Is there a limit on how much cash I can carry in or out?
Short answer
Bringing baht in is unlimited. Taking it out is capped — 50,000 baht per person for most destinations, two million for Thailand’s immediate neighbours. Foreign banknotes move freely both ways, but anything above USD 15,000 has to be declared. You will still see 20,000 printed in older official guidance; the central bank’s figure is the one that governs.
The restriction sits on the way out
Most travellers assume a cash rule is about bringing money in. For Thai baht it is the other way around: banknotes may be brought into the country without limit, and the cap applies when you leave.
The general figure is 50,000 baht per person. That is low enough to reach without feeling like you are moving money — a cash reserve for a long trip gets there on its own.
The neighbours have their own number
Baht may be taken out to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam and Yunnan province in China up to two million per trip. That is forty times the general allowance, and it is the only place the limit moves.
Above whichever ceiling applies to you, taking baht out needs permission from the Bank of Thailand, and the evidence of that permission has to be shown to the customs officer at the airport on the way out.
Two declaration thresholds, and they are different numbers
Baht: declare above 450,000. Foreign currency: declare above USD 15,000 or the equivalent. Both apply in either direction, arriving or leaving.
Declaring is not the same as being over a limit. Foreign banknotes have no ceiling at all — the declaration is simply the paperwork that makes carrying them lawful, and the customs department treats a missing or incorrect one as a criminal matter.
Where the other number comes from
Thai government information pages and several embassy sites still give USD 20,000 as the declaration threshold. The Bank of Thailand, which writes the exchange control rules, gives 15,000.
We have followed the central bank. If you are anywhere near either figure the safe move is the same one: fill in the form. It costs nothing, and the gap between the two published numbers is exactly the range in which a traveller would be caught out.
Good to know
- Baht in: no limit. Baht out: 50,000 per person
- Two million baht to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Yunnan
- Declare over 450,000 baht, or over USD 15,000 in foreign notes
- Older pages say USD 20,000 — the central bank’s figure is 15,000
