From a daughter in Los Angeles's Thai Town ringing her mother in Udon Thani to a traveler confirming a hotel booking in Phuket, calling Thailand now means reaching phones that can flag a call from abroad with a +697 or +698 warning prefix.
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Rates updated October 31, 2026
To reach a Thailand number from the United States, dial these three parts in order.
011 66 81 234 5678
From any mobile, anywhere in the world, you can dial +66 81 234 5678 instead. Press and hold 0 to type the +, and the phone picks the right access code for wherever you are.
Numbers in Thailand are written locally with a 0 in front, like 081 234 5678. Calling from abroad you leave that 0 out, so it becomes +66 81 234 5678.
A Thailand mobile number is 9 digits after +66. If a call does not connect, count the digits first.
Only the first part changes. Your access code replaces the 011, then 66 and the number stay exactly the same.
A ~ means wait for the second dial tone before dialing the rest. It is not a digit you press.
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Thailand's US diaspora is large and rooted in the Vietnam War era. About 340,000 people in the United States identified as Thai in 2023, the 10th-largest Asian-origin group, and 74% of the Thai-alone population are immigrants; of the 195,000 who identify as Thai alone, about 25,000 live in the Los Angeles metro, ahead of New York (12,000) and Seattle (8,000), with California, Florida, Texas, New York and Washington the leading states - Pew Research Center. Los Angeles designated the country's first Thai Town, along Hollywood Boulevard, in 1999 - Thai Town, Los Angeles. Migration took off during and after the Vietnam War, when many American servicemen stationed in Thailand came home with Thai wives - Thai Americans.
Commerce and money add to the traffic. Thailand is the United States' 18th-largest goods trading partner, with $72.8 billion in two-way trade in 2023, and a treaty ally since the 1954 Manila Pact - US State Department. Thailand also received about $12 billion in personal remittances in 2025 - World Bank, and a quick call to confirm that a transfer has arrived is a routine part of that flow.
Thailand has no single exit code. Callers choose an international carrier with the prefix itself: 001, or the internet-based economy line 009, through state-owned NT, 003 through AIS, 004 through dtac, 005 through AIN Globalcom and 006 through True - Telephone numbers in Thailand. True-dtac lists 006, 004 and their 00600 and 00400 variants alongside a plain + - True-dtac. So a call from Bangkok to New York is 001 1 plus the 10-digit number, or +1 from a mobile. Old guides that still list 007 and 008 are out of date: NT scrapped both on 1 June 2021, leaving 001 and 009 - Pattaya Mail.
Thailand is also home to large migrant communities with families to call. The 2014 Myanmar census counted about 1.4 million former residents living in Thailand, roughly 70% of Myanmar's population abroad - Burmese in Thailand. Like everyone else in Thailand, they can skip the carrier prefixes on a mobile and simply dial + before the country code.
Dial the exit code: 011 from a US or Canadian phone, 00 from most other countries, or simply + on a mobile or browser dialer.
Dial Thailand's country code, 66.
Drop the leading 0: the mobile 081 234 5678 becomes 81 234 5678, and the Bangkok landline 02 123 4567 becomes 2 123 4567.
Dial the remaining digits: 9 for a mobile and 8 for a landline, so the full numbers are +66 81 234 5678 and +66 2 123 4567.
Drop the trunk 0 that Thais write in front of every area code and mobile prefix: 053 123 456 in Chiang Mai becomes +66 53 123 456, and a number printed as 02-2134567 becomes +66 2 213 4567 - Telephone numbers in Thailand. After +66 a mobile has 9 digits and a landline 8. Short numbers starting with 1, such as 1669, 1155 or a 1800 toll-free line, are meant for callers inside Thailand, so find the organization's full 02 or provincial number instead. Hyphens and spaces in Thai numbers are only formatting.
A call from abroad can arrive wearing a warning label. Thailand introduced the +697 prefix in 2022 to mark internet-based calls from overseas, and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society told the public that a number starting with +697 is most likely a scam call center - Thaiger. The NBTC added +698 for Thai numbers roaming abroad and advised people to reject calls from overseas if they have no relatives or acquaintances there - Nation Thailand. Under rules published on 29 August 2025, operators must put +697 or +698 in front of incoming international calls and let users block them - Nation Thailand. Your call from the US may therefore appear as a strange number that the person has been told to reject.
Announce the call on LINE first. Thailand runs on LINE: about 54 million of the country's roughly 66 million people use it, an indispensable part of daily life - LY Corporation. A short LINE message saying who you are and when you will call turns a flagged international number into an expected one. If your relative has switched on international call blocking, that message is also the moment to ask them to turn it off before you dial.
Lines get suspended over identity checks. In February 2024, people holding more than six SIM cards who missed a verification deadline had outgoing calls, SMS and internet suspended, leaving only emergency calls - Thaiger. The August 2025 rules go further: SIMs registered since 1 January 2024 had to be re-verified within 90 days, older SIMs within a year, and tourist SIMs now last at most 60 days with no top-up extension - Nation Thailand. If a Thai number that used to work suddenly fails, a lapsed verification or an expired tourist SIM is a likely reason.
Short hotlines work only inside Thailand. Thai organizations advertise four-digit numbers such as 1669 for medical emergencies and 1155 for the Tourist Police, and 1800 toll-free numbers can only be called from landlines - Telephone numbers in Thailand. Bumrungrad International Hospital, for example, lists 1378 (Thailand only) beside +66 2066 8888 for everyone else - Bumrungrad. From the US, always look for the full 02 or provincial number.
