Which Licence Can I Use in Thailand?

For a visitor, the answer is your own national driving licence carried together with the right International Driving Permit. That combination is recognised in Thailand, it satisfies rental companies, and it is what your travel insurer will expect you to have held if you ever have to claim. Your home licence on its own occupies an awkward middle ground: there is a respectable legal argument that it must be recognised, and a very good practical reason not to rely on that argument at a roadside in Krabi at ten o'clock at night.

Two things change the answer. If you ride a motorcycle you are not entitled to ride at home, no paperwork makes it legal here. And if Thailand stops being somewhere you visit and becomes somewhere you live, a Thai licence becomes the answer.

• The standard combinationYour national licence + an International Driving Permit, carried together
• Which permit1968 for UK, German, Dutch, French and Nordic drivers; 1949 for US, Australian, Irish, Canadian, New Zealand and Japanese drivers
• Entitlement, not the documentA car licence never covers a motorbike, whatever the engine size
• Long stayOnce Thailand is your normal residence, a Thai licence is the realistic answer

The short version for a two-week trip

Bring the plastic licence you drive on at home, and bring an International Driving Permit obtained in your own country before you fly. Carry both, in the same pocket, every time you are behind a wheel or a set of handlebars. If your licence covers cars only, hire a car; if you want to ride, you need motorcycle entitlement on the licence you already hold.

Which of the two permit types you need is settled by your own nationality rather than by Thailand, and it is set out in full on our page about the International Driving Permit for Thailand. The one-line version: Thailand is a party to both the 1949 Geneva and the 1968 Vienna conventions, so both booklets are recognised, and you get whichever one your own country is able to issue.

What Thailand is actually obliged to recognise

There are two separate legal routes by which a foreign licence gets recognised in Thailand: the international convention, and Thailand's own statute. They point the same way, and it is worth understanding both because they are the source of most of the confusion online.

Thailand's domestic statute reaches a similar result by a different road. The Motor Vehicle Act B.E. 2522 contains a provision, commonly cited as section 42 bis, to the effect that where a treaty exists between Thailand and a foreign government on the mutual acceptance of driving licences, a foreign national who is not an immigrant may drive on the licence issued by that government — or by an association it has authorised — for the categories that licence covers. We could not obtain the current Thai text or an official translation, so treat that as a consistent paraphrase rather than a quotation.

When the 1968 Convention came into force for Thailand on 1 May 2021, the Department of Land Transport announced the practical effect: those who already hold a foreign licence under the 1968 Convention "can use it in Thailand from May 1".

So can you drive on your photocard alone?

This is the most awkward gap on the whole site between the written rule and the sensible thing to do, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a confident one.

As a matter of treaty law, a driver from a 1968 party holding an Annex 6-conforming licence is entitled to be recognised without an international permit, and the Department of Land Transport said as much in 2021. As a matter of practical advice, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office still instructs British drivers to carry both the 1968 permit and the UK licence, rental companies ask for the permit, and travel insurers condition motorbike cover on holding the right licence for the country you are riding in.

We found no Department of Land Transport or Royal Thai Police statement on how a bare foreign photocard is treated at an actual roadside stop, and we are not going to invent one. What we will say is that the permit costs a few pounds, takes minutes to obtain, and eliminates an argument you cannot win from the side of a road in a language you do not speak. We will not tell you that you are legally required to hold one, and we will not tell you it is safe to skip it. Get one.

The answer by country

The detail differs by nationality — which body issues your permit, how long it takes, what your licence categories translate to, and whether your two-wheel entitlement carries across. Start with your own:

Not every country is a party to either convention. If yours is not, there is no international permit for your national body to issue, and the recognition route above simply does not open — which changes the answer completely and usually points towards a Thai licence or not driving. Check your own country's page before you assume.

ASEAN licences are a separate arrangement

If your licence was issued by another ASEAN country, you are covered by something older and narrower than the UN conventions: the Agreement on the Recognition of Domestic Driving Licences Issued by ASEAN Countries, signed in Kuala Lumpur on 9 July 1985. Thailand ratified it on 7 December 1987 and it entered into force on 7 January 1988.

