week – so we do a lot of grocery shopping. We buy about half of our groceries at our local open-aired Thai market, a quarter from mini convenience stores, and the other quarter from international grocery stores.
| ITEMIZED MARKET ITEMS | ||
| Chicken breast (1 kg or 2.2 lbs) | ฿100 | $2.80 |
| Extra large eggs (10) | ฿45 | $1.30 |
| Potatoes (1 kg or 2.2 lbs) | ฿40 | $1.15 |
| Fresh coconut | ฿35 | $1.00 |
Three or four meals per week we eat out and gravitate toward cuisine-specific restaurants. They’re not necessarily fancy, but they offer specialized menus with satisfying food and somewhat Western-quality service.
We eat at open-air Thai restaurants a few times per month, but not nearly as often as we did the first two years we lived here. Our best meals have always been at places where the customers are almost entirely Thai people.
We drink about twice per week. We occasionally drink the local Thai beers (Leo, Chang, Singha) but lately we’ve been happy drinking simply cocktails, like gin and soda. Every once in a while we’ll treat ourselves to imported beer or wine.
We also drink a lot of coffee, both at home and at cafés. Ever since Chiang Mai’s coffee culture took off, we’ve developed a taste for high-quality espresso drinks, which are surprisingly easy to find in the city.
| ITEMIZED DINING OUT & DRINK ITEMS | ||
| Thai meal (2 people) | ฿100 | $3 |
| Mid-range meal, no alcohol (2 people) | ฿1,270 | $37 |
| Leo beer at a bar (660mL large bottle) | ฿100 | $3 |
| Pint of Guinness | ฿210 | $6 |
| Jacob’s Creek Shiraz from a store (750mL bottle) | ฿599 | $17 |
| Cappuccino from a nice café | ฿70 | $2 |
If you’re planning to move to Chiang Mai, you might also like…
The Future Expat’s
7-Day Guide to Chiang Mai
This week-long itinerary is a collaboration of the best things to do around the city as well as practical places you’ll need to know once you’re an expat. Plus, it has our personal recommendations for comfortable hotels in Chiang Mai, best restaurants, vehicle rentals, expat areas, and more.
Bills: Utilities & Subscriptions
Average Monthly Cost: 5,198 THB / 149 USD
Our regular monthly bills include electricity, water, and internet. We have Netflix (8.99 USD) and Pandora (4.99 USD) subscriptions, too, and several phone plans.
We use air conditioning during much of the day (low to medium setting on 25⁰C or 77⁰F) and our fan is normally on at night. Our water bill is based on what we use for showering, washing dishes, and our laundry machine. We buy drinking water separately and also replace our propane tank (hooked up in the kitchen to our gas stove) about twice per year.
| ITEMIZED UTILITIES & SUBSCRIPTIONS | ||
| Average electricity bill (335 units) | ฿1,376 | $40 |
| Average water bill (not drinking water) | ฿114 | $3 |
| Internet 50 Mbps down / 10 Mbps up | ฿1,000 | $29 |
| Phone bill 5 GB data plan | ฿535 | $15 |
Transportation: Motorbike, Gas, Taxis
Average Monthly Cost: 1,964 THB / 56 USD
As far as our daily transportation goes, it’s split between riding a motorbike, songthaews, and Uber within the small confines of Chiang Mai City. We own our Honda Forza (no rental fees), so we only pay for gas and a few bike-related expenses. Ever since Uber made its debut in Chiang Mai back in 2016, we have used this service religiously. It’s fast, reliable, and affordable.
| TIP: As of April 2018, Uber is no longer in Chiang Mai, but an alternative ridesharing app called Grab Taxi is. If you’re new to Grab Taxi, get 100 THB off your first ride when you download the Grab app and use our discount code: GRABTIETOTHAI (or just sign up here). |
| ITEMIZED TRANSPORTATION ITEMS | ||
| Two DOT-certified full-face bike helmets | ฿4,000 | $115 |
| One-way Uber ride in Chiang Mai (5 km) | ฿60 | $2 |
| Full tank of gas (11 L or 325ish km) | ฿280 | $8 |
Health & Wellness
Average Monthly Cost: 10,102 THB / 290 USD
This category includes costs associated with medical expenses, grooming, clothes, and healthy habits. Most of our money is spent on staying healthy. This includes what we spend on our gym membership, workout equipment, protein and supplements, and massages.
