Gimpo Airport to Seoul: AREX, Line 5, Line 9 or Taxi, Priced

The train from Gimpo Airport to Seoul Station costs about $1.30 (1,750 won) on a transit card. To Hongdae it’s $1.23 (1,650 won). Those are the AREX airport train’s own published fares. Line 5 and Line 9, which leave from the same station, charge by distance starting at $1.16 (1,550 won). A taxi meter starts at $3.58 (4,800 won) and adds about $5.69 (7,630 won) for every 10 km once you’re moving.

The rail fares are fixed and printed. The taxi costs whatever the road and the traffic decide.

Gimpo (김포공항) is the easy airport. It sits inside Seoul city limits, in Gangseo-gu, so everything that follows is a normal city trip, not the long haul you make from Incheon. If you flew in from Jeju, Busan, Tokyo or Shanghai, this is probably where you landed.

Checked online on October 10, 2026 (Checked: 2026-10-10). Every fare below comes from an official page opened that day: the AREX fare table, Seoul Metro’s fare page, Line 9’s fare page and the Seoul city taxi page. This is a guide to published prices checked on screen, not a ride log or a receipt. Dollar figures use $1 = 1,341.49 won (ECB reference rate for October 9, 2026, via Frankfurter). They are approximate conversions, not a card or cash-exchange quote.

The short version

The AREX numbers are station-to-station fares from the operator’s table. The subway rows are the distance rule, because Seoul Metro and Line 9 publish a formula rather than a fare for every pair of stations. More on that below.

Gimpo Airport station: five lines, one building

The station is attached to the domestic and international terminals, and you reach it underground. Five rail lines stop there:

• AREX (공항철도), the airport railroad, toward Hongdae and Seoul Station.
• Line 9 (9호선), toward Yeouido and the Gangnam area.
• Line 5 (5호선), toward Gwanghwamun, Jongno and the east of the city.
• Gimpo Goldline (김포골드라인) and the Seohae Line (서해선), which head out of Seoul to Gimpo city and toward Bucheon and beyond. Most visitors won’t need either.

The one thing worth knowing before you walk down: AREX and Line 9 share a platform level heading into the city. If you came off AREX from Incheon and want Gangnam, you change trains here without climbing anywhere. That’s why the Incheon Airport guide sends Gangnam-bound readers to Gimpo rather than Seoul Station.

AREX: the cheapest ride to Hongdae and Seoul Station

AREX runs two kinds of trains. The all-stop train (일반열차) is the one that stops at Gimpo. The Express (직통열차) runs nonstop between Incheon Airport and Seoul Station and does not stop at Gimpo. So from Gimpo there is nothing to choose: you take the all-stop, and you pay the ordinary fare.

Here is what the AREX fare table lists from Gimpo Airport, adult, transit-card price:

For comparison, the same table prices Incheon Airport Terminal 1 to Seoul Station at $3.54 (4,750 won). Gimpo gets you to the same platform for well under half that.

The same page spells out two things that catch visitors:

• A single-journey ticket costs more. Buy a one-ride card from the machine instead of using a transit card and AREX adds $0.07 (100 won) to the adult fare. You also pay a $0.37 (500 won) deposit, which you get back from a refund machine at the station where you get off.
• Children and teens pay less. The AREX table lists a base fare of $0.41 (550 won) for children aged 6 to 12 and $0.67 (900 won) for teens aged 13 to 18, with discounted distance charges on top. Kids under 6 ride free, up to three per adult.

Who should take AREX: anyone staying around Hongdae, Yeonnam-dong, Mapo, Gongdeok or near Seoul Station.

Line 9: Yeouido and Gangnam

Line 9 is the line for the southern half of the city: Yeouido, then the Gangnam area. It runs local trains and express trains (급행), and the express skips most stops. The Line 9 fare page lists a single fare table with no express surcharge, so the faster train costs the same as the slow one.

The rule on that page:

• $1.16 (1,550 won) for the first 10 km on a transit card.
• $0.07 (100 won) more for every additional 5 km, up to 50 km.
• A single-journey ticket’s base fare is $1.23 (1,650 won).

Gangnam is well over 10 km from Gimpo, so expect to pay more than the base fare. I couldn’t find an official page that lists the fare from Gimpo Airport to a specific Gangnam station in plain text, so I’m not going to give you one. Your fare will show on the gate screen when you tap out, and map apps like Naver Map and Kakao Map show it before you board.

One local warning: Line 9 express trains are among the most crowded in Seoul at rush hour, roughly 7 to 9 a.m. into the city and early evening out of it. With a big suitcase at that hour, take the local train or wait one out.