Its effect is straightforward. A holder of a licence from one ASEAN country, on a temporary stay in another, may drive the classes that licence permits. An expired licence, or one the issuing authority has determined invalid, is not recognised — and a licence not drawn up in English must be accompanied by a certified English translation.

So a Malaysian, Singaporean or Indonesian driver on a short trip into Thailand does not need an International Driving Permit, whatever a rental desk may say. Do not stretch the agreement beyond what it covers: domestic licences, on a temporary stay, for the classes on the licence, with an English translation where the licence is not in English.

Motorcycle entitlement is the question that actually bites

Every year a large number of visitors ride a scooter in Thailand on a car licence, almost all of them without realising they are not covered by anything.

Thai law issues a private car licence and a private motorcycle licence as separate documents. Both conventions carry motorcycle entitlement as category A, and category A is a single category with no small-engine sub-tier. Thailand has additionally declared, in the depositary record for the 1968 Convention, that it treats mopeds as motorcycles. There is no version of this where a 110cc automatic is exempt.

The same wording contains a clause almost nobody knows about: for a pillion passenger, cover depends on the person in control holding a current licence valid for that class of machine in the country you are in. Your partner's cover can turn on your paperwork. What voids your motorbike cover in Thailand goes through the exclusions properly, and the Thai motorbike licence and engine sizes covers the categories.

What to carry, and what happens if you cannot produce it

Carry the national licence and the permit together, every time. GOV.UK's instruction to British drivers is explicit — carry both while driving. A permit alone is incomplete by design: the number of the licence it translates is printed inside it.

Thai law distinguishes three different failures, and the consequences differ:

• Never held the entitlement — driving without a driving licence. Translations of the Motor Vehicle Act give imprisonment of up to one month, a fine of up to about 1,000 baht, or both. We could not verify the current text against the Royal Gazette, so read that as reported rather than certified.
• Licence expired, suspended or revoked — reported as a fine of up to about 2,000 baht.
• Simply failed to produce it on demand — reported as a fine of up to about 1,000 baht. This is the mildest of the three, and it is the one that catches a driver who left the documents at the hotel.

About 1,000 baht is roughly £23 or US$28 — an irritation rather than a disaster. The consequence that actually matters is the insurance one. The UK government states it plainly: driving or riding in Thailand without a valid licence "could invalidate your travel insurance and you'll be unable to claim if you have an accident or injury". Where a serious motorbike injury means a private hospital and possibly an air ambulance, that is the number to worry about — see does travel insurance cover driving in Thailand and medical evacuation insurance for Thailand.

For what a stop looks like, see police checkpoints in Thailand and what Thai police can and cannot ask you for.

When your foreign licence stops being enough

Two provisions of the 1968 Convention set the outer boundary of foreign-licence driving, and long-stayers eventually meet both.

Article 41(6) provides that nothing in the recognition rules obliges a state to recognise a permit issued to someone who was normally resident there when it was issued, or who has since become so. Once Thailand is your home, Thailand is not obliged to keep recognising your foreign licence. That is the real reason expatriates convert, and a better reason than the folklore about 90-day and 60-day windows, for which we could establish no legal basis whatsoever.

Article 42 allows Thailand to withdraw a driver's right to use a domestic or international permit in its territory, and to retain the permit until the withdrawal expires or the holder leaves the country. Recognition is not unconditional.

There is no bright line at which a tourist becomes a resident and we are not going to pretend there is one. If you are here for a fortnight, your home licence and a permit are the right answer. If you are here for a year — working, running a household, on a long-stay visa — you should be getting a Thai licence, and there are practical reasons beyond the legal ones: it is read instantly by police and accepted without discussion by rental companies and workshops.

Getting a Thai licence instead

Thailand does not really "convert" a foreign licence; it issues you a Thai one, using your existing licence to shorten the process. A holder of a valid foreign licence or permit is usually spared some of the testing, though how much varies by office. The documents are the same for everyone: passport with the visa page and latest entry stamp, a residence certificate, a medical certificate, photographs and the application form.

A new applicant receives a temporary two-year licence; renew it and you move to a five-year one. Start with how to get a Thai driving licence, step by step, then the documents you need and what converting a foreign licence actually saves you.

Whichever route you take, run through the five-point legality checklist before you drive, or use the licence checker if you would rather answer questions than read.

Frequently asked questions