International Schools in Bangkok: What Year One Really Costs

Checked as of October 2026. Exchange rate: ฿33.5 = $1. Fees are from each school's own 2026–27 schedule unless labelled third-party.

The tuition is the number everyone quotes. Year one is the number that hurts.

ISB, high school: tuition is ฿1,197,000. Add the ฿260,000 registration fee, the ฿22,000 annual fee and the ฿4,700 application fee. That's about ฿1.48M for a high-schooler's first year. Roughly $44k. Before the bus.

The registration fee doesn't come back. Leave after one year and it's gone.

This guide fills in the gaps. No rankings. What the schools publish, what they charge on top, and the rules that cost families money.

The short version

• Tuition on official 2026–27 schedules runs from ฿459,800 (KIS, youngest year) to ฿1,256,700 (Shrewsbury, Year 12). About $13.7k to $37.5k a year.
• Joining fees are non-refundable and per child: ฿185k–265k at most schools here. About $5.5k–7.9k. St Andrews Sukhumvit 107 is the exception.
• Deposits come back only if you follow the notice rules. Up to ฿575k at one school, per third-party data.
• Extras: buses at ฿80k–178k a year. English support up to ฿105k a year, if the school decides your child needs it.
• Notice rules decide whether you see the deposit again. Most schools want a full term, in writing.
• The school picks your neighborhood. Not the other way round.

2026–27 fees from the schools' own schedules

Annual tuition, youngest to oldest year group. The academic year runs August to June.

*Our fetch didn't return St Andrews' Year 10–11 or Year 13 fees. Check the page.

Three things the table hides:

• Brighton's figures are for the Vibhavadi campus only. The main Krungthep Kreetha campus wasn't checked. Don't assume it's the same.
• RIS is quoted all-in: tuition, campus development, technology and set lunch where included.
• Exam years look cheaper than they are. Patana and Shrewsbury bill Year 11 and Year 13 for two terms instead of three. External exam fees are billed separately.

Third-party figures (not confirmed by the school)

These come from school directories, not the schools. NIST's own fee page showed no figures when we checked; it points you to admissions. Treat these as indicative.

What year one really costs

Tuition is the recurring cost. Year one carries four more.

1. Joining fees. Every school here charges one. Different names, same idea: registration, entrance, admission, guaranteed-place fee. Across the schools above it's ฿185k–265k per child. The official schedules top out at ฿260k (ISB, KIS); the ฿265k is NIST's third-party figure. St Andrews Sukhumvit 107 sits well below the rest, at ฿70k–120k. Patana takes ฿50k off for a sibling. Everywhere else, assume two kids means two joining fees.

It's a sunk cost. ISB is the one exception we found in writing: its registration fee is refundable only if a new student withdraws within the first 20 days.

2. Deposits and capital funds. Refundable, on paper. On official schedules they run from ฿50k (Patana, RIS) to ฿275k (a Harrow boarder). Some schools give you a choice: a large refundable sum, or a smaller annual fee you don't get back. KIS: ฿250k refundable, or ฿45k a year. NIST and Concordian, per third-party data: ฿575k or ฿60.5k a year, and ฿500k or ฿60k a year.

A short stay favors the annual option. A long stay favors the deposit. Either way, it's cash out of your account in month one.

Same cash, different refund. A Year 12 student at Harrow costs about ฿1.49M up front: tuition, admission, application and the day deposit. Nearly the same cash as ISB. But ฿200k of Harrow's is a deposit you can get back.

3. English support. If your child isn't a native English speaker, budget for it. Patana's EAL fee is ฿105,000 a year for Years 1–9, and the schedule says it's not optional if the school decides your child needs it. It's capped at six terms. RIS charges ฿30,000 a semester for English support if your child is assessed as needing it, or ฿40,000 a semester for learning support.

4. The bus. Every big school runs zoned buses, priced by distance:

That's ฿80k–178k a year. About $2.4k–5.3k. The price list is a map: the farther you live, the more you pay.

Then read the "included" line. It varies more than tuition does. Harrow includes lunch, snacks and textbooks for Years 1–9. Shrewsbury includes lunch, snacks and all books. Patana includes lunch for Nursery to Year 6, and charges Years 7–13 ฿21,600 a year for set lunch. Brighton Vibhavadi bills the dining hall at ฿31,500–37,800 a year. Patana also adds a ฿30,000 capital assessment fee every year, and from Year 6 your child brings their own laptop.

American, British or IB

Which one fits depends on where your kids go next.

• American. Grades, from Pre-K to Grade 12. ISB adds the IB Diploma and AP. RIS uses American-style grades and semesters.
• British. The English National Curriculum by year group, through IGCSE. What comes after varies by school. Patana runs the IB Diploma in Years 12–13. Ask each British school what its final two years lead to.
• IB. Three programmes: Primary Years (PYP), Middle Years (MYP) and the Diploma (DP). NIST runs all three. KIS lists MYP and DP grades on its fee table.

