Payment Integration for Thai Websites: PromptPay, KBank, SCB

What Payment Methods Do Thai Customers Prefer?

Thai consumers have clear payment preferences that differ significantly from Western markets. Understanding these is essential before building any e-commerce or payment-enabled application in Thailand.

PromptPay is the most widely used payment method in Thailand. It allows instant bank transfers via phone number or national ID, with QR codes as the primary interface. The Bank of Thailand reports billions of PromptPay transactions monthly. If your site does not support PromptPay QR, you are creating unnecessary friction.

Credit and debit cards remain important, particularly for younger Bangkok consumers and tourists. Visa and Mastercard coverage is essential for any business serving international customers.

LINE Pay is the preferred in-app payment method for purchases made through LINE or LIFF apps.

Buy Now Pay Later services like Atome, which supports Thai merchants, are growing in popularity for fashion and electronics.

What Payment Gateways Work in Thailand?

Omise (now Opn Payments) is the leading payment gateway built specifically for Southeast Asia. It supports PromptPay QR, TrueMoney Wallet, credit cards, and installments. Its documentation is in Thai and English, its support team is Bangkok-based, and its merchant agreement process is straightforward for Thai-registered businesses. This is the recommended default for most Bangkok projects.

Stripe supports Thai baht and Thai businesses as of 2023. It excels at international card payments and has a superior developer experience, but does not natively support PromptPay. Use Stripe for international-facing businesses and combine with Omise if local payment methods are needed.

KBank KPayPlus and SCB Payment Gateway are bank-direct options that offer lower per-transaction fees at scale. However, their APIs are older, documentation is primarily in Thai, and integration requires a direct merchant agreement with the bank. These are worth considering for high-volume merchants processing over 1 million baht per month.

How Do You Implement PromptPay QR?

With Omise, generating a PromptPay QR is a server-side API call:

const charge = await omise.charges.create({
  amount: 50000, // amount in satang (THB × 100)
  currency: "thb",
  source: { type: "promptpay" },
});
// charge.source.scannable_code.image.download_uri = QR image URL

Display the QR code to the user and poll the charge status until it changes to successful. Implement a webhook endpoint to receive the payment confirmation server-side as a backup.

What Are the Key Legal Requirements?

To accept payments in Thailand, your business must be registered (company or registered partnership). Foreign-owned businesses may face restrictions on certain payment methods — consult a Thai lawyer or accountant before integrating payments for a new business.

All payment providers require identity verification (KYC) for the merchant before going live. Prepare your company registration documents, director's ID, and bank account details before starting the gateway application process.

Ready to Build Something Fast?

Get a free quote on LINE. We reply within 24 hours.