Thailand Visa Fees from India in Rupees 2026: Every Line Item in Rupees

The total cost of a Thailand e-Visa from India in 2026 is 7,100 rupees for a typical applicant: 4,900 rupees for the embassy fee (2,000 baht at the current exchange rate), 1,200 rupees for the VFS Global service charge, 200 rupees for visa-spec photographs, 100 rupees for the bank stamp on your statement, and 800 rupees for basic travel insurance. That headline figure assumes you apply yourself for the single-entry e-Visa at thaievisa.go.th and avoid agent markups. The number changes if you go for the Multiple-Entry Tourist Visa, if you use a travel agent, or if your photo studio overcharges. This guide breaks down every line item, in rupees, with the source-currency amounts and the exact exchange-rate logic, so you know what you should pay and what you should refuse to pay. For the bigger picture across the entire visa journey, start with our main Thailand visa guide for Indians.

Total typical cost (e-Visa route)

7,100 rupees, all-in, applying yourself

Embassy e-Visa fee

4,900 rupees (2,000 baht at 2.45 INR per THB)

VFS service charge

1,200 rupees per application

METV alternative

12,250 rupees (5,000 baht), 6 months multiple entry

Business Visa fee

4,900 rupees, single entry, embassy submission

Refundable if rejected

Embassy fee no, VFS charge sometimes partially

If you only read this section

Budget 7,100 rupees end-to-end for a Thailand single-entry e-Visa from India in 2026, and treat anything above 8,500 rupees as a markup you should question. The single biggest line item is the embassy e-Visa fee at 4,900 rupees, paid online during the application at thaievisa.go.th. The VFS service charge of 1,200 rupees applies only if you submit through a VFS Global centre rather than the pure online e-Visa route. Indians paying 12,000 rupees or 15,000 rupees through travel agents are paying 4,000 to 8,000 rupees in agent margin hidden inside a “service charge”. The fees in this guide come from the official Thai e-Visa portal and have been verified at the 30 April 2026 exchange rate of 2.45 rupees per Thai baht.

Total cost breakdown

The table below covers every line item that can appear in a Thailand visa application from India. Mandatory items are charges you cannot skip if you go through the official channel. Optional items are recommended but not required by the embassy.

Item	Source currency	INR amount	Mandatory or Optional	Notes
e-Visa fee (single entry)	2,000 THB	4,900	Mandatory	Paid online during the e-Visa application
Multiple-Entry Tourist Visa (METV) fee	5,000 THB	12,250	Mandatory if METV chosen	Paid by demand draft at the embassy
Business Visa fee	2,000 THB	4,900	Mandatory if Non-Immigrant B chosen	Single entry, requires Thai company invitation
VFS service charge	Charged in INR	1,200	Mandatory at VFS	Per application, paid at the centre
Photograph (set of 4)	Charged in INR	200	Mandatory	Indian studios charge 150 to 250 rupees
Bank statement stamp fee	Charged in INR	100	Mandatory in practice	Some banks charge for stamped statements
Travel insurance (recommended)	Charged in INR	800	Optional	Basic coverage for a 7-day trip

Every figure here is grounded in the official source. The 2,000 baht e-Visa fee is the published amount on the Thai e-Visa portal. The METV at 5,000 baht is the embassy-counter rate. The VFS 1,200 rupees is the published Indian service charge for Thailand applications. Where the table shows “Charged in INR”, there is no Thai-baht equivalent because the cost is incurred inside India in rupees from the start.

The most common confusion is mixing the e-Visa fee with the VFS service charge and assuming both apply to every applicant. They do not. If you complete the e-Visa entirely online and never visit a VFS centre, you do not pay the 1,200 rupees. If you submit at the embassy directly through VFS, you pay both. We have a dedicated breakdown in our guide on the Thailand visa service charge if the VFS line item is what you came to verify.

What the 7,100-rupee total actually covers

The 7,100-rupee total typical cost figure assumes a salaried Indian applicant filing the e-Visa, getting fresh photographs from a passport-photo studio, asking the bank for a stamped statement, and buying a basic travel insurance policy. Take out insurance if you already have annual travel cover through your credit card or employer, and your floor drops to 6,300 rupees. Add a courier-pickup service for the passport return at the VFS centre, and you push past 7,500 rupees.

