Thai numbers use ten digits of their own, ๐ ๑ ๒ ๓ ๔ ๕ ๖ ๗ ๘ ๙, which stand for 0 to 9 and work exactly like ours: ๑๒๐ is 120. Once you know the ten shapes, you can read any Thai price, time or year, because there is nothing else to learn.
Most prices in Thailand are written in the Western digits you already know, often next to the Thai ones. Thai digits still turn up on official documents, some price boards and in dates, and they are the one part of written Thai a visitor can learn in an afternoon. That helps most away from the tourist areas, where, as our page on how widely English is spoken in Thailand explains, you cannot count on an English sign. This page gives the table, shows how they look on real signs, and adds the spoken numbers you need when you buy something.
Thai digits at a glance
- How many
- Ten, from ๐ (0) to ๙ (9)
- System
- Place value, the same as Western digits
- Baht sign
- ฿, or the word บาท (baht) after the number
- Where you see them
- Official papers, some price boards, opening times, Thai-calendar years
- Standard
- Unicode Thai block, characters U+0E50 to U+0E59
The ten Thai digits in a table
The Unicode Standard lists the ten characters as THAI DIGIT ZERO to THAI DIGIT NINE, in the same order as 0 to 9. The romanized name is the word you say out loud.
| Thai digit | Value | Thai word | Say |
|---|---|---|---|
| ๐ | 0 | ศูนย์ | sun |
| ๑ | 1 | หนึ่ง | nueng |
| ๒ | 2 | สอง | song |
| ๓ | 3 | สาม | sam |
| ๔ | 4 | สี่ | si |
| ๕ | 5 | ห้า | ha |
| ๖ | 6 | หก | hok |
| ๗ | 7 | เจ็ด | chet |
| ๘ | 8 | แปด | paet |
| ๙ | 9 | เก้า | kao |
Longer numbers are built the same way as in English: ๒๕ is 25, ๑๐๐ is 100, and ๑,๒๐๐ is 1,200.
The shapes people mix up
A few digits look alike at first. Our tip is to look at the tails and loops rather than the overall shape:
- ๓ (3) and ๗ (7) differ mainly in the tail.
- ๔ (4) and ๕ (5) have a similar body; check the curl at the top.
- ๘ (8) and ๙ (9) are the pair most often confused.
When the amount matters, such as change from a large note, ask the seller to show the figure on a calculator or phone. Our guide to Thai banknotes and coins helps you tell the notes and coins apart.
Reading a real price board
The Fine Arts Department's Thai-language page for Sukhothai Historical Park is a good test. It lists the entry fee for each zone as "ชาวไทย ๒๐ บาท" and "ชาวต่างชาติ ๑๐๐ บาท". The first word means Thais, the second foreigners, and the numbers read 20 and 100 baht (November 2026). The Ayutthaya page uses the same style, with "ท่านละ ๕๐ บาท", 50 baht per person, on the line for foreigners. Signs like this are the main reason visitors want to read Thai digits; why the two rates exist is explained in our page on dual pricing in Thailand.
The same page gives opening times as "๐๖.๓๐ - ๑๙.๓๐ น.", which is 06.30 to 19.30. Thai times are usually written with a point between hours and minutes, followed by the abbreviation น., which marks a clock time in written Thai.
Two prices on one board usually means read the second line. On a two-tier sign, the line for foreigners is labeled ชาวต่างชาติ. Learn that one word along with the ten digits and you can check which price is yours before you reach the window.
Years, labels and addresses
Thai documents and product labels often give the year in the Buddhist Era, which is the Western year plus 543, so 2569 is 2026. Written in Thai digits that year becomes ๒๕๖๙. Our guide to Buddhist-era dates in Thailand covers the conversion and the two-digit short forms, and the page on reading Thai medicine labels shows where those dates sit on a pharmacy pack.
House numbers, village numbers and postcodes follow their own logic, with slashes and a fixed order from small to large; see how Thai addresses are written rather than trying to read them as plain numbers.
Saying numbers at the market
Spoken Thai numbers combine the words in the table with a few place words: sip (10), roi (100), phan (1,000), muen (10,000), saen (100,000) and lan (1,000,000). Two rules catch beginners out:
- A final 1 becomes "et". Eleven is sip-et, and 21 is yi-sip-et.
- Twenty is yi-sip, not song-sip. Thirty and above are regular: sam-sip, si-sip, ha-sip.
So 25 baht is yi-sip-ha baht, 45 is si-sip-ha and 120 is nueng roi yi-sip. Our list of essential Thai phrases for travelers puts these words into short dialogues, and the page on shopping at Thai fresh markets adds the words for kilos and 100-gram units. Where haggling is normal and where it is not is covered in our guide to bargaining in Thailand.
Frequently asked questions
Do Thai people still use Thai digits?
Yes, though less than Western digits in daily life. They appear in official documents, on many government web pages written in Thai, on some price boards and in dates. Western digits are used alongside them almost everywhere, so you can get by without them, but they help on two-tier price signs.
How do you say 20 in Thai?
Twenty is yi-sip (ยี่สิบ), not song-sip, even though song means two. It is the only irregular tens word. Twenty-one is yi-sip-et, because a final one in a number becomes "et", as in sip-et for eleven.
What does the baht sign look like in Thai?
The symbol is ฿, a B with a vertical line through it, listed in Unicode as THAI CURRENCY SYMBOL BAHT. In Thai text the amount is more often followed by the word บาท, so "๒๐ บาท" on a sign means 20 baht.
Is the Thai year on a receipt a mistake?
No. A year such as 2569 is the Buddhist Era year, which is 543 years ahead of the Western calendar; 2569 corresponds to 2026. Subtract 543 to get the Western year.
Sources
- Unicode Consortium – Thai code chart (U+0E00 to U+0E7F) (checked November 2026)
- Fine Arts Department – Sukhothai Historical Park services and fees (Thai) (checked November 2026)
- Fine Arts Department – Ayutthaya Historical Park services and fees (Thai) (checked November 2026)