How Much Does It Cost to Open a Restaurant in Thailand? A Real Budget, Line by Line
The question we hear most from people about to open a restaurant is “how much money is enough?” And the answer they hear most is a single number pulled out of thin air, like “two hundred thousand.” That number has sunk countless shops, because it only counts the cost of opening the doors and ignores the money you need to keep the shop alive until it actually sells.
This article breaks the budget down by category in a way you can actually plan with, using price ranges that are typical in Thailand in 2026, plus sample budgets for three shop sizes. Adjust them to your own location and concept and you have a working plan.
Your startup budget isn't one pot of money. It's three.
The number-one mistake new restaurants make is pouring everything into pot 1 until nothing is left for pot 3. Separate them clearly from the start:
- Pot 1 — Investment (one-off) Key money, deposits, fit-out, kitchen, tables and chairs, signage, licences
- Pot 2 — Opening costs (paid a few days before launch) First batch of ingredients, tableware, packaging, a cash float, launch-day marketing
- Pot 3 — Working capital Enough money to keep paying rent, wages, utilities and suppliers for 3–6 months without relying on sales
A simple rule that works well: for every ฿100 you have, plan to spend no more than ฿70 on investment and keep at least ฿30 in reserve. A shop that spends every last baht and waits for sales to cover the first month's rent is a shop that makes every decision out of fear by week two.
Budget table for 3 shop sizes (typical figures in Thailand)
The ranges below reflect prices commonly seen in Thailand's new and second-hand equipment markets. Use them as a starting frame, then get real quotes in your area.
| Category | Cart / kiosk | 1-unit shophouse (made-to-order) | Air-conditioned sit-down, 20–30 seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key money (sseng / pae-jia) | 0–30,000 | 0–200,000 | 100,000–500,000 |
| Deposit + advance rent (2+1 months) | 9,000–24,000 | 27,000–60,000 | 75,000–180,000 |
| Fit-out / plumbing and electrical | 10,000–40,000 | 50,000–150,000 | 250,000–600,000 |
| Kitchen equipment (stoves, hood, fridges, sinks) | 15,000–45,000 | 60,000–150,000 | 150,000–350,000 |
| Tables, chairs / counter | 0–8,000 | 15,000–40,000 | 60,000–150,000 |
| Shop sign + menu board | 3,000–10,000 | 8,000–25,000 | 25,000–80,000 |
| Plates, bowls, small kitchenware | 3,000–8,000 | 10,000–25,000 | 30,000–70,000 |
| Licences + commercial registration | 500–3,000 | 1,000–5,000 | 3,000–15,000 |
| Electricity/water meter deposits (if new connection) | 0–5,000 | 3,000–15,000 | 10,000–40,000 |
| First batch of ingredients + packaging | 5,000–12,000 | 15,000–35,000 | 40,000–90,000 |
| Launch marketing (banners, flyers, opening promo) | 2,000–6,000 | 5,000–20,000 | 20,000–60,000 |
| Total investment + opening | ~50,000–120,000 | ~250,000–500,000 | ~800,000–2,000,000 |
| 3 months' working capital (recommended minimum) | +30,000–60,000 | +90,000–180,000 | +250,000–500,000 |
What's hiding in each category
Key money and deposits — the most negotiable pot
A spot in front of a market or at the mouth of a busy soi often comes with key money in the hundreds of thousands, while a shophouse 50 metres further in may have none at all. Before paying key money, go and physically count the people walking past for at least 3 days, at the hours you plan to trade. If the key money is more than 12 months' rent, you need to be very confident the foot traffic justifies it.
Read the whole lease: a 1-year contract renewed year by year is a huge risk when you've just spent ฿200,000 on fit-out, because the landlord can raise the rent once you've made the location popular. If you can, ask for a 3-year lease with a cap on rent increases written in.
Kitchen equipment — where second-hand is fine, and where it isn't
Worth buying second-hand: anything stainless steel (prep tables, sinks, shelving), high-pressure gas burners, pots and woks, carts and display cabinets. These rarely break and cost 40–60% less than new.
Buy new: fridges and freezers, because old compressors eat electricity and can die at any moment — one night with a dead fridge can cost you ฿10,000+ in spoiled ingredients. Same goes for deep fryers and other high-heat electrical equipment, where safety is involved.
