How to pay suppliers in Thailand from the US: baht or dollars

THB or USD invoices: which should you pay?

Start with the currency on the supplier's invoice. Thai suppliers invoice foreign buyers in US dollars (USD) or Thai baht (THB), and the choice decides which account you pay, which rail you use and who carries the exchange rate risk.

Thai exchange control rules, set by the Bank of Thailand (BOT), the central bank, shape what the supplier does with your payment. The BOT states that foreign currency received from abroad worth USD 1 million or more must be repatriated within 360 days from the export date or the transaction date, and then sold to an authorized bank or deposited in a foreign currency account with an authorized bank within 360 days of receipt (Bank of Thailand, exchange control regulation). An authorized bank is a bank licensed to deal in foreign exchange in Thailand. Foreign currency received from abroad may also be used to pay obligations to non-residents without first being brought home.

Thai suppliers can keep dollars. A resident's foreign currency deposit (FCD) account may receive foreign currency from abroad, such as revenues and service fees, without limit, and the holder can withdraw it to pay persons abroad or convert it to baht when it chooses. A supplier that wants to keep dollars holds an FCD account alongside its baht account, and gives you that account number for dollar invoices.

Paying in baht from abroad is also common. The BOT allows non-residents to hold non-resident baht accounts: an NRBA, a Non-Resident Baht Account for general purposes such as trade and services, and an NRBS, a Non-Resident Baht Account for Securities, for investment in Thai securities. A buyer without an NRBA pays baht through a provider that converts dollars and pays the supplier as a local transfer.

Source: Bank of Thailand, exchange control regulation (sections 2.1, 5.1 and 5.3); as published on 29 October 2026. Check the current BOT notifications before acting.

For goods, a baht invoice removes conversion from the supplier's side and can support a sharper price, because most of its costs are in baht. A dollar invoice keeps your books in dollars and suits suppliers that import materials in dollars. Settle the currency in the contract, not invoice by invoice.

Details to collect from a Thai supplier

Collect the payment details once, in writing, on the supplier's letterhead or invoice. An international wire needs the bank's SWIFT code, the 8 or 11 character code that identifies a bank on the SWIFT network. Ask which account to use, because a dollar wire to a baht account is converted on arrival.

Sources: Bangkok Bank, BizPromptPay FAQ; field list compiled by the Helm Editorial Team; as published on 29 October 2026.

A correspondent bank is a bank that holds an account for another bank and settles payments in its currency. PromptPay lets a recipient receive baht to an ID instead of an account number. Bangkok Bank states that a business can receive money using its 13-digit Tax ID, and that only one Tax ID can be registered with one bank account (Bangkok Bank). If a supplier gives you a PromptPay ID, check that the name the provider shows before you confirm matches the company on the invoice.

Treat any change of bank details as a fraud risk, and confirm new details by calling a contact you already know. Our SWIFT code lookup helps confirm the bank code.

How the money moves: SWIFT, PromptPay, SMART and BAHTNET

There are two ways to get money from a US account to a Thai supplier.

SWIFT wire. Your bank sends an international wire over SWIFT, the global messaging network banks use for cross-border payments, to the supplier's bank. The dollars settle in the United States on Fedwire, the Federal Reserve's system for large-value transfers, through the Thai bank's correspondent. Every SWIFT wire carries a charges instruction: OUR means you pay all bank charges, SHA means each side pays its own bank, and BEN means all charges come out of the amount sent.

Local baht payout. A provider with access to Thai rails converts your dollars and pays the supplier's baht account as a domestic transfer. Wise, for example, lists THB among the currencies it sends to, within Thailand (Wise). The domestic leg runs on one of three services. PromptPay is the instant payment service; Standard Chartered's guide states that it is available 24x7 and allows instant payments of up to 2 million baht (Standard Chartered, PromptPay guide). SMART is the bulk credit service, with same-day and next-day options. BAHTNET is the BOT's high-value system, which settles on a real-time gross settlement basis, final and irrevocable, on bank working days from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Bank of Thailand, BAHTNET).

Sources: Standard Chartered, Thailand PromptPay user guide; Bank of Thailand, BAHTNET; Bangkok Bank, BIZ iBanking fees; Wise; as published on 29 October 2026. Cut-offs vary by bank.

Some buyers are asked to pay in stablecoins such as USDT. Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) barred digital asset businesses, from 1 April 2022, from providing services or acting in any manner that supports or promotes the use of digital assets as a means of payment for goods and services, after discussion with the BOT (SEC Thailand, press release No. 39/2022). Pay Thai suppliers through the banking channel.

