Pick a card, buy it at a station or convenience store, tap in and tap out. The same card works on buses.
Last checked 2026-10-22
If you don't, you are charged the maximum fare. This is the most common mistake visitors make.
Paying with a foreign card adds a service fee of about 3.7% on average.
At new ticket machines on Seoul Lines 1–8, you can buy single-journey tickets and Climate Card short-term passes (1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 days) with foreign cards and mobile payments (since March 17, 2026).
It can't be used on the Shinbundang Line, sections run by other cities and provinces, or airport and intercity buses. Your route screen points these out.
On AREX you can enter and exit at its 6 Seoul stations (Seoul Station, Gongdeok, Hongik Univ., Digital Media City, Magongnaru, Gimpo Int'l Airport). At Incheon Int'l Airport Terminal 1 and 2 you can only exit — you can't board there. Right after landing, ride AREX with T-money.
Seoul Subway Lines 1–9, the Gimpo Goldline, and Seoul city, village and late-night buses.
T-money on Apple Pay can't be topped up with Visa (as of March 2026). Buy a Climate Card short-term pass or a single-journey ticket at a station ticket machine instead.
The 30-day pass has ended. Prepaid top-ups stopped on August 31, 2026, and the postpaid pass ended on September 30, 2026. Short-term passes for visitors are still sold.
It needs an Alien Registration Card and a Korean bank card, so short-term visitors can't use it.
If you ride three or more times a day within Seoul, a Climate Card short-term pass usually wins. Otherwise a T-money card is usually best. For just one or two rides, a single-journey ticket is fine.
New ticket machines on Lines 1–8 sell single-journey tickets and Climate Card short-term passes (1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 days) to foreign cards (about 3.7% fee on average). T-money top-ups are mostly cash, so keep a little on hand.
Get the single-journey ticket's ₩500 deposit back at a deposit refund machine in any Seoul-area subway station, any time. It doesn't have to be the station where you got off. A lost or damaged ticket can't be refunded. The T-money card price itself isn't refunded; check T-money's official guide for refunding the remaining balance.
New ticket machines that take foreign cards are only at stations on Seoul Subway Lines 1–8. There's no official information on which payments the Incheon Airport station machines accept. Topping up a T-money card at a station is cash only, so have a little cash when you arrive. You can't board with a Climate Card at the Incheon Airport stations — you can only get off there.