If you might move again in two or three years, ask how each curriculum transfers to the next country on your list.

Accreditation: how to check it

Thailand has a clear rule. The Office of the Private Education Commission (OPEC) recognises 10 overseas accreditors: ASC WASC, Accreditation International, CIS, COBIS, Cognia, Education Development Trust, Independent Schools Inspectorate, MSA-CESS, NEASC and NDNA.

Per the International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT): "Every international school in Thailand is required to secure accreditation from a recognized overseas agency by the end of its fifth year of operation." Every international school must also be accredited by ONESQA, Thailand's national standards body.

ISAT itself is a membership body, not an accreditor.

Here's what third-party summaries list for each school. We didn't confirm these on the accreditors' own directories.

• ISB: listed as WASC.
• NIST: listed as CIS and NEASC, plus ONESQA.
• Bangkok Patana: listed as CIS.
• Harrow: listed as CIS.
• Shrewsbury (Riverside): listed as CIS, plus ONESQA.
• Brighton, KIS, St Andrews, RIS, Concordian, Wells: not found in our sources.

Verify it yourself. Ask the school which of the 10 bodies accredits it, and whether it's fully accredited or a candidate. Then look it up on cis.org, acswasc.org or neasc.org.

The school picks the neighborhood

In Bangkok, pick the school first. Then the home.

The big schools are spread across the city, and rush-hour traffic is the constraint. Roughly:

• North: ISB and Harrow. ISB sits next to Nichada Thani, a gated community in Pak Kret, Nonthaburi. Many ISB families live in or near it. Harrow is farther north still, in Don Mueang. Live north, or pay for the bus.
• East and southeast: Bang Na and outer Sukhumvit. Patana (Sukhumvit 105), St Andrews (Sukhumvit 107) and Concordian. Families tend to cluster along the outer Sukhumvit corridor, not downtown.
• Central Sukhumvit: NIST, on Soi 15. The one big school here you can reach from a downtown condo.
• Riverside and Sathorn: Shrewsbury. Riverside campus on Charoen Krung. Note the split: the City Campus in Huai Khwang only goes to Year 6, and Years 7–13 are at Riverside only. A primary child and a secondary child can mean two campuses.
• Far east: RIS, in Minburi. Not a downtown commute.

Rents and the areas themselves: Where to live in Bangkok.

Admissions and the visa side

The calendar. The school year runs from mid to late August to June. Patana's runs 19 August 2026 to 25 June 2027. Whether a school takes mid-year entries, and how, wasn't something we could confirm. Ask each one.

Assessment. Expect one. Harrow's ฿5,000 application fee is paid on or before the assessment date. KIS's ฿6,000 application fee "covers the cost of the student assessment."

Waiting lists. Patana's fee schedule says that if the entrance fee isn't paid by the due date, "the place may be offered to other students on our waiting list." New Patana students also pay a non-refundable ฿50,000 initial payment to confirm an offer. Required documents and timelines vary. Get the list from the school.

Visas. Your kids come in as dependants on your visa.

• DTV: "Spouse and children under 20 years old of DTV visa holders" qualify. The DTV guide.
• LTR: spouse, parents, children under 20 and legal dependants, with no cap. The LTR guide.
• Work permit (Non-B): children generally follow the main holder's visa. Confirm with your employer. Working in Thailand: the Non-B and work permit

Not sure which visa you're on the path to? Start with which Thai visa fits. This is information, not legal advice.

The fine print that costs money

The withdrawal clock. Deposits come back only if you give notice the school's way. Corporate transfers rarely come with a term's warning.

• Patana: a full term's notice, or half a term in Term 1. Late notice costs a ฿50,000 late-withdrawal fee. To leave at the end of December 2026, notice is due by 19 October 2026.
• Harrow: one full term's written notice on the official form, or the deposit is forfeited.
• Brighton Vibhavadi: a written form by the deadline. The schedule is blunt: "It is not sufficient to verbally inform … or send an email."
• Shrewsbury: "at least 60 school days" of notice.
• KIS: one term's notice.
• RIS: refundable "provided all school-set notification deadlines are met."

If you're a corporate transfer, get your move dates in writing early. Or ask your employer to cover a forfeited deposit.

Late starts. ISB charges full semester tuition once a student has been there 50 days. Before that, 2% of semester tuition per day.

Late payment. 1% a month at Patana. 1.25% a month at Brighton.

Sibling discounts. Patana and Shrewsbury: 5% for the third child. Brighton: 5%, 10% and 15%, plus 2% off for paying the year upfront.

Same name, different fees. Brighton and Shrewsbury run more than one campus. Always check which campus a fee is for.

Building the whole family budget? Health cover is the other big line: health insurance in Thailand. And if you're still deciding what kind of move this is, which kind of expat are you.

Fees change every year, and every schedule says so. Confirm with each school before you commit. Checked as of October 2026.