This year, our medical expenses included a routine checkup, some tummy medication, a few trips to the cosmetologist, a trip to the dentist for a general cleaning, contacts and respective exam, and a few first-aid items.
Grooming entails all toiletries (shampoo, deodorant, suntan lotion, razors, makeup, etc) as well as haircuts from upscale barbers, manicures for special occasions, and highlights.
| ITEMIZED HEALTH & WELLNESS ITEMS | ||
| General dental cleaning | ฿1,200 | $35 |
| 6 Sets of contacts + exam | ฿1,900 | $55 |
| Gym membership (monthly) | ฿750 | $22 |
| Massage (1.5 hours) | ฿500 | $14 |
| Yoga class (1.5 hours) | ฿200 | $6 |
| Men’s haircut and wash | ฿300 | $9 |
| Women’s highlights | ฿2,000 | $57 |
| Gel polish manicure | ฿400 | $11 |
During international vacations, we’ve taken out traveler’s insurance through World Nomads (i.e., 174 USD for our two-week trip to Cambodia and Vietnam). We currently self-insure and pay all expenses out-of-pocket, but we have recently looked into several health insurance policies that will cover us while we live in Thailand. Cigna quoted us around 250 USD per month per couple.
Expat Expenses
Average Monthly Cost: 8,519 THB / 245 USD
This category covers expenses that wouldn’t exist if we were still living in the USA.
The true cost to properly maintain a Thai visa not only includes the initial cost of visa, but travel expenses to get the visa, visa extensions, and re-entry permits, too. We have also included Thai language lessons as part of our expat expenses as well as money transfer fees.
| ITEMIZED EXPAT EXPENSES | ||
| Private Thai Lessons (per hour) | ฿350 | $10 |
| Enrollment for 1-year Thai class | ฿27,900 | $801 |
| Non Immigrant Visa + 3 extensions | ฿7,700 | $221 |
| Re-entry permit | ฿1,000 | $28 |
| Money transfer fees (per month) | ฿650 | $19 |
Two items that are not included in our expat expenses but are relevant for most people are ATM fees and currency exchange fees. Our ATM fees are refunded at the end of the month (an average of 23 USD). We’ve never tracked how much we lose in currency exchange fees, although maybe we should start.
Travel & Entertainment
Average Monthly Cost: 10,537 THB / 303 USD
We didn’t travel as much as past years but we still visited Phuket, Bangkok, Chaiyaphum, Phu Chi Fah, Krabi, and Koh Chang. Now that we travel with a drone, we rent a car (35 USD per day). We’ve been MUCH happier! In terms of safety, comfort, and convenient storage space, it beats riding on a motorbike and strapping 2500+ USD worth of camera gear to our bodies.
In between big trips, we take day trips or spend long weekends close to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai also has a lot of scheduled meetups, which we go to from time to time. It’s great for meeting people who have similar hobbies, such as running, hiking, trivia nights, drinking craft beer, etc.
We also spent a full month in the USA, which we do about once every 12 to 15 months.
| ITEMIZED TRAVEL ITEMS | ||
| Compact car rental (per day) | ฿1,200 | $35 |
| Round-trip flight Chiang Mai to Bangkok | ฿3,283 | $94 |
| Round-trip flight Chiang Mai to Washington DC | ฿25,734 | $739 |
| Taxi Bangkok airport to hotel (35 km) | ฿450 | $13 |
| Airbnb studio apartment in Bangkok (per night) | ฿1,127 | $32 |
Blog Maintenance
Average Monthly Cost: 11,938 THB / 343 USD
There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to keep our blog running smoothly, and every year we spend a bit more. This includes the cost of products (usually one-time purchases) and services (usually recurring monthly or annual charges) to keep up with our expanding audience.
What really drives up the average of this category are the electronics we’ve bought (drone, two new iPhones, waterproof cases). They are one-time expenses but we’ve averaged the cost across 12 months. In all honesty, we wouldn’t have bought them if it wasn’t for the blog.
Try Our Thailand Budget Calculator!
If you’d like to see what your budget might be like living in Thailand, enter the amount in US dollars in the budget calculator below. It’ll work its magic and send you a customized monthly budget itemizing important expenses from rent and utilities to food and entertainment. It’ll be the first step to helping you predict your finances before moving to Thailand.
Great post. Out of interest, how much do you think it would cost to buy a place like the one you live in (I know about the rules for foreigner ownership)
We don’t know what the buying price of our house is, but you can search Chiang Mai housing listings to give you an idea using these stats:
2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms, 72 square meters, Western kitchen, gated yard, less than 2 kilometers from Chiang Mai Old City.
I am retired living in Chiang Mai .. I live quite well on 700.00us dollars per mo.I stay in motels each night and eat 3 meals a day out and weekly massage ..The biggest cost living in Thailand is cost of Visa and travel about 3 .00 per day this will come down using Nok Air vs Air Asia I do prefer to go Lao for Visa runs Living in Thailand you can spend as much or as little as you want…. I walk 90% of places I go if can not walk there I do not need to go… Read more »
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Chris and Angela! Great post and very informative to see the numbers. I also really appreciate how you describe your lifestyle so that others can get an idea on how theirs might vary. I am relocating to Chiang Mai in about a month and a half for a job. One of my bigger concerns at this moment is getting my dog to a home with me. I have a friend that lives in an apartment in the old city but I would really be looking for a small house so that my 12 lb dog would be welcome and… Read more »
We don’t have a specific neighborhood to recommend (locally known as a moobahn) but we do recommend living in a neighborhood as close to the Old City (i.e., less than 5 km away) as possible so that you don’t feel isolated from other foreigners. It gets lonely really quickly outside of town! If your budget is more than 15,000 THB per month, your best bet is to contact a realtor/real-estate company to set you up in a nice house or townhouse. (A quick google search will give you a list to choose from). Otherwise, look for listings online (houses or… Read more »
Hi,Chris,how much for renting a car for a family in Chiangmai?We might move to Handong area, do you have any idea of the house renting fee there?Is it possible to rent a 3 bedroom house within 8000 Thai money per month?My husband will not be provided a insurance from my school,in that case ,how much minimum we need to pay if we cover it on our own?
Thank you for this post!
A car might cost around 10,000 THB per month to rent. It is possible to find a 3BR house that costs 8,000 THB per month but it will most likely be a Thai style house or a very basic Western-style house. We don’t know how much insurance would cost you since we don’t know your medical history but maybe 1000 USD per year for basic coverage. Hope you love Chiang Mai!
Thanks for your very informative and candid post. Any idea how much it would cost sending a primary school child to a public school pls? Thanks in advance!
Public school, to our understanding, is free. You may be responsible for buying their uniforms and school supplies. However, keep in mind that at public Thai schools the classes are in Thai with the occasional English class during the week. If your child doesn’t speak Thai, this will be very challenging.
Hi guys, have now read your entire blog I think HA :-)
Can you recommend any good non-expensive yoga classes in the centre?
Thank you so much for all the wonderful thorough information & advice you provide!
Wild Rose is a great place. Just get their early because the classes tend to fill up!
As always, hard data is very useful. Thank you for sharing. I have followed your budget “series” (it is a series, right?) for almost a year. It is interesting to compare real reported numbers with the numbeo and expatistan numbers, and aggregators like theearthawaits. In this case, your numbers are higher, but you’ve pointed out some of the reasons why…I suspect your numbers are more ballpark for someone like me who is into…how did you put it? “Comfort, health, and safety ” yep. that’s me.
As always, thank you. Hard data is good to find.
Thanks, Lee. Thank goodness for sites like Numbeo, Expatisan, and The Earth Awaits, but they don’t quite match the thrill of comparing expenses to “real life” examples. There’s a lot more details behind the scenes as you pointed out and sometimes it’s important to now the back story and lifestyle (the whole comfort, health and safety part ;)). Glad to have put it into perspective!
Internet 50 Mbps up / 10 Mbps down… That doesn’t sound right! ;)
Hah, good catch!
First, thank you! this was an awesome and informative post and really gets me to dreaming.. this question is a bit off-topic but what kind of drone did you get?? pros/cons?
Thanks, glad the post put a few things into perspective! We purchased a DJI Phantom 3 Professional and have had a lot of fun with it.
Hi Chris and Angela…I’m not sure how much we spend living in CM to be quite honest, but we were painfully aware of how much we were spending in Noosa Australia, we have been in Hoi An Vietnam for the last 11 weeks ….. missing the smoke Hi Simon Nuttall – Yes, November/February is ideal, but no later than mid March, the smoke starts mid-March, we lived in Doonan/Noosa before CM, your name is familiar. Tracy – I use SiNet, about 900Thb a month for 80/30 mbps and you can suspend it whilst away, I trade FX and haven’t had… Read more »
Wow, Bryan, what a post! Thanks for sharing your experience with health insurance. We, too, have a slush fund – it’s a choice we made knowing that 1) We are generally healthy with no pre-existing conditions 2) we aren’t risk takers 3) there’s already enough in the slush fund that would cover some serious treatments here in Thailand because it’s a fraction (20-25ish% of the prices back in the USA). Whatever we don’t use will just go to retirement. To be fair we wouldn’t dream of being uninsured in the US. A round of blood work or a lab test… Read more »
2,624 sounds expensive to me that would be all my retirement income I’d have to really cut corners to live in Thailand.
Just remember this is for two people with a blog. If you removed what we spent on the blog each month ($2624 – $343 = $2281) and then divided it in half, one person would only spend 1140 USD per month. Much better, right? And you can still enjoy lots of Western comforts!
Great details in the post. It is good for those considering a long term stay to realize there are additional costs (these often seem to be ignored). Keep enjoying yourselves.
Thanks for sharing your budget breakdown in detail and honestly. We are a Canadian expat couple living in Chiang Mai for the last 7 months and we too have similar expense categories as you do. We found that our rent cost (we rent a 1 bedroom condo in the Nimman area) and food costs were the two highest monthly expenses that we have and we do eat out 4 or 5 times a week as well. You guys are lucky that you were able to find a western style house close to the moat area for a reasonable price as… Read more »
It’s good to hear about another expat couple that has a similar lifestyle and budget. We love our
creaturewestern comforts and are happy to spend what we do for them in Chang Mai – it’s still a fraction of what they would cost back in the States! As far as our house, we got super lucky. Something like this should really cost 20-25k, NOT 14k! Thanks for sharing!This list seems expensive compared to where I live in Mexico with 20,000 other expats. I do fine on $1500 a month. Ajijic Mx.
Another country where you can live comfortably for far less than the USA! We’re just glad we can live a very comfortable Western lifestyle in Chiang Mai for the same price as we paid for our rent & utilities back in Northern VA.
Hi GUys – love the blog – just got back from CM (bit hot for this time of year !!) – anyway after 6 trips we were thinking of trying Nov-feb next year & needed to undertand the cost / logistics for border runs for monhtly visa – could you do a blog on costs fro CM to Mai Sai (I assume thats the best place to go cross border) including transport optons / visa costs & anything else we need to know for those monthly visa – thanks in advance…Simon from Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia
Thanks for reading! To do a border run to Mai Sai you MUST have a multiple entry visa (tourist or non-immigrant). It’s a relatively new rule (1.5ish years old). The border patrol WILL NOT allow you to exit if you do not have another entry on your visa. Even if you were to get across the border (by mistake), the immigration office does not issue Thai visas or 30-day exempt stamps. You’d be in a pickle! The next nearest land border crossing is the Friendship Bridge in Laos near Nong Khai. However, if you do have a multiple entry visa… Read more »
And to think this is one of Thailand’s more EXPENSIVE places to live outside Bangkok!
In NE Thailand, I lead a very comfortable life on about $1K/month. Rent a beautiful 4-bedroom home with professional landscaping for about $250.
We bet your house is gorgeous! It’s crazy how little you can spend in Issan. There’s just so many expensive temptations in Chiang Mai…
How do you get Pandora in thailand. I’ve used vpn but that’s hit or miss.
We use a VPN with an American IP address. A free one that we know that works (an app on your phone at the gym) is called Opera VPN.