This number is for the cost of getting the visa, not the trip. Flights, hotels, in-Thailand spending, and forex are covered in our main Thailand visa guide for Indians and broken down in detail in the trip-cost article in this cluster.

How we calculated the rupee amounts

The Thailand visa fees are quoted in Thai baht by the embassy. The rupee equivalents in this guide use the exchange rate of 2.45 rupees per Thai baht as on 30 April 2026, sourced from the Reserve Bank of India reference rate published the same day. So the 2,000-baht e-Visa fee converts to 4,900 rupees, and the 5,000-baht METV converts to 12,250 rupees.

Exchange rates move. Between January 2024 and April 2026, the THB-to-INR rate ranged between 2.30 and 2.55, so the rupee equivalent of a 2,000-baht fee has been as low as 4,600 and as high as 5,100. Card networks add a forex markup of roughly 1 percent on the interbank rate, and your bank may add another 1 to 3 percent.

The practical rule: budget 5,000 to 5,200 rupees for the e-Visa charge on your statement, not the headline 4,900. A forex card preloaded with baht lands closer to 4,950. A credit card without forex waivers lands closer to 5,100. The variance is forex, not the embassy.

Why the embassy uses baht and you pay in baht

The Thai government sets all visa fees in baht. Every applicant globally pays the same 2,000-baht amount. The 4,900-rupee figure is a snapshot, not a fixed embassy price. Some Indian agents quote a flat “5,500 rupees” and call the difference forex protection. There is no forex protection. The embassy charges 2,000 baht; your card pays the rate of the moment.

METV versus single-entry e-Visa: when 12,250 rupees makes sense

The Multiple-Entry Tourist Visa costs 5,000 baht, which works out to 12,250 rupees at 2.45 per baht. That is two-and-a-half times the cost of a single-entry e-Visa. The maths only works for specific applicants.

The METV gives you 6 months of validity with multiple entries, each stay up to 60 days, extendable for another 30 days inside Thailand. If you are planning two trips inside that 6-month window, the METV at 12,250 rupees is cheaper than two single-entry e-Visas at 4,900 rupees each plus a second VFS charge of 1,200 rupees, which would total 12,200 rupees for two trips. The break-even is exactly two entries.

For three trips inside 6 months, the METV is significantly cheaper. Three e-Visa applications would cost 14,700 rupees in fees alone, plus three VFS service charges totalling 3,600 rupees, plus three rounds of photographs, statements and document gathering. The METV at 12,250 rupees with one VFS charge of 1,200 rupees totals 13,450 rupees and saves you not just money but the hassle of three separate applications.

Who should pay 12,250 rupees for the METV: business travellers visiting Thai suppliers monthly, families splitting Thailand trips into multiple short visits, freelancers doing month-on-month-off Bangkok stays, and Indian property owners or condo holders in Phuket. We unpack the eligibility and embassy practice in our dedicated guide on the Thailand METV for Indians.

The Business Visa charge and what it includes

The Non-Immigrant B Business Visa for Thailand costs 2,000 baht, the same as the tourist e-Visa. That is 4,900 rupees at the 2.45 conversion. What you do not get for that price is online application: business visas must be submitted in person at the Royal Thai Embassy in New Delhi or one of the four consulates in Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata, with a paper file. So even though the embassy fee is the same, the practical cost runs higher because of in-person logistics.

You will pay the 4,900-rupee fee plus the 1,200-rupee VFS charge if submitting through their service, plus 200 rupees for photos and 100 rupees for the bank stamp. Same 7,000-rupee floor as the tourist application. The difference is the document set: business visas need a formal invitation letter from the Thai company you are visiting, on company letterhead, signed and ideally apostilled. That document is free to obtain from the inviting company, but is the practical bottleneck.

Single-entry business visa validity is 90 days from issue, with 90 days of stay permitted on entry. The fee does not vary if you take the multi-entry version: that costs 5,000 baht (12,250 rupees), the same as the METV.