Licences — cheaper than you think, but non-negotiable
For a typical restaurant, you need a commercial registration at the district office or municipality (฿50 fee) and a food-establishment licence or notification certificate from your local administration (premises over 200 m² need a licence; smaller ones file a notification). Fees vary by locality and shop size, usually in the hundreds to low thousands of baht per year.
If you sell alcohol, you'll need an additional licence from the Excise Department, and once revenue reaches ฿1.8 million a year you must register for VAT. This matters for pricing: if you join the VAT system and keep your old prices, roughly 7% of your margin disappears overnight.
Working capital — the pot people forget most
Almost every new restaurant has a strong first month from curiosity, a dip in month two, and only gradually stabilises in months three to six. If you plan as if month one were normal, your cash forecast is wrong from day one.
Fixed costs are the bills you pay even on a day you sell nothing — rent, regular wages, baseline utilities, internet, equipment instalments. Example for a one-unit made-to-order shop:
| Fixed cost | Per month |
|---|---|
| Rent | 15,000 |
| Wages for 2 staff | 24,000 |
| Baseline water, electricity, gas | 7,000 |
| Internet + miscellaneous | 2,000 |
| Total fixed per month | 48,000 |
| Reserve you should have (× 3–6) | 144,000–288,000 |
If this number makes your budget feel too small, that's a sign your original plan was heading for real trouble. The fix isn't to cut the reserve — it's to scale the shop down to match the money you have.
Work out break-even before you sign the lease
Before you pay anything, calculate how many plates a day you need to sell just to avoid a loss. The formula:
With fixed costs of ฿48,000 and an average ingredient cost of 35% of the selling price (see how to calculate it in how to calculate food cost):
Trading 26 days a month, that's ~฿2,840 a day, or about 44 plates a day at an average of ฿65 a plate. Ask yourself honestly: with this location and this team, can you sell 44 plates a day from month one? If the answer is “probably by month four,” you genuinely need enough reserve to cover the first three months.
6 ways to cut your startup budget without wrecking the shop
- Start with a small, tight menu — 8–12 dishes that share ingredients make your first stock order much cheaper and cut waste too.
- Lease or finance big equipment — some fridge and coffee-machine suppliers offer 0% instalments, which moves money from your investment pot to a monthly cost and protects your reserve.
- Test the menu cheaply first — sell at a weekend market, run a booth or take pre-orders for 1–2 months, so you know what actually sells before you spend on fit-out.
- Don't decorate beyond your customers — made-to-order customers pay for speed and flavour, not bare-concrete walls. Spend that money on a stronger stove or keep it as reserve.
- Do a soft opening — open quietly for 1–2 weeks to tune the kitchen and find the weak spots, then spend your marketing budget when the shop is genuinely ready.
- Record every baht from the first baht — the pre-opening period is when money leaves fastest and is most easily forgotten.
Start recording before you open, not after
Most owners start bookkeeping on opening day, so hundreds of thousands of baht in investment become a black hole nobody can account for. Then when someone asks “has the shop paid for itself yet?”, there's no answer — because nobody knows what the investment actually was.
The easiest fix is to create an expense category called “Startup investment” on the day you pay the deposit, and photograph every receipt into it. Once you open, you'll have an exact investment figure to work out your payback, plus a record of equipment prices for when you open a second branch.
The Bunchee app handles this before you even open — scan receipts with AI and it categorises them automatically, shows totals per category instantly, and you can just ask the AI assistant “how much have we spent on fit-out so far?” without digging through a spreadsheet. After opening, the same numbers carry straight on into your daily income and expenses (see how to set it up in simple restaurant bookkeeping).
Checklist before you pay the first big sum
- Count real foot traffic for 3 days at the hours you'll trade
- Get equipment quotes from at least 3 suppliers — don't rely on prices in your head
- Write all 3 budget pots on paper, with a 15–20% overrun buffer
- Calculate monthly fixed costs and break-even as plates per day
- Check that your reserve covers at least 3 months after the investment is paid
- Read the lease in full, especially the term and rent-increase conditions
- Confirm the licences you need with your local district office or municipality before fit-out starts
- Create a “Startup investment” category in your bookkeeping app and record from the first baht
The money you need to open a restaurant isn't a single number anyone outside can give you — it's the result of the location, size and menu you choose. What we can say for certain is this: the shops that survive aren't the ones that invest the most, but the ones that know their own numbers before they open the doors on day one.
Track your startup budget and daily expenses in one app
Bunchee is a free restaurant bookkeeping app — AI receipt scanning, automatic categories, ingredient price history charts, and real-time daily/monthly summaries.