Thanks for sharing your budget guys. My plan is to move up to an as yet to be decided location somewhere in SE Asia in the next 3 years and Chiang Mai is definitely on the shortlist. The short term plan is to visit for an extended stay and get a feel for living there as an expat. Your budget is very useful to get an idea of the monthly living costs. Can you please tell me why you don’t have a local bank account to avoid ATM fees and conversion fees? Or have I misunderstood this? Thanks again for… Read more »
There’s a great selection of expat-friendly cities in SE Asia and getting a feel for what life is like in a few of them is one of the best things you can do. We visited Thailand for two weeks back in 2012 and that’s how we knew we had to move there. Your ATM fee question is a good one – many people wonder the same thing. We DO have a local Thai bank, but we still pay international transfer fees (to transfer money from our US bank to our Thai bank) and conversion rate fees (changing dollars into baht).… Read more »
Another trick for Americans is to use Bangkok Bank, they have a routing number in New York you can use to route your money from USA to Thailand as if it was US to US. Best way for Americans to route money to Thailand besides using a Charles Schwab card at local Thai ATMs.
Yup! Bangkok Bank has one of the lowest exchange rates. This is a great way to keep fees down if you have an account with them.
Four years ago you had a similar post
https://www.tielandtothailand.com/chiang-mai-budget-breakdown/
Today you spend over double than what you spent four years ago. Why is that?
As a side note, your cost of living in Chiang Mai is higher than my cost of living in the United States. That’s why I’m curious why your costs have skyrocketed.
Thank you
And that will be the topic of an upcoming post! – comparing the changes in our Chiang Mai expenses over the past four years. The figures in the post you linked to (which reflect the average of our very first 3 months living in Chiang Mai) did NOT include the maintenance cost of long-term visas, a roundtrip flight to the USA, or tuition for a year of Thai school. We also were spending no more than a few dollars to operate our blog. It’s VERY different now!
Great blog post! Ummm … can I get that Khao Soi recipe, I got addicted to it when in Chiang Mai last year, and I won’t be back until next winter.
Thank you for your honest post! My husband, pet rabbit, and I just spent 6 months in Thailand. We spent 3 months in Chiang Mai. For the 2 of us, we spend a similar amount. However, we rarely cooked at home. We found that it was very cheap to eat out. We lived on Nimman road and loved it. Uber is an amazing way to get around Chiang Mai and is much more eco friendly and is easier than haggling with songthaews and the tuk tuks. I hope you all continue to enjoy Chiang Mai. We just left, but enjoyed… Read more »
You’re welcome. Hopefully, it sheds some light on the cost of a lifestyle that more middle of the road. It can be really cheap to eat out (Thai food for sure) but we made the decision a long time ago that we prefer cooking our own food. IT MAKES US HAPPY :) It was one of the main reasons why we rented a house with a full kitchen and not a place with just a microwave and a mini fridge. Totally worth it though!
Wow, thank you for so generously sharing your budget in such detail! This is incredibly helpful – I love Chiang Mai and plan on spending some extended time there in the next year or two. I also really appreciate the FB group you’ve started – thanks for all the amazing work. Cheers!
Thanks for being a part of the private Facebook group, too. Put it to good use for your next visit :)
Nice breakdown. Thanks. It looks like you meant $730 for the round trip flight to DC.
No problem! Yep, just caught that. Thanks :)
We spend 3 months in Chiang Mai most winters. Do you mind me asking what airline you use for the flight mentioned above?
Not sure I should have read this while we’re back in Canada. Those cell phone and internet prices are enough to make a guy buy some plane tickets back. Could also go for a 40B khao soi.
I think we ended up spending 3500 CDN/month with 2 kids, 2 min walk from the moat, bike rental, car, eating out, cleaning lady (did you hire one yet???), etc.
Hope y’all are doing well!
Doing well, hope you are too. The data plans rock, right? Ok, ok, so the two things we still need to do: hire a cleaning lady and go to Coconut Shell for khao soi. Let us know if you want the recipe – we’ve already sent it to one American friend who was craving it after leaving Chiang Mai!
Thanks for sharing your budget, too. It’s great to see different perspectives, especially since you lived nearly in the heart of town and are also taking care of your two kidos.