T-money vs WOWPASS vs Climate Card: Seoul Card Guide 2026

Every visitor to Seoul needs some way to tap through subway gates and onto buses. In 2026 there are three cards worth considering — T-money, WOWPASS and the Climate Card short-term pass — and one important change: Seoul’s 30-day Climate Card, which many older guides still recommend, stopped operating on 1 October 2026. The short-term passes that tourists actually use are still on sale.

This guide compares the three on what they cost, where they work, how you top them up and how you get money back, using Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul Metro and T-money pages checked on 1 October 2026. For trains between cities, see how to book KTX tickets; for everything else about getting around, the Getting Around hub.

The short version

• T-money — a rechargeable pay-as-you-go card for about ₩3,000. Works on subways and buses across the country, in many taxis and at convenience stores. Best default for almost everyone.
• Climate Card (short-term pass) — unlimited rides on Seoul’s subway and Seoul city buses for 1–7 calendar days, from ₩5,000 to ₩20,000, plus ₩3,000 for the card. Worth it only if you ride a lot and stay inside Seoul.
• WOWPASS — a prepaid payment card for foreigners with a T-money transit function built in. Worth it if you want to swap foreign cash for a card you can pay with in shops. For transit it behaves like T-money.

What a ride costs in Seoul

Knowing the base fare makes the comparison easy. Seoul Metro’s fare table (checked 1 October 2026):

Beyond 10 km, the fare rises by ₩100 per 5 km up to 50 km, then ₩100 per 8 km. Seoul’s city buses cost ₩1,500 with a card and village buses ₩1,200. The adult base fare went up from ₩1,400 to ₩1,550 in June 2025, so older blog posts quoting ₩1,400 are out of date.

Two card-only perks matter more than the ₩100 you save per ride:

• Free or discounted transfers. Pay by transit card, tap in and out, and board your next subway or bus within 30 minutes (60 minutes between 21:00 and 07:00). You pay a combined distance-based fare instead of two base fares, for up to four transfers. Forgetting to tap off breaks the chain and you’re charged the base fare again on the next ride.
• Early-bird discount. Your first subway boarding before 06:30 with a transit card gets 20% off the base fare.

T-money: the default card

T-money is the card most Koreans use. You buy the card, then load money onto it.

• Where to buy: GS25, CU, 7-Eleven and Emart24 convenience stores, and subway station ticket machines. No ID or sign-up needed.
• Price: about ₩3,000 for a plain card; special designs cost more. The card price is separate from the balance and is never refunded.
• Where it works: subways and buses nationwide — a card bought in Seoul also works in Busan and Jeju — plus taxis with a card reader and convenience-store purchases.
• Topping up: hand the card and cash to a convenience-store cashier, or use a station machine (menus in English, Chinese and Japanese). The new ticket machines installed in all Seoul Metro Line 1–8 stations accept foreign credit and debit cards since March 2026, with an overseas-card fee of about 3.7%. Many other machines and stores are cash-only, so keep some won on you.
• One card per person. You can’t tap one card for two people on the subway.

T-money also sells a tourist edition. The T-money Travel Card (about ₩4,000) is sold at the Incheon Airport bus ticket counter, and a Travel Card Plus (about ₩6,000) adds currency exchange and payment through the WOWPASS app.

Climate Card short-term pass: unlimited rides inside Seoul

The Climate Card (기후동행카드) is Seoul’s unlimited-ride card. Its tourist-friendly version is the short-term pass.

The break-even column is simple arithmetic on the base fare and ignores transfer discounts. Since a subway-to-bus transfer within 30 minutes on T-money costs much less than a second full fare, your real break-even is somewhat higher than shown.

Rules that catch people out

• It starts the day you charge it. You can’t pre-charge for a future date. Each day runs from the first train until the last train, so a 1-day pass charged at 6pm gives you only one evening.
• Seoul only. It covers subway sections inside Seoul and Seoul-licensed city and village buses. Excluded: the Shinbundang Line, GTX, subway stations outside Seoul, wide-area (red) and airport buses, and buses licensed by Gyeonggi or Incheon.
• Exiting outside Seoul costs you. If you ride from a Seoul station to a station outside the zone, the card can’t be used to exit and you pay the full fare from your origin.
• The airport is exit-only. If you board inside Seoul you can get off at Incheon Airport Terminal 1 or 2 on the airport railroad, but you can’t board there with the pass. That makes it useless for your arrival ride into the city.
• Always tap off. Two missed tap-offs during your pass period suspend the card for 24 hours.
• No shop payments. Unlike T-money, it can’t be used at convenience stores.
• Recharge only after expiry. You can’t stack a new pass on top of a running one.
• iPhone users need the physical card. The mobile version is Android-only (Mobile Tmoney or Samsung Wallet).

