Gyeongbokgung Tickets and Hours: The Complete 2026 Guide

Over ten years of running a hanbok shop near Gyeongbokgung, the questions I heard most often had nothing to do with hanbok. “Where do I buy tickets.” “Are you open today.” “Do I pay for my kid too.” I watched more than a few customers wander around Gwanghwamun for half an hour, unable to find the ticket booth, then turn back. This page puts all those questions in one place.

How Much Does It Cost

Category	Fee	Notes
Adult, individual	3,000 won	Korean and foreign visitors, same rate
Group (10 or more)	2,400 won	Purchase as a group at the ticket booth
Age 65 and over	Free	Korean and foreign visitors, ID required
Korean nationals age 24 and under	Free	ID required
Foreign visitors age 18 and under	Free	Passport required
Hanbok wearers	Free	Korean and foreign visitors
Jongno-gu residents	50% off	ID required, cannot combine with other discounts

The 3,000 won fee has not changed in over twenty years. This is why old blog posts with price information sometimes turn out to be accidentally correct. There have been reports that a price review is under discussion, so this may not last. I update this page whenever the fee changes.

One thing to note: there is no separate children’s rate. When someone asks, “How much for my child,” the answer is not “half price.” It is “they do not pay.” Korean nationals are free through age 24, foreign visitors through age 18. I often saw Korean university-age travellers at the counter who had simply paid the 3,000 won without knowing they did not need to.

Other free-admission categories include pregnant women and one companion, parents with a multi-child card, registered disabled persons and one severe-grade companion, national merit recipients and their surviving family, basic livelihood security recipients and the near-poor, and accredited tour interpreters and cultural tourism guides wearing their licence badge. In every case, you must show proof. Stating it verbally at the ticket window will not get you through.

Why Hanbok Gets You in Free, and What Counts as Hanbok

Free entry for hanbok wearers applies across all four palaces and Jongmyo Shrine. More than half of my shop’s customers arrived not knowing this and left knowing it.

The issue is what counts. People do get stopped at the gate. The official criteria are as follows.

Accepted	Not Accepted
Traditional hanbok and modern-style hanbok	A durumagi coat worn on its own
Jeogori without goreum (ties)	Jeans with a jeogori
Trousers with a zip waist or no ankle ties	Hanbok bottom with a T-shirt
Jeogori + high-waisted skirt (jeogori reaching the waist)	Modern-style jeogori worn like a T-shirt
Rami (mosi) garments	One-piece dress-style hanbok without a jeogori

The two essential points: you need both a top and a bottom, and the jeogori must keep the overlapping collar shape. Whether there is a ribbon tie or a button knot does not matter. The skirt closure type is not restricted. A clause about “maintaining the dignity of the palace” accompanies the policy, so excessive exposure can still get you stopped.

If you rent a proper set from any shop near Gyeongbokgung, you are almost certain to clear these criteria without issue. The people who run into trouble are usually the ones who bought a “hanbok-style dress” online and showed up in that.

I have written out the full conditions and actual pass-or-fail cases in a separate article: Hanbok Free Entry Guide.

Opening Hours and Last Admission

Period	Hours	Last Admission
January–February, November–December	09:00–17:00	16:00
March–May, September–October	09:00–18:00	17:00
June–August	09:00–18:30	17:30

The fact that last admission is one hour before closing is the most important practical detail here. Every winter, I watched customers who arrived a little past 4 p.m. get turned away at the booth. Announcements asking visitors to begin leaving start thirty minutes before closing.

If you are renting hanbok for four hours, you want to be at the shop counter by noon at the latest in winter, and by 1 p.m. in summer. I have put the rental-hour calculation in a rental timing guide.

Closing Day — Tuesday

Gyeongbokgung closes every Tuesday. Jongmyo is also Tuesday. In contrast, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung close on Monday. For a traveller with only two days in Seoul, this split is actually convenient. At least one palace will be open whichever weekday you are here.

If a regular closing day falls on a public holiday or substitute holiday, the palace opens that day and closes on the next non-holiday weekday. During the spring and autumn Royal Palace Culture Festivals, the palaces remain open through what would normally be closing days.