Line 5: Gwanghwamun, Jongno and the east

Line 5 is the slow, direct option for the old city center: Gwanghwamun, Jongno and Dongdaemun, then on east across the river. It makes many stops, but it saves a transfer if your hotel is near one of them.

Seoul Metro runs Line 5, and the Seoul Metro fare page uses the same distance formula as Line 9. Its distance table shows what the bands look like on a transit card:

As with Line 9, I couldn’t confirm the exact distance-based fare from Gimpo Airport to a specific Line 5 station on an official page. The table above is the official scale; where your trip falls on it depends on the station.

How transfers and tapping out work

Seoul charges one fare for the whole journey, not one per line. You pay by total distance across the train, subway and bus legs, as long as you follow two rules from the Seoul Metro and Line 9 fare pages:

1. Tap your card when you get off, not just when you get on. Skip the tap-out and the system treats your next ride as a new trip at full fare.
2. Board the next vehicle within 30 minutes. Between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. the window is 60 minutes.

There’s also an early-bird discount: tap in with a transit card before 06:30 and the base fare is 20% cheaper. It doesn’t apply if you transferred from another ride first.

A transit card such as T-money (교통카드) is what makes all of this work. You can buy one at convenience stores and top it up with cash. It also works on buses and in most taxis.

Taxi: what the meter does from Gimpo

Here’s Seoul’s standard sedan taxi meter, from the city’s taxi page:

From 10 to 11 p.m. and from 2 to 4 a.m., the base fare is $4.32 (5,800 won). The city describes these hours as a late-night surcharge of 20%, rising to 40% between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.

The daytime distance charge works out to about $5.69 (7,630 won) for every 10 km once the car is moving. In slow traffic the time charge kicks in instead. Ten minutes of crawling adds $1.49 (2,000 won).

The good news about Gimpo: the airport is inside Seoul. The 20% surcharge for leaving the city limits doesn’t apply when you’re going to a Seoul address. That’s a big part of why a taxi from Gimpo costs so much less than one from Incheon, which sits outside the city.

I’m not quoting a total fare from Gimpo to any neighborhood. That depends on distance and traffic, and no official page lists one. Map apps show the driving distance. Multiply it by the per-kilometer rate above for a rough idea, or open the Kakao T app, which shows an estimate before you book. The Seoul taxi guide walks through Kakao T on a foreign phone and the tricks to watch for.

Seoul also runs a separate International Taxi service aimed at foreign visitors. The city’s page lists it at the normal meter plus a 20% surcharge for international passengers.

When the taxi is the right call

• Three or four of you, with luggage, going one place. Split four ways, a city taxi ride can cost each person not much more than the train.
• Your hotel is a long walk from any station. Hauling bags 15 minutes from the nearest exit wipes out the savings fast.
• You land after the trains stop. Gimpo closes to flights overnight, so this is rarer than at Incheon. But a delayed late flight can still miss the last train, and then the taxi rank outside arrivals is the answer.
• Rush hour on Line 9 with two suitcases. Sometimes paying more is the kind thing to do, for you and for everyone else.

For everyone else, the train is cheaper, and on a weekday evening it’s often faster than the road.

Which one should you take?

If you’re heading for Myeongdong, either AREX to Seoul Station and change to Line 4, or Line 5 and change. Both work, and the transfer rules above keep it to one distance-based fare.

What I couldn’t verify

• Exact Line 5 and Line 9 fares from Gimpo Airport to specific stations. Seoul Metro and Line 9 publish the distance formula and distance bands in plain HTML, but not station-to-station fares. The fare depends on the official route distance, which I couldn’t confirm on an official page.
• Total taxi fares from Gimpo to any neighborhood. Only the meter rates are published. Totals depend on route and traffic.
• First and last train times at Gimpo Airport station. They differ by line and by day, and I didn’t confirm them on an official page for this article. Check the station board or a map app on the day.
• The price of a T-money card. It’s sold at convenience stores, but I didn’t confirm the current price on an official page.
• Airport limousine bus fares from Gimpo. Buses run from Gimpo to parts of Seoul, but I didn’t confirm route fares on an official page, so they’re left out.

If you’ve ridden from Gimpo recently and your card showed a fare, email me. I’d rather print your real number than a formula.

Related guides

• Incheon Airport to Seoul — the other airport, the AREX fares from there, and why Gangnam-bound travelers transfer at Gimpo.
• Seoul taxis: what the ride should cost — the meter, worked fares, and how to use Kakao T with a foreign phone.
• Food prices in Korea — what a day of eating costs once you’ve arrived.