How Much Money to Support a Thai Girlfriend?

April 2, 2020 - Reading time: 6 minutes
Updated: June 8, 2025

This question is asked very often and the answer can vary massively depending on your individual circumstances. Some ladies are high maintenance and aim to live a champagne lifestyle, others are quite happy to live in reasonable comfort and support their families.

Some guys send 5,000 – 15,000 THB per month to top up their girlfriend’s minimum wage salary. Other men might support their girlfriend by sending 30,000 – 100,000 THB per month, and sometimes they send even more than this. Much depends on your girlfriend, her lifestyle expectations, and any dependants that rely on her.

In order to figure out how much money it will take to support your Thai girlfriend, you need to examine her circumstances as well as her ingoings and outgoings. Does your girlfriend have children? Do her parents work for a living? These two questions are very important. Thai women are traditionally expected to support their parents in old age, and as the partner of a Thai lady this responsibility may ultimately fall on you. If your girlfriend (or her parents) are raising children then this is another expense that should be taken into account when you consider paying her an allowance.

We have heard stories of women who are happy to work a minimum wage job and receive a small amount of support from their foreign boyfriends so they can live in relative comfort. Other ladies are used to a higher standard of living and may rent an expensive apartment or own a car or motorbike on finance. Supporting these types of lifestyles can be a significant financial commitment. If your Thai girlfriend genuinely loves you, it’s reasonable to expect her to make some compromises so that she is not a constant financial burden on you.

Often, foreign men fall in love with ladies from Isaan, the rural north-eastern region of Thailand. These women often leave their villages to work in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, or other large cities. If your girlfriend falls into this category and comes from a farming background, she might have obligations to help her family with expenses like fertilisers, planting rice, or even repaying debts on farming equipment. Many Thai families in Isaan have loans with high interest rates or borrow informally from local loan sharks. If this applies to your girlfriend’s family, she may be under pressure to send them money every month to help with repayments. (This is often a sensitive subject, and many Thai women are reluctant to talk about family debt or financial struggles. The concept of “saving face” means she might hide debts from you to avoid embarrassment or conflict.)

Thailand’s household debt reached approximately 89% of GDP by late 2024, according to the Bank of Thailand. When you include informal loans, the figure climbs above 100%. This means many Thais, especially those with low or middle-income jobs, carry significant financial burdens that can impact your relationship. Debt can come from many sources, including credit cards, personal loans, family obligations, or even school fees for children. It’s important to understand that your girlfriend might be financially supporting her parents, siblings, or children, and she may be reluctant to share this information unless asked directly.

When considering how much money to send your Thai girlfriend each month, think about her lifestyle. Is she living modestly, or does she have a taste for luxury? Is she used to a simple lifestyle with street food and local markets, or does she enjoy shopping malls, beauty salons, and nights out? Understanding her expectations is key. A Thai girlfriend who’s used to a modest lifestyle is unlikely to ask for large amounts of money, while a woman who’s accustomed to higher living standards might expect you to fund a lifestyle that could be difficult to sustain long term.

Is she really your girlfriend?

There is a difference between supporting your girlfriend and paying a lady to be your girlfriend. If you’ve met a lady in a bar and are now offering to pay her an amount of money to spend time with you, this is a different topic altogether and not something we are touching on with this article. However, it’s important to understand which of these two categories your relationship falls into and ensure that your girlfriend has the same view — especially if the relationship started at an adult entertainment venue such as Pattaya, Bangkok’s red light districts, or Phuket’s nightlife scene. Often, such ladies continue to sleep with customers in order to earn money while also being sponsored by foreign boyfriends. Sadly, we know from experience that this happens often, and our work frequently involves exposing exactly this kind of behaviour.

Spend a little, save a lot

If you’re sending money to your Thai girlfriend on a regular basis, it makes sense to make sure she’s faithful to you and that your money is being used appropriately. We can help by running a background check on her or by checking your girlfriend through a conventional investigation. Due to the high prevalence of romance scams in Thailand, our services have often saved clients significant sums of money and heartbreak. Please visit our homepage for more information about us and the services we offer.

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