📅 Published in 2016 — Updated in June 2026
🏥 Major change: health insurance has been compulsory since 2019. Updated prices and conditions.
🌴 Retirement in Thailand in 2026
🏥 MANDATORY health insurance (since October 1, 2019)
This is THE major change. Before 2019, no insurance was required. Today: no insurance = no O-A visa.
| Blanket | Minimum required |
|---|---|
| 🏨 Hospitalization (IPD) | ฿400,000 (≈€10,500) |
| 🩺 Outpatient (OPD) | ฿40,000 (≈ €1,050) |
| 🦠 COVID-19 (since 2021) | ฿3,000,000 (US$100,000) |
💰 Insurance budget: 15,000 – 80,000 ฿/year depending on age and coverage.
💰 O-A visa financial conditions (unchanged)
- 🏦 Option 1: ฿800,000 in Thai bank (deposited for at least 2 months)
- 💵 Option 2: Monthly income ≥ ฿65,000/month (≈ €1,710)
- 📊 Option 3: Deposit + income combination = ฿800,000/year
🏷️ Updated cost of living — June 2026
Sources: Numbeo May 2026, SmartLifeThailand, WhereNext.
| Job | Bangkok | Chiang Mai | Phuket |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🏠 Furnished 1 bedroom accommodation | 15,000 – 25,000 ฿ | 8,000 – 15,000 ฿ | 15,000 – 25,000 ฿ |
| 🍜 Food | 8,000 – 15,000 ฿ | ฿5,000 – ฿8,000 | 8,000 – 15,000 ฿ |
| 🚕 Transportation | 2,000 – 5,000 ฿ | 2,000 – 3,000 ฿ | 3,000 – 6,000 ฿ |
| 📶 Internet + mobile | 900 – 1,500 ฿ | 900 – 1,500 ฿ | 900 – 1,500 ฿ |
| 🏥 Health insurance | 3,000 – 7,000 ฿ | 3,000 – 7,000 ฿ | 3,000 – 7,000 ฿ |
| 🎉 Leisure | 3,000 – 10,000 ฿ | 2,000 – 5,000 ฿ | ฿5,000 – 15,000 |
| TOTAL | 35,000 – 70,000 ฿ | 25,000 – 50,000 ฿ | 40,000 – 80,000 ฿ |
💱 In euros: Chiang Mai 660-1,315€ | Bangkok €920-1,840 | Phuket 1,050-2,100€ (rate 1€ ≈ 38฿)
🚗 Transport in 2026
- 📱 Grab (= Uber): everywhere. Motorcycle from ฿25, car from ฿60
- 🚇 BTS/MRT Bangkok: extended network (yellow + pink lines added 2023-24). 17-62 ฿/ride
- ✈️ Internal flights: AirAsia, Thai VietJet — Bangkok-Chiang Mai from ฿800
📶 Telecommunications
- 📡 5G: available Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket since 2022
- 📱 Operators: AIS, True (merged with DTAC in 2023) — unlimited from ฿300/month
- 🌐 Optical fiber: True/AIS/3BB — 200 Mbps from ฿600, 1 Gbps from ฿900/month
📺 The original article
To start, go as a tourist, I recommend a plane ticket on Expedia and a simple hotel room. It’s not expensive!
6 reasons to retire in Thailand plus the video:
1* The climate is hot:
With a retreat in Thailand, you are in a tropical climate. This confirms that you will have heat all year round divided into 3 periods. A dry season from January to June which is the hottest. A rainy season from July to the end of September. Depending on the year, this can continue until October. A mild season from November to January. As for temperatures, they vary little and are between 25 and 40 degrees. Thailand is a country that has more than 200 beaches and places accessible on foot, by bike, by car from land to go swimming and enjoy bays, coves, and rivers, torrents or streams.
ADVICE: From a medical point of view, a general practitioner reminds you that you must make sure you can tolerate such heat. With age, people who were not sensitive to heat can become so. I advise you to do long immersions of 1 to 2 months as a simple tourist to start. I think that at 60 you should not overestimate your strength and take care of yourself before you start. I saw Europeans of this age fainting in the streets of Bangkok during the hot season between March and May.
2 * Leisure activities for retirees in Thailand:
For your retirement in Thailand, the country is visually rich. A diversity that makes us fall in love with the country when we come there for the first time. Your weeks will pass by at the pace of walks. Organized hikes in the forest in the form of treks in search of fauna and flora in the north of the country. Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are magnificent cities to see and not far from Laos. From the north, you can easily reach the capital of Laos: Vientiane.
Visit the islands of Thailand, and board the sublime beaches for you. Take a boat from the Surat region and visit Ko Samui, one of the islands best known to lovers. If you are retired single, go and reunite with your youth in Ko Phangan for a visit to the most festive island in Thailand and the world. You can also take a boat and go on a sea adventure along the coast, or rent a motorbike and prepare a road trip on the roads of Thailand.
Be careful on the roads, as encountering elephants is common. They cross the road, and keep in mind that you are at their house. It is therefore wiser to stay away if this happens to you and to turn off the engine so as not to attract attention or not to honk your horn. Thailand has nothing to do with the weekends you spent in France, because winter no longer exists and you will learn to spend all your time outside of your home.