Hidden costs that travel agents charge extra for

The agent market in India for Thailand visas runs on margin. Knowing where they make money lets you decide whether to pay it.

The most common pattern is the “all-inclusive package” priced between 8,500 and 11,500 rupees. Inside that 8,500 rupees: 4,900 goes to the embassy, 1,200 to VFS, and the agent keeps 2,400 rupees as margin. At 11,500 rupees, the agent keeps 5,400 rupees.

The specific markups Indian agents typically add, line by line:

• Service fee: 500 to 2,000 rupees labelled as “processing” or “expert review”. Pure margin in most cases.
• Courier pickup and drop: 300 to 800 rupees. Reasonable if you live far from a VFS centre, padding if you do not.
• Photo charge: 400 to 600 rupees for photos that cost 200 rupees at any local studio.
• Insurance bundle: 1,500 to 2,500 rupees for cover you can buy yourself for 800 rupees.
• Document review fee: 500 to 1,500 rupees to “verify” your file before submission.

Agents do not itemise. Ask for an itemised breakdown before paying. Any agent worth using will provide one.

What changes if you apply through an agent

Applying yourself costs 7,100 rupees and 4 to 6 hours of your time. An agent costs 9,000 to 12,000 rupees and around 2 hours. The premium is worth it for applicants with weak English, complex history, or flights inside 14 days. We compare both routes in Thailand visa agent versus self-apply.

Refund policy if your visa is rejected

Visa fees are almost never refundable. The 4,900 rupees you paid to the Thai e-Visa portal becomes the embassy’s revenue the moment it is processed, whether the application is approved or rejected. The fee covers evaluation work, not the visa itself.

The 1,200-rupee VFS service charge is partially refundable if rejected at the document-verification counter (passport short on validity, photo fails spec, missing documents). VFS may refund 50 to 75 percent at the centre manager’s discretion. Bring your receipt and ask politely. If your file is forwarded to the embassy and rejected there, the VFS charge is non-refundable.

The 200 rupees for photographs and 100 rupees for the bank stamp are sunk costs. Travel insurance at 800 rupees is partially refundable depending on policy: most Indian insurers refund the premium minus a 10 to 20 percent processing fee if cancelled before the trip start date, with the rejection letter as proof.

What you can recover after a rejection

Realistic recovery from a 7,100-rupee rejection: 0 to 600 rupees from VFS if rejected at the counter, plus 640 rupees from your insurer, zero from everything else. Net loss between 5,860 and 6,460 rupees, before the 7,100 you spend reapplying.

The cost of doing things wrong

Visa rejections in this cluster cost roughly 7,100 rupees per attempt, all-in. The failure modes that produce these losses are predictable.

The off-white photo background is the single most common cause. An Indian applicant uses an Aadhaar-style photo with a slightly cream wall behind the head, the embassy automated checks flag the background colour, and the application is rejected. Cost of the mistake: 4,900 plus 1,200 plus 200 plus 800, or 7,100 rupees in fees that do not come back, plus another 7,100 to reapply. Total avoidable cost: roughly 7,100 rupees, since the second attempt is what should have happened the first time. Our piece on Thailand visa photo specifications covers exactly what to ask the studio for.

The net-banking PDF instead of a stamped statement is the second-most expensive mistake. Indians download the bank statement from net banking, see the bank logo, and assume it counts. The embassy treats unstamped statements as unverified and rejects. Cost: same 7,100 rupees plus the time of going back to the bank and waiting another week for the visa cycle. Get the statement stamped at the branch the first time, and we cover the exact bank statement format the embassy accepts in our financial-proof guide.

The vague cover letter that says “tourism” without naming cities and dates is the third. The fix is free: a sharper cover letter takes 15 minutes to write. The cost of skipping that 15 minutes is 7,100 rupees in fees plus 6 to 14 days of waiting for the rejection. Free fix, expensive miss.

