A 125 cc automatic costs $9 a day in the current revision of the Phuket Travel Price Index. This page carries the daily and monthly medians with their ranges and sample sizes, what a rental includes, seasonality, and the rules a rider is actually stopped for — checked and dated.
Data revision September 2026 · Rentals series in the price index · All sources
A 125 cc automatic scooter in Phuket is $9 a day (about 300 THB at the rate on file) for one to three days with a helmet and no insurance, and $121 a month (September 2026). Ride with a motorcycle licence and an International Driving Permit carrying the "A" category, wear the helmet (fine up to 2,000 THB per person since June 2025), leave a cash deposit or a passport copy — never the passport — and photograph every panel at pick-up. The full walk-through, including the Thai-licence route for long stays, is in the guide below.
Island-wide medians of the rentals series; a month is far less than 30 days · Phuket Travel Price Index · September 2026
125 cc automatic on a one-to-three-day rental, the segment the index measures. "Included" is what the rental racks bundle by default.
| Item | Included | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 125 cc automatic scooter (Click / PCX / Filano class) | Yes | the index segment; 150–160 cc and manual bikes cost more |
| Helmet | Yes | one or two, usually open-face; bring your own visor if you ride in the rain |
| Compulsory third-party cover (Por Ror Bor) | Yes | covers injury to others, not the bike, not you |
| Damage or theft insurance | No | almost never on a daily rate; a few shops sell a damage waiver on monthly rentals |
| Fuel | No | delivered with whatever is in the tank; return it the same |
| Second helmet / phone holder / rain poncho | Varies | ask; a spare helmet is required if you carry a passenger |
| Delivery to your hotel | Varies | common on monthly rentals, a small fee on daily ones |
| Deposit | No | cash, 2,000–5,000 THB, or a passport copy — never the passport itself |
Rules and amounts as checked in September 2026; the index measures the rate, not the terms — confirm each line at the desk before signing.
How demand and the rate move through the year; rain days are the Open-Meteo climate normal for the month.
| Period | Demand | Effect on the rate |
|---|---|---|
| November – April (high season) | highest; the international brands sell out around Christmas and Chinese New Year | daily rate at the top of the range; monthly rates barely move |
| May – October (green season) | lowest; walk-in availability everywhere | shops discount weekly and monthly rentals; expect 28 rain days in May |
| February (driest month, 7 rain days) | peak | the month the daily rate is least negotiable |
Source: Open-Meteo ERA5 climate normals 2015–2025 (rain days); Phuket Travel Price Index · All sources
The Phuket Travel Price Index records a 125 cc automatic — the Click, PCX and Filano class that fills every rental rack on the island — at $9 a day (about 300 THB at the rate on file), with quotes of $5–$12 across the 6 sources read, for a rental of one to three days with a helmet and no insurance, in the September 2026 revision. A month is $121 (about 3990 THB), which is why anyone staying three weeks or more takes the monthly rate and hands the bike back early. Below the daily range usually means an older bike, a 110 cc or a shop far from the beach; above it usually means a new PCX, a 150–160 cc, the Patong beach road or a hotel desk adding its margin.
The dollar figure converts baht quotes at the exchange rate on file (32.98 THB per dollar, 3 September 2026); shops take cash, and increasingly a QR payment, and deposit in cash. An economy car, for comparison, is $24 a day in the same revision — the scooter is a third of the price and, for one or two people on the coast road, faster door to door.
To ride a scooter legally in Thailand a visitor needs a motorcycle licence from home and an International Driving Permit that carries the motorcycle category — the "A" endorsement — not one or the other. Thailand recognises permits under both the 1949 Geneva and the 1968 Vienna conventions, and a UK, EU or Australian permit is issued car-only unless the motorcycle category is asked for at the counter at home. A car licence, with or without a permit, does not cover a 125 cc; a shop will still hand over the keys, because the shop is not the police. As of September 2026 the checkpoint fine for riding without a licence is 1,000 THB and is collected on the spot; the larger cost is that a travel insurer can, and usually does, refuse a hospital claim from a rider who was not licensed for the vehicle. Past 90 days in the country the permit lapses and a Thai licence is the route — the long guide walks through the Phuket Land Transport Office process.
