The Thailand Arrival Card Is Free. One in Ten Travelers Pays for It Anyway

Thailand’s high season is starting, and there is one pre-trip step every visitor now has to complete: the Thailand Digital Arrival Card. It takes about ten minutes and it costs nothing.

The problem is that a swarm of copycat websites has built a business out of charging for it—and they are very good at getting to the top of search results.

What the TDAC actually is

The Thailand Digital Arrival Card replaced the old paper TM6 card travelers used to fill out on the plane. It applies to non-Thai nationals and is submitted online before travel instead of on a tray table.

1. Go to the official Thai Immigration Bureau portal.
2. Enter your passport details, flight number, recent travel information, and address in Thailand.
3. Submit within the three-day window before arrival, including your arrival date.
4. Download the confirmation and save it offline. Every traveler, including children, needs a submission.

Cost: nothing. Time: about ten minutes. If you are only transiting and do not pass through immigration, the official FAQ says a TDAC is not required.

The copycat-site trap

Paid TDAC sites imitate the official portal with flags, seals, and promises of “instant” or “urgent” processing. Sponsored placement can put them above the government result. The fee is the smaller problem: a third party also receives your passport and payment details, and you still need to know whether the form was filed correctly.

The clearest tell is simple: the legitimate process is already free and fast. A premium for expedited processing buys nothing the official system does not provide.

How to spot a fake government travel site anywhere

• Check the domain. Thailand’s official immigration portal ends in .go.th; EU pages use europa.eu; UK services use gov.uk.
• Read the fine print. Commercial operators often admit in the footer that they are not affiliated with the government.
• Skip sponsored results. Navigate from an embassy or immigration-bureau page when you are unsure.
• Be skeptical of “expedited.” Free official systems are often instant or near-instant.
• Never assume an official-looking design proves anything. The address bar matters more than the logo.

The same playbook appears around Europe’s not-yet-operational ETIAS. Our EES and ETIAS guide explains what Americans actually need today.

Visas: the 60-day exemption ends 15 September 2026

Thailand’s 60-day visa exemption applies to arrivals up to and including 14 September 2026. From 15 September the same passports get 30 days. The Ministry of Interior announcements were published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August, which started the fifteen-day countdown.

Your arrival date decides which rule you get, and nothing else does. Arrive on or before 14 September and you keep the period granted at the border, even if you are still in the country in October. Arrive on 15 September or later and you get 30 days. The date you booked makes no difference.

	Arrive by 14 Sept 2026	Arrive from 15 Sept 2026
Visa-free stay	60 days	30 days
Extension at an immigration office	30 days, 1,900 baht	30 days, 1,900 baht
Maximum stay without a visa	90 days	60 days
Visa on arrival	31 countries	3 countries
Visa-exempt entries at a land border	Unlimited	Twice per calendar year

Four things follow from that.

The extension did not change, so the ceiling fell from 90 days to 60. You can still add 30 days at any immigration office for 1,900 baht. A trip built around 60 visa-free days plus an extension now has to fit inside 60 days total, or start with a tourist visa obtained before you fly.

The exemption covers tourism only. Newland Chase notes that travellers entering for business now need a Non-Immigrant “B” visa, which was not the case under the old 60-day rule.

Land borders are capped at two visa-exempt entries per calendar year. That ends the old border-run pattern. Nationals of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore are exempt from the cap, and arriving by air has no frequency limit at all.

Visa on arrival went from 31 countries to three, being Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia. For most nationalities the airport counter is no longer the fallback it was.

One caution if you go to verify this yourself. The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa-exemption list still shows the old 60-day ผ.60 category and carries an update stamp from March 2025, so it has not caught up with the Royal Gazette announcement. Until it does, the Tourism Authority of Thailand summary is the more current official reference. Sources also disagree slightly on the size of the new list, with TAT and the Thaiger putting it at 60 countries and territories and Khaosod English reporting 57. Every version includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

The rest of the entry checklist

• Passport validity: at least six months beyond entry is the safe planning rule, and airlines may enforce it at check-in.
• Onward travel: airlines may ask for proof that you will leave within your permitted stay.
• TDAC confirmation: keep a screenshot or downloaded PDF, not only an email that needs airport Wi-Fi.
• Land entries: from 15 September 2026, visa-exempt entry at a land border is capped at twice per calendar year. Air arrivals are not capped.

About the proposed 300-baht entry fee

Thailand’s proposed tourist entry fee has been approved in principle and delayed more than once. There is nothing to pre-pay on a website. If a fee launches, follow the collection method announced by the Thai government or your airline; do not buy a separate “entry fee” from a search ad.

Once you land

• Airport taxis: use the official queue and meter or a reputable ride app.
• “It’s closed today”: a friendly stranger near a temple offers a substitute tour. Check the entrance yourself.
• Government gem sales: there is no special government gem sale.
• Jet-ski rentals: photograph the machine from every angle before using it.

These are the kinds of practical risks a country-level advisory often misses. Our guide to reading State Department travel advisories shows how to combine the official warning with real trip context.