How much will I actually receive from Thailand’s social security pension?

日本語版: タイの年金、日本人はいくらもらえる？

This is the question people ask before anything else: what number is actually going to land in my bank account?

The good news is that the math is straightforward. Your benefit is determined almost entirely by how many months you contributed and whether your monthly salary was above or below 15,000 THB.

Here is the picture.

The basic formula

Thailand’s old-age lump sum is calculated as follows:

• If you earned 15,000 THB/month or more: 900 THB × contribution months + accrued interest
• If you earned less than 15,000 THB/month: 6% of your monthly salary × contribution months + accrued interest

Essentially every expat worker in Thailand earned 15,000 THB/month or more, so the first formula is what applies in nearly all cases. Note one important nuance: the contribution base was capped at 15,000 THB through the end of 2025 (and has been raised to 17,500 THB from 2026, with another step up to 20,000 THB scheduled for 2029). Earning a higher salary does not increase your benefit. The system caps your contribution and your benefit at the same ceiling.

This is why the lump sum amount is roughly the same for a junior staffer earning 25,000 THB/month and a senior executive earning 200,000 THB/month, provided they contributed for the same number of months.

If you are claiming a benefit for past Thai work (the typical case for this article), the 15,000 THB cap is what applied during your contribution years and is what’s reflected in the table below.

Quick-reference table

For anyone in the “15,000 THB/month or more” category — i.e., essentially all expat workers — here are typical lump sum amounts by contribution length, including approximate USD and JPY conversions:

(USD ≈ 36 THB, JPY ≈ 4.9 THB, both approximate at time of writing. The SSO calculates the final figure in THB at the time of your application.)

A useful rule of thumb: lump sum (USD) ≈ contribution years × 350. Or, in THB, “roughly 11,000–13,000 THB per year of work.” Easy mental math when you’re trying to decide whether the claim is worth the paperwork.

What real cases look like

Looking back at the cases I’ve worked with, here is roughly how they distribute by contribution length:

• 3–5 years of contributions — the most common bracket. Lump sums fall in the range of about USD 900 to 1,800.
• 7–10 years of contributions — fairly common, with lump sums in the USD 2,400 to 4,200 range.
• 10+ years — less common but real, with lump sums in the USD 4,500 to 7,500 range.
• Largest case I have worked on: 14 years of contributions, lump sum about USD 5,300 (~190,000 THB).

Even people who contributed for less than 12 months — who only receive their own share back, not the employer match — have come away with roughly USD 150–300.

15 years or more of contributions: a monthly pension instead

If you contributed for 180 months (15 years) or more, the benefit switches from a one-time lump sum to a monthly pension for life. You don’t get to choose — the contribution length decides for you.

For someone who contributed for exactly 15 years at the 15,000 THB cap, the monthly pension is 3,000 THB/month (20% of the contribution base). Each additional year of contribution adds +1.5% of the contribution base to the monthly amount:

• 15 years → 3,000 THB/month
• 20 years → 4,125 THB/month
• 25 years → 5,250 THB/month

To put that in perspective, a 15-year contributor who receives the pension from age 55 to age 80 collects a total of about 900,000 THB (~USD 25,000) on personal contributions of only 135,000 THB (~USD 3,750). It’s a generous benefit if you reach the 15-year mark.

Note that the 15-year pension is paid via a Thai bank account in practice (see Claiming from outside Thailand). The lump sum, by contrast, can be paid to a bank account in any country.

Upper bound — how much could anyone realistically receive?

A quick rule of thumb for ballparking the maximum you could expect:

• As a lump sum (under 15 years): ~12,000 THB per year of contribution → about 190,000 THB (~USD 5,300) for a 14-year contributor, which is the practical ceiling for lump sums.
• As a monthly pension (15+ years): Monthly amount × 12 months × expected years of receipt. Assuming a recipient draws the pension for 25 years (age 55 to 80), a 15-year contributor accumulates close to 900,000 THB (~USD 25,000) over that period; a 25-year contributor collects well over 1.5 million THB (~USD 42,000).

A note on COVID-19: Thailand reduced social security premiums six times between 2020 and 2022 to support employers and workers during the pandemic. If you contributed during any of those reduction periods, your benefit for those months is correspondingly smaller. The reductions are not uniform across the years; the SSO will calculate the exact figure from your record at the time of application.

Wait — won’t taxes eat into this?

Tax treatment of foreign social security payments varies considerably by your country of residence. Some countries treat it as ordinary income; some treat it as a foreign pension under tax-treaty rules; some treat it as tax-exempt up to certain thresholds. Please consult a local tax or legal advisor for your specific situation — this article does not cover tax aspects.

What I can say from experience is that the SSO does not withhold any tax in Thailand before transferring the benefit. The gross amount calculated above is what the SSO releases. When the destination is a bank account outside Thailand, intermediary-bank fees and FX conversion may shave a small amount off the figure that actually lands in your account.

Read next

• The complete guide to Thailand’s old-age benefit
• Can I claim if I no longer live in Thailand?
• What’s the minimum contribution period?
• I don’t remember my SSO number — what can I do?

How I can help you with the application

If you’d rather not navigate the SSO paperwork yourself, I take care of the entire application for you. I tell you exactly which documents to prepare, you mail them to me in Thailand by international registered mail (or EMS within Thailand), and I file the application at the SSO on your behalf. For overseas recipients I follow up with the Royal Thai Embassy step as needed.

Service fee

The fee depends on the bank account you want to receive the benefit into:

This is a flat fee. There is no success fee and no additional charges, regardless of how much you receive. If it turns out that you are not eligible, I refund the full amount.

About the author

I’m Takehiko Nishizawa, originally from Saitama, Japan. I have been working for a Japanese company in Thailand for 25 years. During that time I have helped more than 40 former expat workers claim their social security old-age benefit from the Thai SSO. Every applicant who knew their Social Security number has successfully received their benefit. There have been no failed cases.

Get in touch

For questions or to start your application, please contact me through this form. I usually reply within 24 hours. You can also find me on X at @nisizawa.

This article provides general information about Thailand’s social security old-age benefit and is based on the author’s hands-on experience helping former expat workers file their claims. It does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Tax treatment of the benefit varies by your country of residence — please consult a local tax or legal advisor for your specific situation. Procedures and amounts at the Social Security Office may change without notice; the description here reflects practice as of 2026.