Prices of DNA Paternity Tests
How much does it cost? Our prices for DNA paternity tests are as follows:
- Personal knowledge test: 11,800 baht for father and child altogether. Optionally, if you want to add the mother's DNA sample for 3 profiles, then add 2500 baht, whereby it would be 11,800 + 2500 = 14,300 baht instead.
- Legal chain of custody test: 19,600 baht. No extra charge if the mother is tested, too, for the legal chain of custody test.
We have another page explaining the differences between a personal knowledge test vs. a legal chain of custody test
The above is the TOTAL cost, no surprises, for tests in Bangkok. Alternatively, we can mail "personal knowledge test" kits by Thai Post EMS (Express Mail Service) to you and test for the same price, though "legal chain of custody" tests cannot be done by postal mail. We also do field collections where we can send a field agent to your location, for either "personal knowledge" or "legal chain of custody" tests, for example, in cases where it is not practical or convenient to bring everybody to our office in central Bangkok, such as a newborn baby, or some other reason. You may decide it may be better for us to send one of our agents into the field than your party of 3 to our office, whether you are in Bangkok or almost anywhere in Thailand.
There is no additional charge for sending a kit by Thai Post EMS.
There is no additional charge for sending an agent to most parts of Bangkok (central Bangkok, Bang Na, Bangkapi, some parts of Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani, etc.). However, there is normally a travel fee to other parts of Thailand, such as Pattaya, Hua Hin, Udon Thani, Buriram, Korat, Chiang Mai, Phuket, etc. We cover all of Thailand (except some of the provinces bordering Malaysia due to the conflicts there).
See also our pages on mailed kits by Thai Post EMS and sending our DNA collection agent to your remote location.
However, for a Thai Post EMS self-sample kit, you can use only your first names (or a one word alias), not your full names, because we cannot verify your identity. If you want your full names on a report, then we must send an agent to your location to take the samples (our DNA collection agent being a neutral third party), identify you, and take photos, as discussed elsewhere.
For a Thai Post EMS kit, you first pay just 1000 baht in advance, which applies to the total cost, with the other 10,800 baht paid after we receive your samples back and before the laboratory will start testing, so it is 1000 + 10,800 = 11,800 baht total for just father and child tested (or if mother is also tested then add another 2500 baht, as discussed above).
Most tests for personal knowledge only do not include the mother, i.e., test only child and alleged father. This normally results in a probability of paternity of minimum 99.99% or else 0%, nothing in between. However, for official purposes, we often test the mother, too, as it may be required by the government officer. (If the man is the father, then testing the mother, too, also pushes the probability of paternity to well over 99.99% by adding additional 9s at the end, such as 99.999999...%.)
You may feel free to call us if you wish to discuss your particular situation.
We understand that in some cases, DNA testing can be quite stressful. We can try to help.
Sadly, we should also cover some unpleasant things in the world:
Notably, in January 2023, a client pointed out to us a competitor making an aggressive and tricky statement with allegations about others using foreign laboratories and their pricing. Here is our response in case you saw it, at the bottom of this page.
Unfortunately, it's not the only trick we've heard of.
We've had customers come in who were told by another place that, for example, the cost was 9000 baht, so they went to the other place and after the staff took the samples for child, mother, and alleged father, they were asked for 27,000 baht, and that it was 9000 baht per person. (They said they got angry and left, and later came to us.)
Another customer said they were told to send a certain amount of money and the service would mail a kit to them, then after they mailed it back in, they were told to pay a huge amount for the test, and that the previous amount was just to mail a kit.
We want to make very clear our total cost for a DNA personal knowledge test in Bangkok or by mail, with no surprises later. We always discuss the TOTAL price up front, with no surprises later.