On Tuesdays, the Royal Guard changing ceremony and the Gwanghwamun Gate guard ceremony also stop. This is the day when travellers who came specifically to see the ceremony leave disappointed. I have put the times and locations in the Royal Guard Ceremony schedule.

Where Is the Ticket Booth, and Can You Buy Online

The ticket booth is on the left side of Gwanghwamun (the main gate). If you walk through Gwanghwamun and find yourself in front of Heungnyemun Gate, you have already passed it.

Daytime general admission has no online pre-sale. You buy in person. When you search the web for “Gyeongbokgung reservation,” the booking pages that appear are for separate programmes: Korean-language guided tours for groups, Chilgung shrine interpretation tours, youth group visits, and so on. Only evening admission is sold separately via Interpark.

On busy days, the ticket line is the only queue. Spring cherry blossom weekends around 10 a.m. and autumn foliage weekends in the afternoon produce long lines. The fact that wearing hanbok eliminates the need to stand in this line at all is, in practice, a substantial difference. Free-admission visitors skip the ticket booth entirely and simply show their proof at Heungnyemun.

The Integrated Ticket and Free Admission Days

The integrated ticket, which lets you into all four palaces and Jongmyo Shrine once each, costs 6,000 won. It is valid for six months from the date of purchase and is sold at the ticket booths of all four palaces and Jongmyo. Changdeokgung’s Huwon garden is not included.

You will still find many pages online saying “integrated ticket 10,000 won.” That is the old price. I have done the arithmetic on whether the integrated ticket actually saves you money compared to hanbok free entry in a separate article.

Free admission days are undergoing significant change in 2026. Under the government’s expanded “Culture Day” policy, palaces and royal tombs are transitioning to free entry every Wednesday in stages.

Site	Every-Wednesday Free Entry Starts
Joseon Royal Tombs	From 27 May 2026
Deoksugung	From August 2026
Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Jongmyo	From October 2026
Gyeongbokgung	Deferred — crowding and safety concerns. Currently only the last Wednesday of each month.

The important thing is that Gyeongbokgung is the holdout. If you come thinking “it is Wednesday so Gyeongbokgung is free,” you are mistaken. Gyeongbokgung still only opens free on the last Wednesday of each month. This is a moving target, so I will keep this section updated.

Evening Admission

The first-half 2026 evening season ran from 13 May to 14 June, 19:00–21:30 (last admission 20:30), at 3,000 won, and has now closed. The structure was 3,000 tickets sold in advance via Interpark plus 300 walk-up tickets reserved for foreign visitors.

Hanbok free entry applies to evening admission as well. Free-admission visitors do not need a reservation; they show their proof at Heungnyemun. Hanbok wearers are checked against the criteria above and admitted. However, they are counted separately from the reservation cap, so a wait is possible.

The second-half 2026 schedule has not been announced as of this writing (August 2026). It usually appears around September. I have covered palace evening programmes more broadly in Seoul Palaces at Night.

What to Check Before You Leave

By subway, Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3), Exit 5 connects directly into the palace grounds. The National Palace Museum is also linked from this exit underground. Note, however, that Exit 5 closes at 22:00, so after evening admission you will need to use Exit 4 or Exit 6. Anguk Station Exit 1 and Gwanghwamun Station (Line 5) Exit 2 are also a 7-to-10-minute walk.

I have detailed the routes to Gyeongbokgung in a separate guide.

A Final Note

The fees and hours listed here are accurate as of the posting date and may change. 2026 in particular is a year when the free admission day policy is in flux, and even pages on the official site sometimes contradict each other. Do not stake a major decision — such as scheduling your trip around a particular weekday — on this article alone. Check the Royal Palaces and Tombs Division notice once more just before your visit.

If you are planning to come in hanbok, the fact that you can skip the ticket line is, by itself, enough to offset the time spent visiting a rental shop. The pricing, inclusions and closing days for every shop near Gyeongbokgung are all laid out on this site. No rankings, no star ratings — just information verified by someone who ran a shop right there for ten years.

Compare 28 hanbok shops at Gyeongbokgung →