Helm sends international payments to suppliers by SWIFT, and by local rails in the supplier's currency where available, from the buyer's own account, with the rate, fee and expected arrival shown before you send.

Cut-offs and holidays

On the US side, the Fedwire Funds Service day opens at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the previous calendar day and closes at 7:00 p.m. ET, with a 6:45 p.m. ET cut-off for customer transfers (Federal Reserve Financial Services). Your bank's own cut-off for international wires is earlier. Bangkok is 11 hours ahead of New York in the US summer and 12 hours ahead in the US winter, so a wire sent in a New York afternoon reaches the correspondent while Thai banks are closed.

On the Thai side, PromptPay runs every day, while SWIFT credits, SMART and BAHTNET wait for a bank working day. The BOT publishes the holidays observed by financial institutions each year. December is the busy month: H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great's Birthday, National Day and Father's Day falls on Saturday 5 December 2026, with a substitution day on Monday 7 December, followed by Constitution Day on 10 December and New Year's Eve on 31 December (Human Resources Online, citing the Bank of Thailand). The BOT's 2027 announcement, No. 37/2569, lists New Year's Day on Friday 1 January 2027 (Thairath).

Sources: Human Resources Online, Thailand 2026 public holidays (19 February 2026); Thairath, BOT bank holidays 2027; Federal Reserve holiday schedule K.8; as published on 29 October 2026. Confirm against the BOT's list of financial institution holidays.

Fees as published

A payment to Thailand can carry four costs: your provider's sending fee, the exchange rate if you convert, intermediary bank deductions on a SWIFT wire, and the supplier's receiving charges. Thai banks publish their charges. The examples below are KBank's fee for depositing an inward remittance to an FCD account, and Bangkok Bank's business fees for domestic baht transfers.

Sources: KBank, fees for FCD deposit and withdrawal; Bangkok Bank, BIZ iBanking fees; as published on 29 October 2026. Other banks set their own charges; the recipient's bank may also charge.

On a $20,000 wire to an FCD account at KBank, 0.25% would be $50, so the USD 25 maximum applies. The larger costs are correspondent deductions on a SHA wire, which leave the invoice part-paid, and the exchange rate on a baht payout, where a rate 1% below the market costs $200 on the same $20,000. Send dollar wires with OUR charges when the supplier must receive the full amount, and compare the all-in cost, rate plus fee, for baht payouts. Helm agrees pricing with each business before the account opens; speak to the team.

Common reasons payments are delayed or returned

Sources: Standard Chartered; Bank of Thailand; Human Resources Online; as published on 29 October 2026.

If a wire has left but not arrived, ask your bank for the UETR (Unique End-to-end Transaction Reference), the tracking code that stays the same along the whole SWIFT chain, and send it to the supplier with your payment confirmation.

Step by step: paying a supplier in Thailand

1. Agree the currency. Set THB or USD in the contract, and who pays bank charges.
2. Collect details once. Get the account name, address, account number for the invoice currency, bank, branch and SWIFT code in writing, with the 13-digit Tax ID.
3. Verify by phone. Confirm the details with a known contact before the first payment and after any change.
4. Choose the rail. Pay dollar invoices by SWIFT wire to the FCD account; pay baht invoices as a local payout.
5. Check the quote. Compare the rate, fee and expected arrival before you confirm, and send dollar wires with OUR.
6. Time it. Send before your provider's cut-off and away from Thai and US holidays.
7. Send proof. Share the UETR and SWIFT confirmation, or the payout reference, with the invoice number.
8. Reconcile. Match the payment to the invoice and keep both for your records.

For neighboring markets with different rules, read how to pay suppliers in Vietnam and how to pay suppliers in Malaysia.

Questions

References

1. Bank of Thailand: Exchange control regulation
2. Bank of Thailand: BAHTNET systems
3. Standard Chartered: Thailand PromptPay user guide
4. Bangkok Bank: BizPromptPay FAQ
5. Bangkok Bank: BIZ iBanking fees
6. KBank: Fees for foreign currency deposit and withdrawal
7. Securities and Exchange Commission, Thailand: Press release No. 39/2022 on the use of digital assets as a means of payment (23 March 2022)
8. Wise: What currencies can I send to and from?

This guide is general information for businesses, not financial, legal or tax advice. Rules, fees and timings were checked against the sources listed on the review date and may change.