A Thai landline is 8 digits after +66: 02 plus seven digits covers Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan, and everywhere else uses a two-digit code plus six digits, such as 53 for Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Mae Hong Son and Chiang Rai or 76 for Phuket and Phang Nga - ITU.
The provincial codes follow the regions: 3x for the central, eastern and western provinces (38 for Chon Buri, Rayong and Chachoengsao), 4x for the northeast (43 Khon Kaen, 44 Nakhon Ratchasima, 45 Ubon Ratchathani), 5x for the north and 7x for the south (74 Songkhla, 77 Surat Thani). Mobiles have no area code at all and carry 9 digits after +66 - ITU, with prefixes starting 06, 08 or 09 that were originally handed out to AIS, dtac and True block by block - Telephone numbers in Thailand.
Thailand once planned to stretch fixed-line numbers from 9 to 10 digits, first by 2021 and then by 1 January 2025. In May 2024 the NBTC told the ITU that the change will happen only when numbers actually run short, with the timing announced in advance - ITU. Until that happens, a Thai landline is still 9 digits written locally, and any 10-digit number beginning with 0 should start 06, 08 or 09.
With LINE on the phones of about 54 million of Thailand's roughly 66 million people - LY Corporation, a voice call to a Thai mobile is often the second channel rather than the first. A regular call still matters when a parent is elderly or offline, when mobile data has run out, or when you need a landline at a clinic, school or government office, which is why a LINE message before the call works so well.
Thailand counted 99.5 million cellular connections in early 2025, about 139% of the population - DataReportal, far more lines than people, which suggests many keep a second SIM. That is why a relative can be active on LINE yet silent on the number you saved years ago: the phone in their pocket may hold a different SIM from the one on your list.
Before an important call, ask which number is in the phone they actually carry, and save it in full international form (+66 and the number without its 0). If the person uses a Thai tourist SIM, remember those now expire after 60 days, so check the number again on every trip.
Thailand's phone market has consolidated. True and dtac amalgamated on 1 March 2023 into a new True Corporation - True Corporation, leaving it and AIS as the two large private mobile operators. State-owned National Telecom (NT) was formed on 7 January 2021 from the merger of TOT and CAT Telecom, and runs fixed lines, mobile service and the international gateways - National Telecom.
For callers, the main effect is that a number sold as dtac and one sold as True now belong to the same company. The network behind a Thai mobile makes no difference to how you dial it from the US: +66 and the number without its 0 reaches AIS, True-dtac and NT lines alike.
Fixed lines are a near-monopoly (in the Bangkok area the second digit of a landline number identifies the provider, almost always NT), and several big banks use memorable Bangkok landlines rather than short codes, such as SCB's 02-777-7777 and KASIKORNBANK's 02-888-8888 - Telephone numbers in Thailand. Because these are ordinary 02 numbers, they are dialed from the US as +66 2 777 7777 and +66 2 888 8888.
Thailand runs on Indochina Time, UTC+7, all year and has never observed daylight saving time - Time in Thailand, so only the American clock change moves the gap: 11 hours to New York during US daylight saving time and 12 hours in winter. A 9am call from New York in July reaches Bangkok at 8pm; in January the same call arrives at 9pm.
The biggest date in the calendar is Songkran, the Thai New Year, celebrated on 13 April with the holiday running to 15 April, when people who have moved away traditionally return home to their loved ones and elders - Songkran (Thailand). That makes Songkran week a good time to reach several generations gathered in one provincial home, and a poor one for government offices, which close for the holiday.
On ordinary days the Thai evening after work is the easy window, and it falls in the American morning. A call from a US evening lands in the Thai morning instead, which suits relatives who are free before midday. The weekend is Saturday and Sunday, and Thai dates run a day ahead of the US for most of the American evening.
Thailand's country code is +66, and yes, drop the leading 0. The mobile 081 234 5678 becomes +66 81 234 5678, and the Bangkok landline 02 123 4567 becomes +66 2 123 4567. From a US landline, dial 011 66 and then the rest of the number; from a mobile, start with +66. The 0 is only used for calls inside Thailand.
Thai operators must now add +697 or +698 to incoming international calls and let users block them, under rules published in August 2025 - Nation Thailand. The codes exist to help people spot scam calls from overseas, so many Thais treat them with suspicion. Send a LINE message first so your relative knows the flagged call is you.
A Thai mobile is 10 digits written locally (081 234 5678) and 9 digits after +66. A landline is 9 digits locally and 8 after +66, either Bangkok's 02 plus seven digits or a two-digit provincial code plus six. A long-planned switch to 10-digit landlines is on hold until numbers run short - ITU.
Thailand is on UTC+7 all year with no daylight saving time - time.is. Bangkok is 11 hours ahead of New York and 14 ahead of Los Angeles while US daylight saving time is on, and 12 and 15 hours ahead from early November to mid-March. Evening in Thailand falls in the American morning.
No. Short hotlines only work from phones inside Thailand: Bumrungrad International Hospital, for example, lists 1378 (Thailand only) and +66 2066 8888 for everyone else - Bumrungrad. The same goes for 1669 (medical emergencies), 1155 (Tourist Police) and 1800 toll-free numbers, so ask for the organization's full 02 or provincial number instead.
No. NT, the state carrier formed from TOT and CAT, scrapped 007 and 008 on 1 June 2021, leaving 001 and the economy line 009 - Pattaya Mail. Other carriers use their own prefixes, such as 003 (AIS), 004 (dtac) and 006 (True), and any Thai mobile can simply use +, so a call to the US is +1 and the 10-digit number.
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