Even though some other people can practice bait-and-switch tactics to maximize the amount of business they get, and may try to stick you with a bill with surprising surcharges, we will not do so. Just because so many other companies do it in the business world does not mean it's right or OK. We don't copy many bad business practices which are common, routine, and often accepted shamelessly by some other business managers and staff in the world, and sometimes in Thailand, too. We would rather make less money but think and feel good about ourselves and everybody we deal with. We make enough money and don't need to get greedy. Everybody can choose what kind of life to live.
We are well aware that there are other places with stated prices MUCH higher than ours. Many people have called us and asked if our test is good because it's so cheap. Our test is not cheap, its price is just not as expensive as many others. We are aware that many people will simply go to another place and pay more because they think that the higher price is for a better test. Actually, we don't see how another place can offer a better quality test. Look at the long list of accreditations our laboratory has achieved, and compare that.
In the USA, there are many DNA laboratories which charge even less than we do, and the US is stricter in consumer protection laws. DNA testing technology has simply gotten less and less expensive over time. We use a very modern laboratory in the USA. (However, we must pay for shipping to the USA, and we process and track things.)
By comparison, DNA testing in Thailand is relatively very expensive if you look at the average prices being asked.
One reason we can offer a lower price is because our laboratory handles a very high volume of DNA cases, so the cost per case is less. For example, if Factory A sold only 100 vehicles per year, and had to pay for all of its factory expenses and overhead for that, then how could you compete with a Factory B with a mass production line selling 10,000's of vehicles per year? Obviously, Factory B can offer lower prices than Factory A and still be profitable. Our laboratory is one of the biggest in the world.
Another good analogy is a logistics operation -- if you buy a big truck with a 40 foot container in tow and ship lots of small boxes of goods from the port to upcountry, then if you fill your truck so that it's full, and have enough business that you can run it continuously, then you can charge your customers a lower price per box shipped. However, if your container is not full, or if your truck is idle a lot of the time, then your cost per package is higher, due to your overhead and costs being paid for by a smaller number of customers.
The economics of our laboratory were further improved by a major investment in automation. That investment was viable because of the high volume of cases which could justify the initial cost to develop such a highly automated laboratory. It also eliminated some potential causes of human error. This improves the long term economics, capacity, and reliability, but is viable only for a high volume laboratory.
A DNA laboratory is expensive to create and operate, so when we were one of the first private companies in Thailand to focus on DNA testing, we chose the best laboratory we could find, rather than buy and import all the equipment, then deal with the chemical supplies, all for a relatively small volume of customers. We chose the leading laboratory in the USA, and they approved us as a "Corporate Partner" / distributor in Thailand, listing us on their website for Thailand.
We have heard from customers that when they were shopping around, some other companies have said that our test is lower priced because it is lower quality, or that theirs was more expensive because it was higher quality, but those particular companies were being tricky and dishonest.
As shown on our home page, our laboratory has all these accreditations, international standard:
Our laboratory has stated it is the most accredited DNA testing laboratory in the world, by showing a long list of accreditations.
Compare that with the list of accreditations of others.
We am not claiming that our test is of higher quality than all others. We am just saying that the other particular companies who our customers mentioned should not be saying what they said.
Our laboratory is well established, well tested, and very large.
Our DNA test reports also SHOW how our probability of paternity is calculated. That is not easy, it requires scientific expertise and a large data set. We don't just quote a number, such as 99.99999%, we also show HOW we calculated that number, unlike some other providers who just say a % without showing how it was calculated. Some don't state a final % number, which is fair and respectable, if they just point out that there are allele matches for all loci, such as 15/15. That is honest and better than making up a number. Our laboratory has the expertise to do the calculation, and the data and confidence to show how it was calculated. We show a lot of detail on our DNA Test Reports.
We were one of the first private DNA testing providers in Thailand, so we chose the best laboratory as our partner.
Companies can pay for expensive flashy websites, say whatever they want, and charge whatever they want, but the bottom line is: Where is the evidence of any alleged higher quality, beyond their website and their talk?
Notably, this is not directed at all other DNA testing providers. Many don't oversell, and we like some particular competitors. We have also been impressed with some Thai government officials inside a government laboratory involved in DNA testing, who are neutral, not promotional. Questions above are directed ONLY at certain other DNA service providers who we have heard about from customers, whereby the other provider told the customer that their service was more expensive because it's allegedly better quality. If their service is better quality, then they should explain how it is better quality.
Indeed, customers have shown us reports from one particular place which charged a lot more, but we could see that their reports were deliberate fakes, not real. Further, our test got the opposite result, NOT the father, when we did a DNA test for one of the customers. This customer also got a DNA test from a third place, which issued a report having data completely consistent with our test report, and showing again that the other provider's report had wrong data. (We shall not name the other place here on the internet, and we are not out to try to fight all the evil in this world. There's an awful lot of it, overwhelming. It's just a caution that slick scams exist in DNA testing, too. Buyer beware.)
Enough about that. There's another section of our website on trust and fraud in DNA testing.
If you have any questions about pricing, or anything else, please feel free to ask.
Besides paternity tests, there are additional kinds of family relationship DNA tests which we do, such as:
- grandparent / uncle / aunt (e.g., if the alleged father is deceased or unavailable)
- half siblings or full siblings
- mothers (maternity test)
- ... others
Again, we can show percent probability of the relationship, and show our calculation. You can ask competitors whether they can do that for non-paternity relationship testing.
These options for other relationship testing are discussed in detail on our page on family relationship DNA testing.
For the prices for any of these, please call us. There may be more than one option for testing, and we can recommend the best kind of test. For example, the type of test may be "Y-STR" (male Y chromosome), "mtDNA" (female mitochondria), or "avuncular" (sounds similar to av-uncle) (aunt or uncle relationship by statistical analysis), for example. Which test is best depends upon the situation. We normally put together a family tree of participants and can explain to you advantages and disadvantages of each optional test, including pricing.
Sometimes we are asked to be the DNA collection agent for specimens from one or more individuals in Thailand, for example, for inheritance or other legal or personal matters overseas, for either a legal chain of custody test or a personal knowledge test. There is no one price which fits all, and we ask that you contact us to discuss your situation and requirements.
Pricing exceptions:
Some people simply don't have the cash for a DNA test. We understand this, and in special cases can do a payments plan or even a small discount, but there are no large discounts. Also, this does not mean we are negotiable with people who can afford to pay. Some examples:
We received a phone call from a young Thai man. We noticed in the call log that he had called before, several months previous. He said he was ready to come in now for a DNA test with a very young child, allegedly his. When he came in, he started to pay with a pile of very small bank notes. He had been saving for this for months. We returned some of the money to him and did the test.
Another man came in from another country with a toenail from his alleged son. He knew of no DNA testing facility in his country. Nails cost more to process, and he had only one. We still gave him a small discount, which meant a lot to him. After submitting samples, he went back home. His mobile phone was out of range of service much of the time, but we got the result to him.
You can come to our office and talk about DNA with our scientist, or you can just call or Line chat or email us. On the other hand:
An expat was out of a job, low on money, and needed to go home if the child was not his. He said he was staying only for the child, and needed to resolve the issue quickly. We did the test and let him defer most of the payment. It turned out he was not the father, so last we heard he planned to depart right away and go home, and he dropped communication very shortly after he received the result. However, now, years later, he has never answered email and still not paid as agreed. One day, we did a quick investigation, found his exact previous rental location at the time in a small town along a highway, and found out from locals upcountry that he indeed departed saying he was going back to his home country, though we haven't bothered to try to investigate outside of Thailand yet.
On the other hand, some poor Thai people have been very good at small monthly payments, very honorable. (Of course, this continued for months after we gave them the final test report.)
At the invitation of the Thai government, we did a rock bottom pricing operation far upcountry near the Golden Triangle in a temporary location for a large number of cases scheduled for all at once, whereby the mother was non-Thai from Myanmar or Lao, and the alleged father was Thai, whereby if the father is the biological father of the child then the child can get Thai citizenship. Whether or not they had the money, we took their DNA samples, copied their IDs, and took their photos, while we were there, and were flexible. Some looked like hilltribe people. Two cases are remarkable. One child was a newborn baby in the hospital with a medical issue, and expenses adding up, but the government welfare scheme had a citizenship issue of the child for payments, and the big and very lovely upcountry family was also very poor, so we did a charity case to get a quick DNA result, and even gave them a little money right after taking the samples. On the other hand, we happened to notice that one inquiree who had turned up at our budget operation drove away in a luxury car, though we wouldn't fault them since maybe they just didn't know this was a special operation for the poor and it was just a good timing matter.
We just ask that when it comes to pricing, people understand that we are running a business which must be sustainable, but we are not greedy. DNA testing should not just be a business to make money, it is also a service to people who need to make major decisions about lives, and to clear paternity issues, better sooner than later. When somebody is in a difficult financial situation, we may be able to help, but we do not want our generosity and caring to be taken advantage of.
It is interesting to see the variety of people in this world, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is a matter of scientific debate how much of one's personality is from DNA ("nature") vs. how much is based on how you were raised ("nurture"). We are mammals who have evolved a social conscience (well, many of us), but how high level one's social conscience is may depend on one's DNA, family & community upbringing, peer group, and ability to think independently and adapt to a diverse world. Human mental development is slow but highly adaptable. Some people still live by "the law of the jungle" (predator vs. prey, "financial class") whereas others are more adaptable to civilization's higher standards of morality ("ethical class").
A section added on 5 February 2023:
In January 2023, a client of ours pointed out that a competitor had posted on their home page a warning against companies which send DNA samples abroad and charge a low price. So we went and looked. This competitor wrongly states that the service in fact cannot be made at a low price due to the very expensive instruments and chemicals, and that only government agencies can keep prices low because the state agency can subsidize the cost. They said that the action is deceiving, a waste of money, and they receive inaccurate and false results.
Either:
- They don't know what they're talking about, and/or
- They just want to scare people into choosing their company.
We are inexpensive, but not too cheap. Established companies in the USA have been offering DNA testing at a lower price than us for many, many years. The cost of DNA processing has come way down over the years as the technology matures and improves. A main factor in the price per test is the business overhead, not just the cost in the laboratory per test, for many DNA service providers in the USA with advanced laboratories. Our price is higher than what you can get a paternity test for in the US, but we must add shipping and our own overhead and costs. Our laboratory gives us a discount as a distributor, so we make ample profit. Our laboratory can do that because our laboratory does not need to pay for overhead and support in the Thailand market. We pay for that locally.
However, we don't get greedy. We are happy to live middle class lives. Money comes and goes, but a good conscience is forever and priceless. Money and business "success" are not the most important things in life. A lot could be said about "ethical class" and "intellectual class" relative to financial class. We don't try to maximize the amount of money we make, because that would step over some red lines ethically. We make more than enough money to have happy homes, and are not too materialistic or status conscious financially.
DNA tests are expensive for many Thai people. Some have needed to make payments, and we have given many discounts to poor people, such as if they are upcountry and need it for official purposes for Thai citizenship for the child (such as if the mother is not Thai but the alleged father is Thai). We have been asked by upcountry Thai government offices to help them. Our profit on many of those cases was significantly lower, but we feel good that we helped.
When we started our DNA business in Thailand, we had a choice of either setting up our own laboratory or else shipping samples to another laboratory. If we had set up our own laboratory, using modern equipment, then we would have been challenged to make a profit within an acceptable time period, and would have needed to push a lot for a high number of tests locally per month. We had the other option of a wide choice of other laboratories to ship to at that time, because we were one of the first private providers of DNA testing in Thailand. Why reinvent the wheel? Basically, we chose to be support for an already existing, well established laboratory.
We have chosen to use, and continue to use, a laboratory which had the most accreditations and certifications, provides test reports with a high level of detail, has given us the best technical support, and gives us a good distributor discount. We are not a burden to them because we have the expertise to handle our clients well. We handle the Thai market.
This laboratory is one of the most established laboratories in the world for private DNA testing, handles government contracts, has a huge volume of business, is extremely automated, keeps up on advanced technology, and has very good standard operating procedures. For this reason, their cost per test is relatively low.
It would be silly to compare our American laboratory to that local Thailand operation, the differences are so great in scale and institutionally. We wouldn't even bother or waste any time on them if it weren't for that one Thailand service provider's aggressive statement.
We've received other complaints about some other DNA service providers, too, and seen and heard things which we could raise if we wanted, but we don't want to be posting that kind of information on our website, partly because we don't want to spend our time and efforts that way, and simply because we don't want to name names and get into arguments which promote negativity and waste our time, and instead we would rather emphasize that there are many good and innocent DNA service providers out there who don't engage in such bad tactics but instead simply provide a good service. If somebody else's service is not the best, as long as it's adequate and gives a reliable result, and they're good people, then we will wish them well.
We have seen many other good DNA test reports from many other DNA testing service providers who are competitors.
We don't want to criticize others' higher prices. They may have higher prices for whatever reason. We only raise issues with competitors who baselessly criticize our prices.
Our laboratory is not the only one offering us good reseller prices. We have been contacted by some other DNA laboratories abroad offering even lower reseller prices, but we are sticking with the DDC because we have a good relationship with them. Also, the DDC has the most accreditations and certifications, some of which are useful in many cases. We also appreciate the DDC's excellent service, and wouldn't take a risk elsewhere. Sales people of various companies are very good, but we have very good "after sales" experience with the DDC, especially with the actual laboratory people.
We are happy to see Thailand gain DNA expertise, but not happy to see service providers who use dirty tricks against competitors in Thailand. For example, one of our Managing Directors came to Thailand in 1994 via Washington, D.C., and has a lot of experience with some Thailand competitors trying various tricks ... We are generally nice and civil people, but if a competitor misinterprets that as a weakness, and steps over a red line, then they will find out that we can quickly change into a fighter with capabilities so they may be in for a surprise that they picked a fight with the wrong entity this time, and that's partly why we are still standing here in Thailand.
We are not a big service provider in Thailand, we are actually small, mainly because we don't push for high volume, and don't take on a lot of affiliates to maximize our business. We prefer to handle our DNA cases using well known and very trusted staff, because of all the corruption, bribes, and other pressures which exist in Thailand ... and the nature of DNA testing. We don't need to do high volume to cover our overhead because we ship to a foreign laboratory, so our overhead is relatively low compared to running a local laboratory. We do what we do best -- DNA collections and support -- and ship to our favorite laboratory.
Normally, we are respectful of our competitors, as long as they don't try to mislead customers just to try to close sales, and get too aggressive towards us. Competitors are not enemies, and this is not war. Competition serves the best interests of society and progress, and different clients may have different needs and preferences. DNA is an interesting field, and we have a high respect for many competitors, especially much of the assistance and advice which good ones give people.
We help raise the standards of service for DNA testing in Thailand, and we are happy to inform Thai people about DNA testing with our informative public website.
We are also happy to provide Thai people (and foreigners, same prices) with economical DNA testing by our prices, as DNA testing is expensive for many Thai people who don't make a lot of money. By sending our DNA samples to a foreign laboratory which is very large and sophisticated, we are able to provide both good prices and excellent services, very efficiently. We enjoy helping people and take pride in what we do. We don't try to get rich quickly and easily in this business. We also seek sufficiency and sustainability, which is why our business is stable and has been operating for so long, and is not financially pressured.
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