How much is the subway in Gwangju? Flat fare, transfers, fare-support cards and delay payments
Numbers checked against the official source on 2026-10-19
Gwangju Metro (Line 1) has one flat fare for the whole line: ₩1,250 for an adult with a transit card and ₩1,400 with a single-use ticket. Teens pay ₩900 by card but the full ₩1,400 on a single ticket; children pay ₩500 either way. Transfers to city and village buses within 30 minutes are free with a card. The operator's fare table is headed "from 1st August 2016", so confirm the amount on the day of travel.
Who pays what
| Rider | Age on the page | Transit card | Single-use ticket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult | 19 to under 65 | 1,250 | 1,400 |
| College student | (English page) | 1,250 | 1,400 |
| Youth | 13 to 18 | 900 | 1,400 |
| Child | 6 to under 13 | 500 | 500 |
| Age 65 and over, disabled, national merit holders, etc. | Free with a special pass or ID | ||
Single-use tickets are tokens: the standard ticket (13 to 64) and the discount ticket (6 to 12) can be bought on any date, used once, and must be used within 2 hours after passing the gate. Children under 6 ride free, but more than two infants travelling alone or with a non-family guardian pay. Group tickets (20 or more on the same section and route) are 10% off the card fare, with one leader free per 20 people.
The card saves an adult ₩150 a ride (derived arithmetic: ₩1,400 − ₩1,250) and a teen ₩500 a ride (₩1,400 − ₩900).
Cards, top-up and the teen-card trap
- Prepaid cards that work: Hanpay, T-money, Cashbee, Rail+, Onepass and K-Pass. Postpaid: credit cards with a transit function marked on the back.
- Top-up: prepaid cards load from ₩1,000 in ₩1,000 units up to ₩500,000. For T-money details see our T-money page.
- Discount cards (teen and child): register the discount on the card company's website within 10 days of the first top-up. If you do not, the adult fare is deducted.
- Mobile cards for Samsung Pay, Kakao Pay and Apple Pay are listed; the registration guides are downloadable files that we did not open.
Transfers
| Type | Between | Rule | Count | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal | Subway, city bus, village bus | Within 30 minutes after the first get-off | Unlimited | Free transfer |
| Wide-area | Gwangju transit and rural buses (Naju, Damyang, Hwasun, Hampyeong, Jangseong) | Within 30 minutes after the first get-off | 1 time | 50% discount (fare beyond the city limits excluded) |
- Transfer works only with a transit card, not cash or a single ticket, and you must tap the card on the get-off reader.
- No discount when both departure and destination are in Gwangju and you switch between Gwangju transit and a rural bus.
- Keep one card in your wallet: with two or more cards the payment or discount may fail or be charged twice.
- Top up before the gate: the gate will not open if the balance is too low.
Fare-support programs on the ticket page
The Korean ticket page lists a "Gwangju G-Pass" card with two kinds of benefit, "immediate discount" and "refund next month (for 15 or more rides a month)". The captured text does not show which groups get which, and it does not say whether foreign residents qualify, so ask the operator before relying on it.
| Group (age) | Support rate |
|---|---|
| Child (6 to 12) | 100% |
| Youth (13 to 18) | 50% |
| Young adult (19 to 39) | 30% |
| General (40 to 64) | 20% |
| Senior (65 and over) | 50% |
| Low income | 64% |
| Multi-child parent, 2 children | 30% |
| Multi-child parent, 3 or more children | 50% |
The Happy-I transit card gives free rides to pregnant women and to parents and children of multi-child families with a Gwangju address; the page says the eligibility has not been widened after the 1 July 2026 launch of the merged Jeonnam-Gwangju special city.
If the train is late
| Situation | What the operator pays |
|---|---|
| Delay of 1 hour or more inside a train, operator's fault | ₩5,000 in transport money, or a ticket or prepaid card top-up worth ₩5,000 |
| Last train delayed 1 hour or more | ₩10,000 in extra transport money, or a ticket or prepaid card top-up worth ₩10,000 |
| Natural disaster or not the operator's fault | Fare refunded or one standard ticket given |
If you cannot continue because of a service stoppage or delay, a single-ticket holder gets the fare back or one ticket, and a card holder gets cash or one standard ticket (Passenger Transport Rules, Article 57).
Common questions
How much is the subway in Gwangju?
₩1,250 for an adult by card or ₩1,400 by single-use ticket, for any trip on the line.
Is the Gwangju fare information current?
The official English table says "from 1st August 2016" and the Korean table repeats it. The operator has not posted a later date on these pages, so check the gate display on the day.
Read on 2026-10-19; no revision date other than the 2016 fare date is printed. Not covered here: timetables, Line 2 construction information, group-ticket student rates (the English table's columns do not read cleanly), and the "everyone's card" amounts on the ticket page.
Official sources
- Gwangju Transportation Corporation — fare system (English) — flat fare by rider and ticket, free passes, group ticket, transfer rules; fare table dated from 1 August 2016 (read 2026-10-19) (checked 2026-10-19)
- Gwangju Transportation Corporation — passenger rules and fares (Korean) — same fare table, transfer standards, delay refund and replacement transport payments; no other revision date printed (read 2026-10-19) (checked 2026-10-19)
- Gwangju Transportation Corporation — ticket types (Korean) — single ticket rules, usable cards, discount registration, G-Pass rates, Happy-I card (read 2026-10-19) (checked 2026-10-19)
Prices change. If an official page shows a different number from this page, the official page wins — and please tell us so we can fix it.