Bangkok International School Fees 2026/2027: What Tuition Actually Costs

From 2014 to 2020, I sent my two kids to different international schools in Bangkok: The American School of Bangkok, KIS International School, and The International Community School (ICS). Each school came with its positives and challenges, but my kids greatly benefited from their time spent there. Ultimately we ended up moving back to the USA for a number of reasons, but that is something I will get into later.

I also worked in marketing and admissions for both The American School of Bangkok and for KIS International School. This required me to know a lot about not only those schools, but the international school landscape in Bangkok and the surrounding areas. I can tell you that the biggest three factors when choosing a school are typically these: price, location, and curriculum.

While there are many other factors, let us dive into the first one, price. Every guide to Bangkok school fees I have read gives you a vague band, something like 400,000 to 900,000 baht a year, and calls it a day. That is not actually useful when you are trying to budget for a specific child at a specific school for the 2026/2027 school year. So instead of estimating, I read the fee schedules that 30 Bangkok international schools publish themselves, on 18 September 2026, and sorted them by what each one charges for Year 1 or Grade 1. Comparing one year group matters more than it sounds: the cheapest line on a fee schedule is often a half-day toddler session, so lining schools up by their lowest and highest figures ranks a playgroup against a sixth form. Every school below links to its page in our directory, where you can see its full fee table and the document it came from.

Premium tier: over 800,000 THB for Year 1

At the top, Year 1 costs more than 800,000 baht a year. International School Bangkok charges 1,015,000 for every elementary grade from KG to Grade 5, Wellington 882,500, Harrow 880,300, King's College 879,400, Shrewsbury 851,400, Brighton College 849,900, Denla British School 826,000 and BASIS 810,000. By the senior years most of this group passes a million: Wellington's Year 12 is 1,283,500, the highest verified fee in Bangkok, Shrewsbury's is 1,256,700 and ISB's high school is 1,197,000. NIST, Dulwich College and Concordian publish no fees at all, so you will only get their numbers by asking admissions. These are the schools with decades of history, extensive facilities, and university counseling offices that genuinely know how to get kids into competitive programs abroad. You are paying for that infrastructure as much as the classroom itself.

Upper mid tier: 600,000 to 800,000 THB

The next band charges 600,000 to 800,000 baht for Year 1. Bangkok Patana is 749,000, Ruamrudee 718,400 for Grade 1, Bangkok Prep 706,400, XCL American School 677,410, St Andrews 636,200, Regent's 630,000 and DPREP 624,860. Berkeley gave us only its endpoints, 524,300 for Pre-K up to 847,500 for Grades 9 to 11, which puts it in the same band. This is where a lot of genuinely strong academic options sit, often 20 to 30 percent cheaper than the premium tier for outcomes that are honestly not that different at the primary level. The gap widens more in the senior years, where Patana's Year 12 reaches 1,014,000.

Mid tier: 400,000 to 600,000 THB

Between 400,000 and 600,000 baht for Year 1 you find ICS at 556,900 (its published schedule is already for 2027/2028), Charter at 510,000, Amnuay Silpa at 470,000 for its bilingual programme, Australian International School at 467,000, Ascot at 447,390, Garden International at 431,100, Thai-Chinese International at 430,604, SISB at 429,600 on its Pracha Uthit campus and RBIS at 429,000. In this band, look at what is included as closely as at the headline number. Charter's tuition covers lunch, after-school activities and learning support, which cost extra almost everywhere else, while a school that bills English language support separately can add more than 100,000 a year if your child needs it.

Value tier: under 400,000 THB

This is where the real savings live if the specific curriculum and campus fit your family. Wells charges 392,000 for Grades 1 and 2, Heathfield 336,582, NIVA American 335,000 for Grade 1, Bangkok Christian International School 255,300 and Trinity 200,250, and BCIS still only reaches 342,500 by Grade 12. There are cheaper options again, bilingual and Thai English Program schools among them, but the ones I checked either do not publish fees or publish them only in Thai, so they are not in this list. Our school directory carries indicative figures for many of them, clearly marked as not yet verified.

The hidden fees nobody puts on the front page

Tuition is usually only 75 to 85 percent of what you will actually pay in year one. Almost every school charges an application fee, typically 3,000 to 6,500 baht, plus a registration or entrance fee that ran from 75,000 to 320,000 baht across the schedules I read, separate from tuition and almost never refundable. Many then take a refundable deposit on top: at Shrewsbury the guaranteed place fee and the deposit are 225,000 each, so the cash due at entry is 455,000 before the first term's tuition. Some schools also charge a capital or development levy, typically 100,000 to 180,000 baht among the schools I checked, sometimes refundable if you stay long enough, sometimes not refundable at all. Always ask which category you are in before you sign anything.

Beyond the entry fees, budget for a school bus if you need one, anywhere from about 40,000 to 178,000 baht a year on the schedules I read, depending on the school and the distance, and factor in that Bangkok traffic means a bus route that looks reasonable on a map can still mean an hour each way. Exam registration for IGCSE, IB Diploma, or AP years is usually billed separately too, often 30,000 to 80,000 baht in the relevant year, and boarding, where it is offered at all, adds another 300,000 to 600,000 baht on top of day tuition.

How to actually save money on Bangkok school fees

A few practical things I have learned the hard way. Sibling discounts are common, usually 5 to 15 percent starting from the second child, but they do not always stack with scholarships, so ask specifically. Most schools invoice in three terms and offer a small discount if you pay the full year upfront in August. If your employer is covering tuition as part of a relocation package, get in writing whether that covers just tuition or the capital levy and registration fees too, since that single detail can move your real out of pocket cost by six figures.

If you are earning in a currency other than baht, keep an eye on timing. Almost every school here invoices in THB only, and a 3 percent swing in the exchange rate between accepting a place and your first invoice is a real number, not a rounding error. A few schools let you lock in an advance payment at a fixed rate, which is worth asking about if your income is in USD, GBP, EUR, or SGD.

My honest advice: shortlist three to five schools across at least two different tiers before you start touring campuses. It is the only way to actually see whether the extra 300,000 or 400,000 baht a year at the premium tier is buying you something your family genuinely needs, or whether a strong mid tier or value tier option gets your kid to the same place for a lot less money. You can browse our full directory, with real 2026/2027 fee ranges where we have them, to start building that shortlist yourself.