PromptPay in Thailand for Foreigners: Registration, QR and Transfers

PromptPay is easy to mistake for a separate wallet. It is better understood as payment infrastructure connected to a bank account: the money still lands in the bank account, while a registered proxy such as a mobile number can replace the account number for receiving certain transfers.

That distinction matters more than the branding. A foreign resident who wants people to send money to their phone number needs that number linked for PromptPay receiving. Someone who only wants to send money to another person's registered PromptPay can normally initiate the transfer from mobile banking without first becoming a registered recipient themselves.

Thai QR is another adjacent use case. The Bank of Thailand describes it as a payment flow in which the user scans a QR code in a mobile banking app. From a customer's point of view, all of this may sit behind the same bank app, but receiving by mobile number and paying a merchant QR are not the same registration problem.

Eligibility starts with the account, not with the PromptPay menu. The customer needs an eligible individual Thai-baht deposit account at a participating bank. Bangkok Bank, for example, says individual savings and current accounts in baht can be registered, while joint and foreign-currency deposit accounts cannot. Other banks may define eligibility differently.

A passport solves an identification problem; it does not automatically become a PromptPay proxy. Bangkok Bank explicitly says foreign customers can identify themselves with a passport and register PromptPay by connecting a mobile phone number to the chosen account. Its own FAQ goes further and says foreigners can link only their mobile number for PromptPay.

Krungsri provides a useful second example. Its current PromptPay rules state that non-Thai customers with a Thai-currency deposit account may link the account only to a mobile number, and an internationally registered mobile number is not accepted for that service. This is why advice that tells foreigners to use a passport number exactly like a Thai citizen ID is misleading.

The mobile number can carry its own requirements. The bank may need the number already recorded in the customer profile, access to SMS verification, and in some cases evidence relating to the registered SIM owner. Those details are bank-specific; a rule published by one institution should not be presented as a national PromptPay rule.

The same applies to the registration channel. App-based registration exists, and KASIKORNBANK publishes a mobile-number registration flow in K PLUS, but a screen shown by one bank is not proof that every foreign profile can complete the process online. A branch, ATM or another bank-supported channel may still be required depending on the account and customer record.

App menus are the least durable part of any PromptPay guide. A better starting point is the customer record behind the screen: which mobile number the bank has on file, which account you want to receive into, and whether that account is eligible. If the bank profile still contains an old number, the real task may be updating customer data before PromptPay registration can work.

Registration is then completed through a channel supported by the bank. KASIKORNBANK's published K PLUS flow, for instance, has the customer choose mobile-number registration and select the account to link. Bangkok Bank publishes app, internet banking, ATM and branch routes. These are useful illustrations of how banks implement PromptPay, not a universal interface.

An absent button in the app does not automatically mean a foreign customer is ineligible. Bangkok Bank expressly provides a branch route in which a foreign customer can use a passport as identification and link a mobile phone number. Where the digital channel is unavailable to a particular profile, the bank's own alternative route is more reliable than following screenshots from another bank or an older app version.

The final step is verification in the real world. After the bank reports a successful registration, a small incoming transfer to the registered mobile number confirms which account is actually receiving PromptPay payments. That test is particularly useful for customers with several accounts or a mobile number that may have been linked elsewhere in the past.

A mobile number cannot simply point to two different PromptPay receiving accounts at the same time. If the number is still registered to another account or bank, the earlier link has to be cancelled before the new one can take effect. The exact cancellation route is set by the bank.

The confusion usually starts when every phone-based payment is casually described as PromptPay. The registration question changes with the job you are trying to do: receiving to your own mobile number, sending to someone else's registered PromptPay, and paying a Thai QR code are separate user journeys even when the same banking app handles all three.

Receiving by your own mobile number is the clearest case. The number has to be linked to the account so the payment system knows where to route an incoming transfer. Without that link, the bank account can still receive money by other transfer methods, but your phone number is not acting as your PromptPay receiving address.

Sending is different. Bangkok Bank says transferors do not need to register for PromptPay as recipients in order to send to an account that is already registered, and Krungsri publishes the same basic logic for its electronic transfer channels. The important control is the recipient name shown before confirmation. A correct-looking mobile number is not enough if the displayed name does not match the person or merchant you intended to pay.

