Chiang Mai has established itself as one of the most popular digital nomad hubs in the world. Whether you are passing through for a few months, or setting up an online business here and settling, where you work will be an important consideration and an addition to your cost of living here in Chiang Mai
There Is A Potential Workspace On EVERY Street In Chiang Mai
If you’ve ever been to Chiang Mai before – or spoken with someone who has – then you’ll know that it is one of the café capitals of the world. Coffee is very affordable, and there are cafés of every possible style or design you could think of…and plenty that you haven’t!
You will also rarely walk into one without seeing at least one person sat pounding away at their laptop. There is a very relaxed take on camping out in cafés for hours, so long as you buy the odd coffee or slice of cake.
Coffee will sometimes cost as little as 30 baht for a cup, but for a more comfortable air-conditioned environment, in a trendier part of town, and a fancy brew, you’ll often pay more than double that.
Chiang Mai’s Co-Working Spaces
In recent years co-working spaces have popped up in every part of town. These are pseudo-offices with desks in shared spaces and can often offer a sense of community with events, meetups, or just a common area to grab a snack.
New ones pop up every few weeks it seems – Chiang Mai is an every-changing city after all – but some of the more established co-working spaces are proving increasingly popular.
Punspace, with a couple of locations in the old town, Yellow in Nimmanhaemin, and Alt_Chiang Mai – also a co-living space – have been around for some time, and all offer hot desks from around 250 baht a day. Cold desks – a specific reserved desk – will cost upward of 5,000 baht a month.
Weekly, monthly, and annual passes can be purchased from any of these, and they all offer a slightly different atmosphere and included facilities. Some co-working spaces will include tea or coffee, free events, meeting room time, or even snacks in a membership package.
It is worth checking out any of the smaller and newer ones that frequently pop up around Chiang Mai. They will all offer a different atmosphere that might better suit your working and community requirements.
Hybrid Workspaces Around Chiang Mai
As with any buzzword, “co-working” is a phrase has been adopted by many venues to attract a new market. Plenty of cafés, hotels, and hostels have added it to their marketing to entice people in when really, they are just a café space and happy for you to buy a coffee or meal and sit and work for the day without additional cost.
They won’t offer the same facilities that a full co-working space does, but can provide a nice, less office-like environment.
One of the longer-standing workspaces in Chiang Mai is in what is probably an unusual location – on the top floor of Maya shopping mall. AIS’s CAMP (Creative and Meeting Place) has the appearance of a fully-fledged co-working space, but you need only pay for a coffee or drink – or anything of at least 50 baht in value – for two hours internet access.
This might add up over a few days, but for a couple of hours work and a great view of the mountains its worth trying out. It’s mostly popular with students and the many digital nomads passing through Chiang Mai.
Renting Your Own Space
If you don’t want the more youthful digital nomad vibe that many co-working spaces in Chiang Mai often deliver, then – as is the case with renting accommodation – renting an office space can be very affordable.
The bigger co-working spaces will offer short- or long-term options for a private office, which could prove a happy medium between getting some community and private workspace. Prices will start at around 9,000 baht a month.
Serviced and standalone offices can be found in most parts of the city for as little as 5,000 baht a month.
Finding the best value solution – or just the best environment – to work from is a key consideration for a lot of people new to Chiang Mai. New places pop up all the time, so let us know in the comments below if there is a favorite we should know about!
There are dozens of considerations to be made when moving to Chiang Mai, and the costs of the most common ones can be found in these articles:
