Udon Thani is a province (changwat) in northeast Thailand. It is bordered by the provinces of Nong Khai to the north, Sakon Nakhon to the east, Kalasin Province to the southeast, Khon Kaen to the south, and Loei and Nong Bua Lam Phu Province to the west. It occupies an area of 11,730 km². The provincial capital is Udon Thani, the major city in the province.

Udon Thani is said to mean "northern city". "Udon" is derived from "utara" in Sanskrit, meaning "northern direction", as Udon Thani is northeast of Bangkok. "Thani" means "city".

Udon Thani first came to historical notice in the Bangkok era, when Anuwong of Vientiane staged a rebellion against Thai rule and marched his army to Nakhon Ratchasima in 1826. He captured the city by a ruse, but the garrison he left to hold it unexpectedly met with fierce resistance from the disarmed local forces led by Lady Mo, the wife of Nakhon Ratchasima's governor. Anuwong advanced as far as Saraburi, but was forced to retreat. The Thai army pursued him, and the rival forces met in battle at Nong Bua Lamphu, a small city near today's Udon Thani. After two days of fierce fighting, Anuwong's army was defeated and fled back to Laos.

Once known as Ban Mak-kaeng, Udon Thani was originally settled as a military base established by Prince Prachak to suppress an uprising in the northeastern city of Lao Puan. Ban Mak-kaeng grew slowly from a small rural town to become what is now the modern city of Udon Thani.

The province is best known for the prehistoric archaeological site at Ban Chiang and its Bronze Age relics, located in a hamlet about 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of Udon. Udon is one of the more bustling markets for agricultural goods in the relatively dry northeast of Thailand, and received its biggest economic boost in the 1960s when the United States built the Udon Royal Thai Air Force Base as a joint-force military base during the Vietnam War. The Mel Gibson film Air America depicts Udon and includes scenes of the Udon air base. Udon Thani was also the largest base in the region for the CIA's anti-communism campaign in Thailand and Laos. The United States turned the base over to the Royal Thai Air Force in 1976, but its presence left three residual effects on Udon. First, a large number of locals had been paid comparatively well and had learned basic conversational English. This made them more marketable to the outside world, and a significant number went to work in Middle East oilfields. Second, the base created long-standing ties with the United States, including a US consulate in Udon (closed in 1995), and a US Veterans of Foreign Wars post. But most importantly, the base and the consulate made the city into a regional hub for the northeast, and this continues today.

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