What is the most popular payment method in Thailand?

PromptPay, usually through a Thai QR code scanned with a banking app. It counted 82.21 million registrations and 2.38 billion transactions in December 2025. Bank transfers also lead e-commerce, with 44% of online payments in 2025 according to Worldpay data quoted by Antom.

Payment by bank transfer in Thailand

Account-to-account payments are the core of the Thai market. PromptPay, the national instant payment service built by the Bank of Thailand, National ITMX and Thai banks, links a mobile number or national ID to a bank account, and the standard Thai QR code lets any banking app or wallet pay any merchant. Mastercard reports more than 300 PromptPay transactions per person per year, almost 400,000 registered businesses and peaks above 80 million transactions a day in 2025.

PromptPay against other methods

Banking apps are the front end: KBank's K PLUS had 24.7 million users in June 2026, and SCB reports 18.1 million SCB EASY users in 2025. In July 2026, Bank of Thailand data show 2.51 billion interbank internet and mobile banking transactions, against 104 million credit card and 25 million debit card payments. E-money wallets come second, with 486 million transactions that month. Cards still matter for higher tickets, travel and installments.

More detail in our #PayWorldTour guide Payment methods in Thailand.