The “I will fix it at the airport” mistake on the Thailand Digital Arrival Card costs you 0 rupees in visa fees but 30 to 90 minutes of standing in a Suvarnabhumi queue while other passengers wave their pre-registered TDAC barcodes at the e-gate.

2026 fees compared with 2025 and 2024

The Thailand visa fee structure in 2026 is unchanged from 2025. The 2,000-baht e-Visa fee, the 5,000-baht METV, the 2,000-baht business visa, all of these have held since 2023. There has been no Thai government move to revise visa fees in the 2025-2026 budget cycle. The most recent published changelog from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 2025 extended the visa-free scheme through end-2026 but did not touch fees.

What changed is exchange rates, not embassy charges. In April 2024 the e-Visa cost 4,700 rupees at 2.35 INR per THB. April 2025 was 4,800 at 2.40. April 2026 is 4,900 at 2.45. The baht price held flat; the rupee softened.

The bigger structural change happened in November 2023, when Thailand introduced the 60-day visa-free scheme for Indian passport holders. Before that, every Indian travelling for under 30 days paid either 2,000 baht for VOA or 4,900 rupees for an e-Visa. After it, anyone travelling for 60 days or less needs neither. The applicants left in 2026 are those staying past 60 days, those needing multiple entries, business travellers, and those with histories that warrant a pre-screened application. See our visa-free explainer for Indians for the rules.

Looking ahead, the most plausible change is a small upward revision in baht fees if Thailand adjusts consular charges for inflation. No announcement at this time. We will update within 7 working days if anything moves.

Common mistakes Indians make on Thailand visa fees

The first mistake is paying 8,000 to 12,000 rupees through an agent without realising the embassy charges only 4,900. Before paying anyone, check the official portal at thaievisa.go.th. The number there is what the embassy charges; anything above is agent margin.

The second mistake is comparing only the headline fee and missing the 1,200-rupee VFS charge. The e-Visa route bypasses VFS entirely. The embassy-stamped route adds 1,200 rupees per application. If your trip is under 60 days, the e-Visa is cheaper.

The third mistake is buying bundled travel insurance at 2,000 to 3,000 rupees when basic 7-day Thailand cover is 800 rupees from ICICI Lombard, HDFC ERGO or Tata AIG. The 800-rupee policy meets the same coverage thresholds as the bundled version.

If your situation is different

The 7,100-rupee total assumes a salaried metro Indian applying for a single-entry tourist e-Visa. Other applicant profiles have a different cost structure.

NRI applicants holding Indian passports apply for the Thailand visa from their country of residence rather than from India. The base 2,000-baht fee converts at the local exchange rate of the host country. An NRI in Singapore pays roughly 80 Singapore dollars. An NRI in the UAE pays roughly 270 dirhams. The VFS service charge varies by country and is typically not 1,200 rupees. Indian-passport visa-free benefit still applies. We cover the NRI route in our NRI guide for Thailand.

Housewives without independent income pay the same fee as any tourist applicant. The 4,900 rupees does not change. The cost variance comes from supporting documents: a sponsorship letter from spouse, marriage certificate copies, sometimes a notarised affidavit. Total fee impact is an extra 200 to 500 rupees for notarisation if the embassy or VFS asks for it.

Senior citizens above 60 pay the same standard fees. There is no Thailand visa concession for Indian seniors, unlike some Schengen countries. Where senior citizens save money is on time and stress: approval rates above 96 percent mean very few rejections, and few wasted 7,100-rupee cycles.

Government employees pay the same 4,900-rupee embassy fee and 1,200-rupee VFS charge. The cost difference is the time-value of waiting 10 to 15 working days for the departmental NOC, during which your trip planning is on hold. Government NOCs do not have a fee, but the slow turnaround pushes up the implicit cost if you are paying for fully-refundable air tickets to keep options open.

Students applying with a parent’s bank statement pay the same fees with no premium. The supporting documents differ: parent’s ITR and bank statement, plus a sponsorship letter committing to fund the trip. No additional embassy fee for the sponsorship arrangement.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the e-Visa fee show 5,050 rupees on my credit card when the official price is 4,900?

