183 Seoul Bus Routes Don't Take Cash. On the Rest, Cash Buys Nothing.

The first time you board a Seoul city bus, there is a decent chance you will do what travellers have done here for decades: hold out a banknote. On 183 routes, as of January 2026, there is no longer anywhere to put it. The fare box is gone.

Quick answer: Seoul buses cost ₩1,500 for the blue and green city lines with a transit card, ₩1,200 for the small village buses, ₩3,000 for red express buses to the suburbs and ₩2,500 for the late-night Owl buses. Cash — where a bus still takes it — costs exactly the same, earns no free transfers, and on 183 routes is not accepted at all. Verified 2026-08-18 against the Seoul Metropolitan Government's own fare page and its cash-free route list.

SEOUL BUS · BASE FARESWhat each Seoul bus colour costs.Adult base fare with a transit card. Where cash is acceptedat all, it costs exactly the same — and forfeits free transfers.Red · express to suburbs₩3,000Owl · late-night₩2,500Blue & green · city₩1,500Village (마을)₩1,2000₩1,000₩2,000₩3,000Source: Seoul Metropolitan Government fare page (rates set 12 Aug 2023). Verified 2026-08-18.SEOUL BUS FARESWhat each Seoulbus colour costs.Adult base fare with a transit card.Cash, where accepted, costs the same.Red · express to suburbs₩3,000Owl · late-night₩2,500Blue & green · city₩1,500Village (마을)₩1,2000₩1,000₩2,000₩3,000Source: Seoul Metropolitan Government.Verified 2026-08-18.
Seoul bus base fares by service type, adult, transit card. Cash fares are identical where cash is accepted; 183 routes take no cash at all as of January 2026.

The cash discount died in 2023

For years the card fare was slightly cheaper than cash, which gave guides an easy line: get a T-money card, save a little on every ride. That line is now half wrong. When Seoul raised bus fares on 12 August 2023, the card and cash fares for city buses landed on the same number — ₩1,500 either way.

So the reason to use a card is no longer the fare. It is everything attached to the fare:

  • Free transfers — card only. Tap off, board a subway or another bus within 30 minutes (60 minutes between 21:00 and 07:00), and the next basic fare is free, up to five boardings. Pay cash and every boarding is full price.
  • The early-bird discount — card only. First tap before 06:30 takes 20% off the base fare: ₩1,200 on a city bus.
  • Youth and child fares — card only, and only after registering the card as a youth or child card. Cash gets a teenager the adult fare.

The 183 routes with no fare box

Seoul started removing fare boxes with 18 routes, expanded to 108 routes (about a quarter of the network) on 1 March 2023, and the city's official list — updated January 2026 — now names 183 cash-free routes. There is no pattern a visitor could usefully memorise; the list mixes blue, green and night routes across the whole network. The practical reading is simpler: assume any bus you board might be cash-free, and carry a loaded T-money card so it never matters.

If you board one with no card, the official fallbacks are a QR code posted at stops and on board for installing a mobile transit-card app, or a payment slip with an account number to transfer the fare later. Both exist; neither is something you want to be attempting at the front of a bus with your luggage. This is the strongest practical argument for putting ₩10,000 on a transit card at the airport before you do anything else.

What the fare table actually says

All figures are adult base fares from the city's fare page, checked 2026-08-18. The rates themselves date from the 12 August 2023 adjustment and have not moved since.

Bus typeCardCashEarly bird (card only)
Blue & green (city)₩1,500₩1,500₩1,200
Village (마을)₩1,200₩1,200₩960
Red (express)₩3,000₩3,000₩2,400
Owl (late night)₩2,500₩2,500—

Distance charges apply past 10 km on a transfer journey — ₩100 per 5 km — which is why a long cross-city trip sometimes costs slightly more than the base fare. The mechanics are the same ones covered in the subway fare guide.

Before you go

  • Load a T-money card before your first bus. The fare is the same as cash; everything else about it is better.
  • Transfers are free card-only, within 30 minutes of tapping off — so tap off at the rear door, even when nobody checks.
  • Do not plan around paying cash. 183 routes will refuse it, and the rest give you nothing for it.

This article was verified on 2026-08-18. If you find something here that's changed, I'd like to know, through the contact page.

Sources and last verification

Prices, fares and hours in Korea change often. Everything above was checked against these sources on the dates shown. If you spot something out of date, please tell me via the contact page.

About the author — H.I. Kang

I was born in Korea and still live here. Travelling abroad, I have been the person stuck at a ticket machine in a language I could not read, holding up the queue and guessing — and I know how small a thing it takes to ruin an afternoon. This site exists so that visitors to Korea do not have to guess. Every price, route and rule here is checked against an official source before it is published, and dated so you can see how current it is.

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