The subway lockers, from the operator
Seoul Metro's own T-Locker page gives the network as 273 stations, 336 locations, 5,557 lockers, in three sizes:
| Size | W × D × H | 4 hours, weekday | 4 hours, weekend | Each extra hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (소형, S) | 50 × 30 × 60 cm | ₩2,200 | ₩3,100 | ₩500 |
| Medium (중형, M) | 50 × 45 × 60 cm | ₩3,300 | ₩4,600 | ₩800 |
| Large (대형, L) | 50 × 90 × 60 cm | ₩4,400 | ₩6,100 | ₩1,000 |
Check both the price and the usable space. The weekend rate is about 40% higher, so use the correct column when estimating the cost. And a large locker is 90 cm deep, which takes a 28-inch case laid flat — but the door aperture is 50 cm wide, so an oversized or hard-shell case can defeat it even when the volume would fit. Check the operator’s size and prohibited-item rules before storing a bag. Do not leave valuables in the locker.
Coverage is not quite every station. T-Locker runs at Seoul Metro stations across Lines 1 to 9, but the operator's app listing limits Line 1 to the Seoul Station–Cheongnyangni stretch and Line 9 to the stretch from Samjeon to Jungang Bohun Hospital. Suburban stretches run by Korail (the national railway operator) are outside the system.
Check access hours and payment before storing your bag
1. The hours. Lockers operate 05:00 to 24:00 every day, including weekends and public holidays, and Seoul Metro states plainly that outside those hours you can neither store nor retrieve. For an early flight, collect your bag before the station closes the previous night. A locker opening at 05:00 does not leave enough time for every airport journey and check-in deadline. The customer line, 1877-1265 or 1670-4302, runs 06:00–24:00 daily, and an engineer is dispatched within two hours — but you pay for the callout if the fault was yours.
2. The new doors do not take payment. The current-generation lock is a bare numeric keypad marked OTPIN, with no card reader, no coin slot and no screen. Everything happens in the T-Locker 또타라커 app run by Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Engineering (서울도시철도엔지니어링): you find a free locker by station on the map, pay, and the app issues a one-time PIN you type into the door. According to Seoul's own walkthrough, the app accepts credit card, Korean bank transfer (계좌이체) and Korean phone billing (휴대폰 소액결제). For a short-term visitor, card payment is usually the practical option. Confirm that your particular overseas card is accepted before relying on the locker.
The app itself is published in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese, so you can choose a supported language before using it. Install it before you need it, not at the locker bank.
How long you can leave a bag, and what happens if you don't come back
The operator answers this in one line at the foot of its own page:
경과품은 최장 1개월 보관하되 별도의 연기신청 등의 의사표시가 없을 경우 임의로 기증 및 폐기됩니다. *Expired items are held for at most one month; absent a request to extend, they are donated or destroyed at the operator's discretion.*
An overdue item is held for a maximum of one month, and where the owner has made no request to extend, it is donated or destroyed at the operator's discretion. Separately, anything left five days or more is moved out of the locker to a separate store, so a long-abandoned bag is not sitting where you left it. The clock does not stop: charges continue to accrue by the hour, so a large locker left for a full day and night costs several times its four-hour base. If you need more than a day, the app sells long-term storage and the operator also runs personal storage rooms (또타스토리지) at a list of named stations.
Use a staffed counter if a suitable locker is unavailable
Hongdae (the nightlife and student district around Hongik University), Myeongdong (central Seoul's main shopping street, and its cosmetics district) and Seoul Station fill on weekend afternoons and through the summer. The reason to install the app in advance is that it shows live availability per station, so you can walk to a station that has space instead of walking a suitcase between three that do not.
Another option is T-Luggage (또타러기지), a staffed counter rather than a machine, run by the same operator. It takes cases too big for a locker and it is priced by suitcase size rather than by locker size:
| Case | 4 hours | 4–8 hours | 24 hours | Each further day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S — up to 20″ | ₩3,000 | ₩5,000 | ₩6,000 | ₩4,000 |
| M — 20 to 23″ | ₩4,000 | ₩6,000 | ₩9,000 | ₩6,000 |
| L — 23 to 27″ | ₩6,000 | ₩8,000 | ₩12,000 | ₩7,000 |
| XL — over 27″ | ₩8,000 | ₩10,000 | ₩15,000 | ₩9,000 |
Compare the full cost for your storage period. A large case overnight is ₩12,000 at a staffed desk, where the same case in a large locker would run past ₩20,000 on the hourly meter — and the desk will take a case the locker door will not.
Counters are open at Gangnam (강남역), Seoul Station (서울역), Hongik University (홍대입구), Myeongdong (명동역), Jamsil (잠실역) and Gimpo Airport (김포공항역), all 09:00–21:00, on 02-6110-2977. Check your chosen branch’s hours before travelling.
The same desks will move a bag instead of holding it: ₩14,000–₩24,000 between Gangnam, Gimpo Airport and Hongik University, and ₩18,000–₩28,000 between Hongik University and either Incheon Airport terminal, by size. If what you want is your luggage sent onward rather than stored, compare that with the hotel-to-hotel services in “Luggage delivery to my hotel” first.
Away from the subway
Express Bus Terminal (서울고속버스터미널) has a staffed storage desk beside the ticket office, open 10:00–22:00 daily, run by Zimcarry (짐캐리). It prices by longest side rather than by inch: a suitcase up to 55 cm is ₩5,000 for four hours with a ₩10,000 daily cap, 56–70 cm is ₩8,000 with an ₩18,000 cap, and over 71 cm is ₩10,000 with a ₩20,000 cap. Bags are cheaper — ₩3,000, ₩5,000 and ₩8,000 for the same brackets. The daily caps are the reason to use a desk over a locker for anything longer than a few hours.
Mainline stations, airports and larger intercity terminals may have lockers or staffed storage operated by different companies. Their equipment, access hours and prices vary. Treat the Seoul Metro figures above as the planning numbers and expect the machine in front of you to differ.
Confirm that a storage service still operates
LugStay (럭스테이) is gone. The shop-based storage network that nearly every English guide and several official pages still recommend has shut: its website redirects to a domain-sale page and its Android listing is dead. It still appears in Seoul's own tourism material and in tourism videos published by the city. If a guide tells you to book a bag into a nearby café through LugStay, that plan does not exist any more — use a station locker, a T-Luggage desk, or your hotel.
Ask your hotel first. Many hotels hold guests’ bags before check-in or after check-out, but confirm the hours, available space and any charge. See “Luggage storage before check-in and after check-out” for the questions to ask.