The embassy charges exactly 2,000 baht. Your card network adds a forex markup of 1 to 3 percent on the day’s rate, so a 4,900-rupee headline becomes 5,000 to 5,100 on the statement. The variance is forex, not the embassy. Use a forex card preloaded with baht or a zero-markup credit card to minimise it.

Is the VFS service charge 1,200 rupees mandatory for everyone?

Only if you submit through a VFS Global centre. The pure online e-Visa route at thaievisa.go.th bypasses VFS entirely, so you pay only the 4,900-rupee embassy fee and not the 1,200-rupee VFS charge. The VFS route is mandatory only for embassy-stamped visas like the METV and the business visa, where the application goes through a VFS centre or directly to the consulate.

Can I pay the e-Visa fee in cash anywhere in India?

No. The Thai e-Visa portal accepts only credit cards, debit cards, or net banking through international payment gateways. Cash payment was possible at the airport for the old Visa-on-Arrival in baht, but VOA is no longer available for Indian passport holders since the introduction of the 60-day visa-free scheme. The e-Visa is online-only payment.

Do children have a discount on the visa fee?

Thailand does not offer a child discount on visa fees. Children of any age, including infants, pay the full 2,000-baht e-Visa fee or 4,900 rupees. A family of four travelling together pays 19,600 rupees just in embassy fees, plus 4,800 rupees in VFS service charges if applying through a centre, plus four sets of photographs at 200 each. Total family fee floor is around 25,200 rupees for four passports.

What if my application is rejected, do I get the 4,900 rupees back?

No. Visa fees globally are non-refundable, including the Thai e-Visa fee. The 4,900 rupees pays for the embassy’s evaluation work, not for the visa itself. If you are rejected, your only recovery options are a partial refund of the VFS service charge if rejected at the counter, and a partial refund of travel insurance if cancelled before the trip start date.

How does the METV cost compare to two single-entry e-Visas?

The METV at 12,250 rupees is roughly equivalent to two e-Visas at 4,900 rupees plus two VFS charges at 1,200 rupees, totalling 12,200 rupees. The break-even is exactly two trips inside the 6-month METV validity. For a third trip, the METV becomes significantly cheaper because you avoid a third application cycle and a third VFS charge. The non-monetary saving of not running three separate applications is also worth factoring in.

Are travel insurance costs claimable as a tax expense in India?

Travel insurance for leisure trips is not deductible under Indian income tax rules. For self-employed Indians treating the Thailand trip as business with documented client meetings, it can be a business expense, but consult your CA first. Salaried employees on company-funded business trips may get reimbursement through employer policy.

What is the cheapest way to apply for a Thailand visa from India?

The cheapest legal route is the e-Visa applied directly at thaievisa.go.th, with photographs from a local studio at 200 rupees, a stamped bank statement from your branch at 100 rupees, and self-purchased travel insurance at 800 rupees. Total floor cost: 6,000 rupees if you skip insurance, or 6,800 rupees with basic cover. We have a dedicated guide on the cheapest way to apply for a Thailand visa from India for applicants pricing every route.

Does the visa fee change between Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata?

No. The embassy fee is set centrally and is the same at every Indian consulate and through the e-Visa portal. The 1,200-rupee VFS service charge is also identical across all five Indian VFS centres. What varies is appointment availability and commute time, not the fee.

If exchange rates move sharply between application and approval, does the embassy charge me extra?

No. The embassy charges once at payment. After your card is debited, rate moves do not affect the transaction. The 2,000-baht charge is final, in either direction.

Are there any taxes on top of the visa fee that I will see on my statement?

The Thai e-Visa portal does not add a separate tax. What you may see is your card issuer’s forex markup of 1 to 3 percent and a GST charge from your Indian bank on the forex transaction. Indian GST on forex is calculated on the conversion margin, working out to 10 to 50 rupees on a visa fee.

Where this guide gets its data

This guide was last verified against the Thailand e-Visa Official Portal on 30 April 2026 by the VisaGuide India editorial desk. We update every guide quarterly and within 7 working days of any rule change. If you spot a fee that has changed or a rule we have missed, email editorial@visaguideindia.com.