Where to buy: the new ticket machines in Seoul Metro Line 1–8 stations (which accept foreign cards), convenience stores near Line 9, Ui-Sinseol and Sillim line stations, and the Myeongdong and Seoul Tourism Plaza tourist information centres. It is not sold at the airport. You can top up by cash or card at machines on Seoul Line 1 (Seoul Station–Cheongnyangni), Lines 2–9, Ui-Sinseol and Sillim — but not at Korail, airport railroad, Shinbundang or GTX-A machines.

WOWPASS: a payment card with T-money inside

WOWPASS is a prepaid card for foreign visitors (Korean nationals can’t get one) that combines currency exchange, card payments and a transit card. The key thing to understand is that it holds two separate balances:

1. WOWPASS balance — used by inserting the card’s chip to pay in shops, like a debit card. You load it at WOWPASS machines with cash in 16 currencies (free), or in the app with an overseas credit card or mobile wallet (up to ₩200,000 per transaction and ₩1,000,000 per month).
2. T-money balance — used by tapping, for subway, bus, taxi and convenience stores. You top it up only with Korean won cash at station machines or convenience stores, or by moving money from the WOWPASS balance in the app. Transfers go one way: you can’t move T-money back to WOWPASS.

Other points from WOWPASS’s FAQ:

• Fees: no fee for exchange, payment or annual service. There is a one-time registration fee — the current FAQ says ₩6,000; an older WOWPASS guide says ₩5,000 — so expect about ₩5,000–6,000.
• Airport machines: Incheon Terminal 1 (CU branch No. 1) and Terminal 2 (CU branch No. 3) machines take Korean won cash only and don’t do currency exchange or withdrawals. Bring some won or plan to use a city machine.
• Getting money back: leftover WOWPASS balance can be withdrawn in won at a WOW Exchange machine (not the CU machines), up to ₩100,000 at a time, for a ₩1,000 fee. The T-money balance is stored on the card and follows T-money’s own refund rules.

For transit alone, WOWPASS gives you nothing a ₩3,000 T-money card doesn’t. It earns its registration fee if you’ll use the payment side — for example, to avoid foreign-transaction fees on your home card or to turn leftover foreign cash into something spendable.

Side-by-side comparison

Which card should you buy?

A practical combination for many visitors: buy a T-money card at an airport convenience store, use it for the airport railroad into Seoul (the all-stop train is ₩4,750 from Terminal 1 to Seoul Station; see Incheon Airport to Seoul for the other options), and decide after a day whether you’re riding enough to justify a Climate Card pass. The T-money card stays useful for Busan, Jeju and taxis. For mobile data on arrival, see Korea eSIM vs SIM vs pocket Wi-Fi, and for overall trip costs, Practical Tips.

Getting your money back before you fly

T-money refunds, per T-money’s refund page:

• Convenience stores refund in cash minus a ₩500 fee: under ₩20,000 at GS25, up to ₩20,000 at 7-Eleven, up to ₩30,000 at CU and Emart24.
• No fee if the balance is below ₩1,550 (the base fare).
• Balances over ₩50,000: T-money’s head office or a bank ATM with a T-money refund function (into a Korean bank account).
• Partial refunds (₩10,000–50,000) are handled only at T-money’s head office and capital-area subway customer service centres.
• The card price is never refunded.

Climate Card short-term pass refunds are the amount charged, minus the fares you actually used and a ₩500 fee, and you must apply within the pass period. Without a Korean bank account, Seoul directs you to T-money’s head office for a cash refund — not convenient on your way to the airport, which is another reason to buy only as many days as you need.

Common mistakes

• Buying a 7-day Climate Card for a trip that includes Suwon, Incheon or Bundang. Those areas are outside the pass, and exiting there means paying full fare.
• Not tapping off the bus. You lose the transfer discount and pay another base fare on your next ride.
• Topping up T-money with a large amount on the last day. Convenience-store refunds are capped at ₩20,000–30,000.
• Expecting to top up WOWPASS’s transit balance with a foreign card at a station. Its T-money side takes won cash, or an in-app transfer from the payment balance.
• Following pre-October 2026 advice about the monthly Climate Card. It no longer exists for visitors.