Section 122 of the Land Traffic Act requires a helmet on the rider and on the passenger. Since 1 June 2025 the fine is up to 2,000 THB per person, and the rider is liable for an unhelmeted passenger as well — 4,000 THB for a couple riding bare-headed down the beach road. Checkpoints on the Patong hill, the Chalong circle, the Heroines' Monument junction and the road into Kata are daily events in the high season, staffed in the morning and again after dark, and they stop foreigners on scooters as a matter of routine: helmet, licence, the bike's registration copy from the shop. A rider with all three is waved through in a minute. The rental helmet is usually an open-face one that meets the letter of the law; a rider planning a month on the island buys a proper full-face one in town for a few hundred baht and keeps it.
Every shop wants security. The legitimate forms are a cash deposit of 2,000–5,000 THB or a photocopy of the passport with the visa stamp; the illegitimate one is the passport itself, which a shop then holds as leverage for a "damage" claim on return. Never leave a passport — it is the document immigration, a hospital and an embassy need, and a shop that insists on it is telling you how it settles disputes. The damage game itself is simple: a scratch that was there before the rental is presented as new, priced at a body-shop rate, and set against the deposit. The defence is ten photographs and a video at pick-up, in the shop's presence, showing every panel, the mirrors, the exhaust and the odometer, with the shop's own damage sheet signed by both sides. A shop that objects to being photographed has answered the question of whether to rent from it.
Rental racks exist wherever tourists sleep. Patong, Kata and Karon have the densest supply and the widest price spread — the beach-road shops are the dearest, the ones a street back the cheapest. Rawai, Nai Harn and Chalong are the long-stay market: monthly rates, delivered bikes, and mechanics who service what they rent. Bang Tao, Surin and Kamala are thinner and slightly dearer, with delivery from Cherngtalay the usual answer. Phuket Town rents to residents and rarely quotes in dollars. Nai Yang, close to the airport, has a few shops that will meet a flight. The index measures the island as a whole because the product is identical everywhere — a 125 cc automatic is the same machine on every rack — and because the spread within an area is wider than the spread between areas.
Fuel is 37.01 THB a litre for gasohol 95 in the August 2026 monthly mean at Phuket pumps (38.29 THB in the PTT posting of 2 September 2026); a 125 cc holds about five litres and goes 150–200 km on it, so a week of riding costs less than one dinner. The climate normal gives 28 rain days in May against 7 in February: in the wet months the road surface is slick for the first ten minutes of every shower, painted lines and manhole covers are ice, and a rider who stops under a shop awning for a quarter of an hour is doing what the locals do. Return the bike with the same fuel, in daylight, and take a last photograph next to the shop's sign.
A 125 cc automatic is $9 a day for one to three days with a helmet and no insurance in the September 2026 revision of the Phuket Travel Price Index ($5–$12 across 6 sources). A month is $121 ($76–$242), which makes the monthly rate the better deal from about three weeks.
Legally, yes: a motorcycle licence from home plus an International Driving Permit with the "A" (motorcycle) category. A car licence does not cover a 125 cc. Shops will rent without it; the police fine 1,000 THB at a checkpoint as of September 2026, and a travel insurer can refuse a hospital claim from an unlicensed rider — the expensive part. After 90 days in Thailand the permit lapses and a Thai licence is the route.
Up to 2,000 THB per person since 1 June 2025 under Section 122 of the Land Traffic Act, with the rider also liable for a passenger without one (4,000 THB for two). Checkpoints on the Patong hill, at the Chalong circle and on the Heroines' Monument junction stop foreign riders daily in high season and check helmet, licence and the bike's registration copy.
No — never. A cash deposit of 2,000–5,000 THB or a passport copy is the legitimate security; a shop that holds the passport itself is holding leverage for a damage claim on return. Photograph and film the bike at pick-up in the shop's presence, get the damage sheet signed by both sides, and walk away from any shop that objects.
Only the compulsory third-party policy (Por Ror Bor) that every registered bike carries, which covers injury to others and nothing else. Damage to the bike, theft and your own injuries are not covered on a daily rental; a few shops sell a damage waiver on monthly rentals. Your travel insurance covers you only if the policy includes motorcycles and you are licensed for one — check both before the trip.
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