Subway fares: buying a ticket and riding

What it costs

The fare rose on 28 June 2025, from ₩1,400 to ₩1,550, so older fare tables may be outdated. The current schedule is published by Seoul Metro (서울교통공사) and mirrored on the city's own price register:

The distance bands matter more than they look. A ride inside central Seoul is almost always the base fare, but the wider metropolitan rail network reaches Chuncheon and Asan, so a day trip is a different price entirely.

Two stretches sit outside the metropolitan zone and charge faster — Pyeongtaek–Sinchang (평택~신창) and Gapyeong–Chuncheon (가평~춘천) add ₩100 every 4 km. The early-bird discount (조조할인) takes 20% off the base fare — ₩1,240 instead of ₩1,550 — for anyone tapping in with a card before 06:30. It does not apply if you arrived by another mode and are transferring.

Tap your card when entering and leaving

Follow the gate’s direction arrow and tap the reader when entering and leaving. Tapping out is what tells the system how far you went, and Seoul's integrated-transfer rules are blunt about the consequence: miss the exit tap and your transfer chain breaks, so the unbilled base fare is collected the next time you board.

From 7 March 2026 Seoul Metro went further. A missed exit tap is now recorded against your card and a ₩1,550 penalty (₩900 teenager, ₩550 child) is deducted automatically on your next trip. Roughly 8,000 people a day were failing to tap out, against a daily ridership of about 6.6 million, which is why the rule exists. Passes, single-journey tickets and concession fares are outside it.

There is a second, quieter limit: a subway journey may not exceed five hours from tap-in to tap-out. Go over and the base fare is charged again at the exit gate. City buses have the same five-hour ceiling; village buses only one hour.

Riding without a valid ticket is not a grey area either. Article 10 of the Railway Business Act (철도사업법) lets the operator collect the fare for the section travelled plus up to thirty times that fare on top.

Check the conditions for transfer discounts

Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi share an integrated fare system. Subway, Seoul city and village buses, Gyeonggi and Incheon buses, GTX-A and the Hangang river bus are all inside it, so eligible transfers can avoid a second full base fare. The total still depends on the modes and distance travelled. The city describes these conditions:

• 30 minutes between tapping out and tapping on again — 60 minutes

between 21:00 and 07:00, judged by the time you board the second service.

• Four transfers, five boardings in one chain. The sixth boarding starts a

new fare.

• The base fare is the highest of the modes you used. Take a red express bus

and the whole chain prices at the bus's ₩3,000, not the subway's ₩1,550.

• The same route or the same vehicle never counts as a transfer. Getting off

and back on the same bus is a fresh base fare.

• Use a separate card for each person when your journey includes the subway. A driver can tap several passengers onto a bus at once,

but a group tapped on one card cannot transfer to the subway.

The lines that charge extra

Some lines charge an additional fare when you enter, transfer or leave. Sinbundang Line (신분당선) is privately built and levies its own surcharge on top of the ordinary fare. You pay the base fare when you tap in and the surcharge when you tap out — or at the transfer gate if you are changing lines mid-journey:

So Gangnam to Gwanggyo is the ₩1,550 base, plus the distance steps, plus ₩1,500 — comfortably over ₩3,500 for what the map draws as one line. If you are going south to Pangyo, Jeongja or Suwon and price is the point, Line 2 to Bundang Line is slower and much cheaper.

AREX (공항철도, the Airport Railroad from Incheon airport into Seoul) behaves similarly at its far end: the stretch from Cheongna International City to Incheon Airport Terminal 2 is an independent section outside the standard pass system. Yongin, Uijeongbu, Gimpo Goldline, Ui-Sinseol and Sillim light rail participate in the integrated fare system. Participation does not mean every journey avoids additional base or distance charges.

What riding it is like

Seoul's own network summary counts 338 stations across 11 lines, 359.86 km, and about 7.3 million passengers a day. Trains run every 2.5 minutes on Line 2 at peak and every 5–6 minutes off-peak.

Peak crowding is measured and published, and it is worth planning around. Line 2 hits 154.6% of rated capacity at its worst half-hour; Line 9 reaches 140.7%, the Ui-Sinseol line 148.6% and the Sillim line 177.7%. Anything above roughly 130% means you are not choosing where you stand. With luggage, travel between 10:00 and 16:00.

Check the step-free route for your station and exit, including any lift outages. A station having a lift does not establish that every entrance or transfer is step-free.

Every train has priority seats (교통약자 배려석) at the carriage ends, and separate pink pregnancy seats (임산부 배려석) in the middle. Keep these seats available for passengers who need them. Some disabilities and pregnancy-related needs are not visible.

First trains run from about 05:30 and last trains cluster between roughly 23:30 and 01:00 — but the exact time is per station and per direction, not per line. The last northbound Line 1 train out of Seoul Station leaves at 00:48; the last Line 4 train from Myeongdong (central Seoul's main shopping street, and its cosmetics district) towards Seoul Station leaves at 00:57; Express Bus Terminal's last Line 3 train towards Apgujeong is 00:53. Check your own station rather than a rule of thumb — the boards on the platform show it, and so does Naver Map (Korea's default map app, and the one carrying the most English).

What to carry

A supported rechargeable transit card gives the adult card fare and access to eligible transfer discounts. Check acceptance on the services you plan to use; intercity trains and some other services need separate tickets. Single-journey tickets exist and have a ₩500 deposit attached, which you get back from a machine at the far end.