Thai QR is a scan-to-pay flow in mobile banking. The Bank of Thailand lists Thai QR Payment as a payment service, so having a bank app that can scan an eligible merchant QR does not necessarily require your own mobile number to have been registered as a PromptPay receiving proxy first. The practical checks happen on the payment screen: recipient or merchant name, amount, and whether you are scanning the type of QR your bank supports.

Cross-border use adds another layer. PromptPay-PayNow mobile-number remittances are limited to participating institutions, while QR interoperability works only through specific country and provider linkages. A QR code that works domestically should not be assumed to be internationally interoperable.

Thinking in terms of direction keeps the system manageable: your own registration matters most when others are sending to your number; the recipient's registration matters when you send to them; Thai QR depends on the bank app and QR compatibility; cross-border payments require a separate check of the country, participating bank, limit, fee and exchange rate.

The Bank of Thailand still publishes a standard PromptPay fee schedule, but that is not the same as saying every mobile transfer is charged at those rates. The schedule is free up to THB 5,000, capped at THB 2 for transfers above THB 5,000 up to 30,000, capped at THB 5 above THB 30,000 up to 100,000, and capped at THB 10 above that within the bank's transfer limit. The same BOT page notes that most banks have waived fees for many digital-channel transactions since 2018.

The useful number is therefore the one your bank shows for the channel you are actually using. As a bank-specific example checked on 26 September 2026, Krungsri lists PromptPay transfers through its app as free and publishes a standard app limit of THB 500,000 per transaction and per day, with the daily limit extendable up to THB 2 million. That does not create a market-wide PromptPay limit.

Banks can set channel limits and customer security limits, and cross-border services have their own caps, fees and FX treatment. For a large transfer, the confirmation screen and the bank's current terms matter more than a generic number copied from another institution.

“PromptPay works abroad” can describe two different products. One is cross-border remittance between linked fast-payment systems using a mobile number. The other is interoperable QR payment between national schemes. They do not share one universal set of participating banks, limits or pricing.

PromptPay-PayNow between Thailand and Singapore is the clearest mobile-number example. The Bank of Thailand's cross-border remittance summary, current as of May 2026, lists Bangkok Bank, KASIKORNBANK, Krungthai Bank and Siam Commercial Bank on the Thai side, with DBS, OCBC and UOB in Singapore. BOT's main overview still describes the original first-phase daily cap of THB 25,000 or SGD 1,000, so the bank's live transfer screen should be treated as the final check for the current limit and fee.

Cross-border QR is a separate network of bilateral and regional linkages. BOT's current material covers connections involving markets such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Lao PDR, with different participating apps and directions of use. A domestic Thai QR code is not automatically usable by every foreign banking app, and a QR code overseas is not automatically payable from every Thai bank.

Before relying on a cross-border option, check the country pair, participating institution, applicable limit, fee and exchange rate for that transaction. The network is expanding, which is precisely why a dated BOT participant list is more useful than a permanent country list embedded in an article.

A failed registration is often caused by the customer record around PromptPay rather than by PromptPay itself. The number may still be linked to another account, the bank may have an old mobile number on file, SMS verification may fail, or the SIM registration may not meet that bank's requirements. A foreign mobile number can also be the problem where the bank accepts only a Thai-registered number for the service.

Another common dead end is assuming that an unavailable app menu means the service is closed to foreigners. Some banks provide a branch or alternative channel for profiles that cannot complete registration digitally. If the mobile number has an old PromptPay link, resolving that existing registration comes before trying to create a new one repeatedly.

Payment safety is simpler and more important: read the recipient details shown before confirmation. Banks such as Krungsri explicitly instruct customers to verify the payee name for PromptPay transfers. The same habit helps with QR payments: match the merchant or recipient name and the amount before authorising the payment.

A screenshot or e-slip can help two people reconcile a payment, but the recipient should still confirm the actual credit in the account. For larger and cross-border transactions, current bank limits, exchange rates and service availability should be checked on the transaction date.