Seoul Transportation: Official 2026 Fares

Seoul runs one of the most efficient public transit systems in the world, and once the fare structure clicks, getting around the city is cheap and almost entirely predictable. The confusion, when it happens, comes from the number of options stacked on top of each other — subway, bus, taxi, AREX — each with its own pricing logic and its own set of surcharges that aren't always obvious until you're standing at a ticket machine or watching a taxi meter climb faster than expected. This page pulls together the official 2026 rates for every major transport option in Seoul, so there's one place to check a fare rather than piecing it together from a dozen different sources.

Seoul Taxi Fares 2026 (Official Rates)

These are the official base rates as of 2026, set by Seoul city government and applied uniformly across the medium, large, premium, and international taxi fleets. Medium cabs are the ones you'll flag down or hail most often — silver or white sedans that make up the bulk of the city's fleet.

A night surcharge applies from 10pm to 2am, adding 20% to whatever the meter shows. This is built into the meter automatically; there's no separate button or manual calculation involved, and it applies regardless of which taxi type you're in. Calling a taxi by phone rather than hailing one on the street adds a flat ₩1,000 call fee, and any highway tolls incurred during the trip — heading to the airport, for instance — are added on top of the metered fare at cost.

Kakao T is the app almost everyone in Seoul uses to call a taxi, and it works cleanly for visitors too. Download the app, register a card, enter your destination, and you'll see an estimated fare before you confirm the call — no guessing, no negotiating, no risk of a driver taking a longer route to inflate the fare. The interface supports English, and international cards work without issue. It's a meaningfully better experience than flagging a cab on the street, mainly because the price is fixed and visible before you ever get in the car, and the app tracks the assigned driver's location in real time so there's no standing around wondering whether the car is actually coming. The essential travel apps guide covers Kakao T alongside the other apps worth having installed before you land.

Payment across Seoul's taxi fleet is almost entirely cashless at this point. Every taxi accepts card payment, including international Visa and Mastercard, and T-Money cards work in taxi meters the same way they work on the subway. Carrying cash for a taxi ride isn't necessary — tap the card reader mounted near the back seat and the fare is deducted automatically.

Seoul Subway Fares 2026 (Official Rates)

Most rides within central Seoul land right at the basic fare. Gangnam to Hongdae runs about ₩1,500, Seoul Station to Cheongnyangni is the same, and it's really only once a route stretches out toward the edges of the metro area that the distance add-on kicks in — Myeongdong to Suwon, for example, comes to roughly ₩1,850 once the extra distance is factored in.

Paying with T-Money or a registered credit card saves ₩100 over buying a single paper ticket with cash, and the bigger advantage is the transfer discount: switching between subway lines, or between subway and bus, within 30 minutes of tapping out doesn't cost anything extra, as long as you're paying with a card rather than cash. Cash tickets don't carry this benefit at all — each ride is priced and paid for separately.

Fare discounts apply by age. Children between 6 and 12 ride at half price, teenagers from 13 to 18 get a 20% discount, and children under 6 travel free when accompanied by an adult. These discounts are applied automatically when a registered T-Money card with the correct age tier is used; a standard adult card won't apply them even if the rider is a minor.

T-Money Card: The Essential Transit Card

A T-Money card is close to mandatory for anyone spending more than a day or two in Seoul. It works across the subway, every bus type, and most taxis, and it's the only way to get the transfer discount described above. Cards are sold at any convenience store — GS25, CU, and 7-Eleven all carry them — as well as at vending machines inside subway stations. The card itself costs ₩3,000, with balance loaded separately in whatever amount you choose.

Topping up is just as easy as buying the card in the first place: convenience store counters and station vending machines both handle it, and there's no registration or ID required for a basic card. If there's unused balance left at the end of a trip, convenience stores will refund it, minus a ₩500 service fee.

Arriving at Incheon Airport, T-Money cards are sold at convenience stores in both terminals — on the basement level (B1) in Terminal 1, and on B2 in Terminal 2 — so picking one up on arrival before heading into the city is straightforward. The Incheon Airport to Seoul guide walks through the full arrival sequence, including exactly where in each terminal to find the AREX platform after you've sorted out a transit card.

Seoul Bus Fares 2026

The color coding is worth learning early, because it tells you what kind of route you're getting on before you even check the number. Blue buses run the trunk routes through central Seoul, green buses handle shorter branch routes feeding into subway stations and neighborhoods, red buses are the wide-area commuter routes running out to Gyeonggi Province, and yellow buses are small village buses covering short local loops.

The same transfer discount that applies to subway rides applies to buses — a transfer within 30 minutes of tapping out, whether it's bus to subway, subway to bus, or bus to bus, doesn't add to the fare, and the system allows up to five transfers within that rolling window before a fresh fare is charged.

Airport limousine buses are a separate category from the regular city bus network, running direct routes from Incheon Airport into specific Seoul neighborhoods with stops at major hotels along the way. Incheon Airport to Gangnam runs ₩18,000, and Incheon Airport to Hongdae runs ₩17,000. They're slower than AREX during traffic but drop you closer to a specific hotel rather than requiring a subway transfer at the end.

AREX: Airport Rail Express Fares 2026

The Express train runs nonstop from the airport straight to Seoul Station, and the price difference reflects that convenience rather than any real gap in comfort — both trains are clean, air-conditioned, and equipped with luggage racks. All-Stop trains cost roughly the same as a subway fare and make several stops along the way, which is where the extra twenty-some minutes goes.

Which one makes sense depends mostly on the situation at hand. If you're hauling a lot of luggage, arriving on a red-eye and running low on patience, or simply tight on time before a same-day connection, the Express is worth the difference. If the budget matters more than the clock, All-Stop gets you to the same place for a fraction of the cost, and the extra time rarely matters much on a first arrival day when there's nothing scheduled yet anyway. The Incheon Airport to Seoul guide has the full platform-to-platform walkthrough for both options.

Which Option to Use When

None of these are hard rules — a taxi works fine for a short daytime hop if the subway route happens to be inconvenient, and the subway can absolutely handle a suitcase if the station has working elevators along the route. The table above reflects what actually ends up being the most sensible option most of the time, based on cost, convenience, and how the city's transit network is laid out.

Practical Notes

A T-Money card works everywhere in Korea, not just on Seoul's subway and bus network — the same card pays for convenience store purchases in many locations and works on regional transit systems well beyond the capital, which is part of why it's worth setting up on day one rather than treating it as a Seoul-only tool. Regional cities generally accept it too, though the transfer discount rules can differ slightly outside the capital area, so it's worth checking local signage on unfamiliar routes.

The taxi night surcharge starts at 10pm, which matters more than it might seem for anyone planning a late dinner or a night out — a taxi called at midnight will cost noticeably more than the same ride called at 9pm, so it's worth budgeting a bit of extra cash for a late return rather than being surprised by the meter. This applies uniformly across the medium, large, premium, and international fleets, and there's no way to opt out of it by requesting a specific driver or company.

Subway last trains vary by line but generally run until somewhere around 1am, and the exact time depends on which line and which direction you're heading — checking the Naver Map or Kakao Metro app before heading out for the evening is the reliable way to confirm rather than assuming a uniform citywide cutoff. For a broader look at how transport costs fit into an overall trip budget, the Korea travel budget guide breaks down daily spending across different travel styles.