3* Good infrastructure in Thailand:
Many airlines operate daily internal flights. Connections provided by several low-cost airlines to Phuket, Ko Samui, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Krabi and Air Asia. The choice of public transport is wide. The train is also a typical and authentic way to discover the country because the wagons are old. You’ll feel like you’re back in the 70s, but it’s worth the occasional night trip. Tuk-tuks are also a typical choice to make at least once if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure. However, I recommend “Meters” taxis because they are more honest and will not try to take you to a clothing store in exchange for a fuel coupon.
For your retirement in Thailand, on the telecommunications side it is high speed. In large cities, I have not noticed any problem sending SMS, MMS, or even an email or even making a video chat from your smartphone. All the applications work in Thailand, I tested messenger, Facebook, Facetime, Skype, or even what’s app and also the one for dating like Tinder. Sim cards are not expensive and are between 300 and 600 baht. Duration ranges from one week to one month. You can buy them at airports, skytrain stations, or even in supermarkets across the country.
In some remote areas, you will no longer have internet, but you can make a call in the middle of the jungle. In the mountain villages, I noticed in the Chiang Mai region that this was possible at times. The villagers have a rudimentary lifestyle but not without their smartphone, which is what made me smile after spending a few nights there.
4* Buddhist Culture and “zenitude”
Thailand is a country that is beyond our time and our benchmarks. You will have to relearn what you have learned, observe before speaking, listen before acting. The rules are the same for all Thais but not for you. You will never be Thai even after 20 years of living in the country. Retired “Farang” you are and will remain, but you will be well received if you respect the traditions. Retirement in Thailand is about respecting your hosts. Respect is not a small notion in the country of Siam, it is a taught quality. The temples represent this respect but also this inner peace. When I went to the temples, I felt calm and real happiness. You have to experience it to understand it and above all to listen to the vibrations and sensations.
Here are a few things to do when you go to a temple. Try to throw prayer sticks, look at the number that comes out and ask for your prediction in exchange for a few baths. The Thai are generous donors with their religion so honor them. Not giving money to Buddha is a lack of respect if you are accompanied by a Thai woman or man. Put a bell on the rope with the others for good luck. Rub the gongs and listen to the sound that comes out for your prosperity. Write your first name on an orange cloth that the monks use for their clothing to keep you healthy. In short, the rituals to honor Buddha and the Thai religion are numerous. In the south of the country, you will come across more Thai Muslims even though 90% of the population is Buddhist.
5* Intoxicating and delicious cuisine with or without chili for your retirement in Thailand!
Do not think that each stroke of the wand will necessarily be accompanied by the start of fire in the mouth. Thai cuisine is one of the most popular in North and South Asia. Passing from Japan, through Indonesia, China, even India, all the inhabitants of this region of the world appreciate it. It’s mild, sweet, salty, strong, or just salty. To tell the truth, everything will depend on the recipe, the region, and the person who prepares the dish for you. In Bangkok, “pad Thai” (see recipe) is eaten with eggs, chicken and spices.
In Chiang Mai in cooking schools, cooks do it with a different variation. They add garlic, spring onion, a sweet sauce and slices of round squash. It really depends on the local culture. Some will say that they do not have these dishes in this form to taste. However, not everyone has the same life as you at the same time with the same Thai cook. The food cooked on the street is delicious and you won’t get sick. Chicken skewers, pork skewers, shrimp, grilled lobster, meatballs, the choice is wide.
On the other hand, if you touch cut fruits and uncooked vegetables, you take a little more risk. I had the experience of eating it once, and I understood that sweet raw vegetables are not bacteria-free. At worst, you will have diarrhea for 3 to 5 days. I fell for a mango but it wasn’t healthy, so I bought the whole one. For coconut ice cream: be careful too! It is delicious but if you are sensitive, go with moderation.
6* You will truly live or relive!
As explained in the video, your purchasing power will return to an acceptable level. In Thailand, no more difficult ends to the month with your retirement. In France this only allows you to pay bills and you have no pleasure aside. In France with a small pension, you will have to be content with going out to the park or going to the forest. For retirement in Thailand, you will have better. For a pension of €1,200 you will be able to receive approximately 48,000 baths (depending on the exchange rate of the bath). This gain in purchasing power can be explained by the weakness of the bath compared to the euro. An apartment in Bangkok is still expensive because you will need to pay 20,000 bath per month but a house in Phuket can be 15,000 bath per month like mine.
But an apartment in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai is much less. We have to fall back on towns in the provinces to get by better. It’s the same as in France, Paris will always be more expensive than the provinces. To eat and dress, this is where you will be able to spend less than in France. And the rest will be for your leisure and moving around in Thailand. As you are in the sun, sometimes you just need to go to the swimming pool at the residence, or even go to the sea to relax without spending a lot. The climate and travel conditions are favorable, and you will therefore be surprised by this new freedom.
The activities in your month will be numerous and you will flourish much more. Hoping that my advice will guide your path, have a good retirement in Thailand. Please note that you can apply for a visa as soon as you turn 50.
Useful links on the Long-term VISA:
