TOPIK 2027 in Korea: Every Test Date, PBT vs IBT Fees and the ₩50,000 Fee Support That Closed in October

Last updated: 3 November 2026. Dates are from the Ministry of Education's press release of 29 September 2026 and the TOPIK website, read on 3 November. Fees are the 2026 fees; the 2027 fees have not been published. ₩1,325 = US$1 (Federal Reserve, 23 October 2026).

When is TOPIK in 2027? Korea's Ministry of Education has set 15 TOPIK sittings for 2027: six paper tests (PBT), six internet tests (IBT) and three speaking tests. The first is round 110 on 10 January, in Korea only, and registration runs 8–14 December 2026. The last is IBT round 22 on 27 November.

Two things need clearing up first. The 2027 test dates are published, but the 2027 fees are not, so any 2027 fee you see is unofficial. And the "₩50,000 TOPIK refund" is not a government scheme. It was a private fund with 1,000 places, and its organiser's own board says applications closed at 17:00 on 7 October 2026. This guide gives the full calendar, what the ₩30,000 to ₩40,000 extra for IBT actually buys, and the payment rule that can stop you at checkout.

The Ewha Campus Complex in Seoul, October 2011. Photo: Park Seong-geun, Korea Tourism Organization (KOGL Type 1).

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Quick Guide: TOPIK 2027 in Korea

The full 2027 TOPIK calendar

The test is run by the National Institute for International Education (국립국제교육원, NIIED) under the Ministry of Education. The dates below are the ministry's own table. The TOPIK website has so far posted only round 110 for 2027, and it warns that results dates can move, so check the site before you book anything around a date.

Registration dates are for sitting in Korea. Overseas windows are set by each local test agency.

Paper test (PBT)

The two-day dates are not a choice. In the 2026 two-day rounds, the TOPIK site listed Korea and Asia on the Sunday and the Americas, Europe, Africa and Oceania on the Saturday. The 2027 split has not been posted, but expect the same pattern.

Internet test (IBT)

Speaking test (말하기 평가)

Each speaking test falls on an IBT Saturday and shares that IBT's registration window. Outside Korea, a second pilot runs in 2027 and regular overseas speaking tests are planned from 2028. The first pilot in 2026 covered Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Japan and Indonesia.

What is left of 2026. Registration has closed for everything. PBT round 109 sits on 15 November (results 22 December) and IBT round 16 on 28 November (results 18 December). Results for rounds already taken are due on 13 November (IBT 15), 16 November (speaking 12) and 10 December (PBT 108), all at 15:00 Korean time.

You might like: Korean Language School Fees in Korea, for what a full-time course costs before you sit the test.

Seoul National University campus in November 2023. Illustrative campus photo. Photo: Shin Hye-seong, Korea Tourism Organization (KOGL Type 1).

PBT vs IBT: what the extra ₩40,000 buys

The two formats carry the same legal weight and the same six levels; the IBT notice says so outright (동일 효력, 동일 등급체계). So the real questions are price, time and availability.

The IBT premium is ₩30,000 at TOPIK I and ₩40,000 at TOPIK II. The clearest thing it buys is speed. In October 2027, someone who sits TOPIK II on paper on 16–17 October gets a score on 9 December. Someone who sits the IBT on 23 October, a week later, has a score on 12 November. That is 27 days sooner for ₩40,000, and it matters if you are chasing an admission or job deadline.

The ministry's figures show how few people pay for it: of 564,606 applicants counted for 2026, 95.99% chose paper and 3.94% chose IBT. Only 417 chose the speaking test. Availability is part of the reason: IBT runs in only 12 countries, against 89 for paper, and round 16 had 38 test sites across Korea.

Paper is the better choice if you have no deadline, or you write Korean faster by hand than you type it. IBT also has no break: the notice says so, and leaving early voids your score. IBT is the better choice if you need a score date you can plan around. One warning: a site with 15 or fewer IBT applicants may be cancelled. You get a full refund, but then you have lost your sitting.

The cut-offs differ because the scales differ, so do not compare a PBT and an IBT score directly.

You choose TOPIK I or II, not a target level. The level comes from your score. You can sit both at the same site in one day on one ID. In Korea, a level often carries practical weight: a student needs TOPIK 3 or 4 for the 25-hour weekday work limit, and a language-school student needs level 2 for a part-time permit. If you are working towards levels 1 and 2, the book below is the usual starting point.

The ₩50,000 "refund" is closed, and it was never TOPIK's

English coverage calls this a TOPIK fee reimbursement, which makes it sound like a rule of the test. It is not. The money came from the Korea Financial Industry Foundation (금융산업공익재단), and the programme was run by the Labor Human Rights Center (노동인권회관). Its board also carries a TOPIK support poster from August 2023.

The 2026 poster set these terms:

• Who: aged 18 or over (the poster says born on or before 31 December 2007), at least one year in Korea, and a migrant-background young person or worker. That covers foreign-national children of multicultural families, young people who moved to Korea from abroad, naturalised citizens and, in the poster's words, any other foreign national.
• What: up to ₩50,000 after you sit a TOPIK in Korea on or after 1 January 2026 and receive your score report. One payment per person. Past recipients could not apply again.
• How: by email only, with an application form, ID, a copy of a bank book in your own name and the score report. Applications opened in February 2026.
• Limit: 1,000 people, first come, first served.

The Korea Herald reported it on 12 August as open until the places ran out. The centre's own board now carries the line "10.07 17:00 접수마감", meaning applications closed at 17:00 on 7 October. So anyone who sat a test this autumn expecting the money is too late.

Could it come back? We do not know. Nothing has been announced for 2027. The useful clue is timing: the 2026 poster went up on 23 December 2025 and applications opened in February. If you sit round 110 in January, keep your score report and check the centre's board in late December. The sum would have covered all of a TOPIK I paper fee at 2026 rates, but only about half of an IBT II fee.

We found no government discount. TOPIK's operating rules (기본운영 규정, Articles 8 and 9) set the fee and how it is returned, and they say nothing about reductions. Some universities pay for their own students: Seoul National University's College of Engineering posted a scheme for its foreign undergraduates on 28 September 2026. Ask your international office before you pay.

TOPIK's real refund: 100%, 50%, 40%, then nothing

This is the refund that applies to everyone sitting in Korea. How much you get back depends on when you cancel. The percentages come from the TOPIK FAQ. The won figures for IBT come from the round 16 notice, and the rest are our arithmetic on the 2026 fees.

The catch is in the small print. The TOPIK site is down for maintenance from 09:00 to 10:00 every day, so the full-refund deadline on the last morning is effectively 09:00, not 10:00. For IBT round 16 the pause began at 08:30. The round 109 notice also warned that refund requests were unavailable from 18:00 on the closing day until 09:00 the next day. A refund cannot be undone, and once you have asked for one you cannot sit the test.

If round 110 follows round 109's pattern, a full refund runs until 10:00 on 14 December, 50% until 21 December and 40% until 13:00 on 9 January. That is our reading; the round 110 notice is not out yet. Round 109's notice appeared eight days before registration opened.

Abroad, the rules are set locally. The New York Korean Education Center, for example, refunds nothing once its window closes, unless a level has fewer than 10 applicants and the test is cancelled.

You might like: Korea Minimum Wage 2027, for what the fee means in hours if you work part-time.

How to register in Korea without losing your seat

The ministry's own reform plan quotes a Dong-A Ilbo headline: TOPIK registration is more competitive than booking a K-pop concert. Sites can fill early. These are the rules from the most recent notices.

• Use a Windows PC. Mac OS is not supported, and mobile registration is not offered. Chrome is the recommended browser.
• Have a Korean way to pay. Foreign-issued cards and overseas transfers are refused. You need a Korean card or a virtual account (가상계좌) paid from a Korean bank. A short-stay visitor without either should ask a Korean friend for help well before the window opens, or sit the test at home.
• Pay fast. You must choose a payment method within one hour of applying or the application is cancelled. A virtual account issued before 16:00 can be paid until 23:59:59 that day.
• Know the hours. Registration runs 10:00 to 16:00 Korean time. For PBT round 109, the first two days were split by region: Seoul, Gangwon, Gyeongnam, Gyeongbuk, Jeonbuk, Jeju, Chungnam and Chungbuk on day one, and Gyeonggi, Incheon, Daejeon, Daegu, Jeonnam-Gwangju, Busan and Ulsan on day two. Everyone could then compete for what was left. Check whether round 110 does the same.
• Match your ID exactly. If the English name on your ID differs at all from your admission slip, you cannot sit. Once you pick a site, you cannot edit your English name, birth date or gender; you have to cancel and reapply.
• Prepare the photo. Size 413 × 531 pixels, JPG or PNG, under 500 KB, taken in the last six months. These specs are from the IBT notice.
• Do not use a throwaway email address, and do not use a macro. Both can get your application cancelled, and macro users lose the fee.

The registration window usually closes about two months before the test. Round 110 is the exception at 27 days.

Priority registration exists for transport-disadvantaged applicants (교통약자), a group the notice lists as disabled people, older people, pregnant women and children. It is a pilot at round 110. The application window for that round is 4 to 6 November 2026, by registered post, with applicants notified by 11 November.

Hangul calligraphy at the Sejong the Great Memorial Hall in Seoul, October 2017. Photo: IR Studio, Korea Tourism Organization (KOGL Type 1).

The ID rule that changes in January 2027

If your alien registration card (외국인등록증, ARC) is at the immigration office for a visa extension, read this before you register. Until now, a stay-permit application receipt (체류허가 신청확인서) or a visa-issuance certificate could stand in for your ID. Mobile ID has also been accepted. The ministry plans to stop accepting all of that from January 2027; the revised NIIED ID guideline is still a draft. Valid ID would narrow to physical documents such as a passport or an ARC.

That is the month of round 110. The plan does not say whether the 10 January sitting is covered, so assume it is and check the round 110 notice. Carry your physical passport.

The ban list is also stricter than most first-timers expect. At round 109, all wristwatches, analogue as well as digital, had to be handed in before the test, along with smart watches, smart glasses, earphones, power banks and e-cigarettes. Keeping one on you, even at break, can be treated as cheating.

Penalties are rising too. Detected cheating went from 331 people in 2021 to 606 in 2025. The ministry proposes a five-year ban for proxy test-taking (now four years), and the same five years for leaking the paper and forging ID (now two years). Simply having an AI device during the test would be a two-year ban. These are proposals that still need an amendment to the enforcement decree, but the two-year rule on AI devices is already in the current TOPIK rules.

Should you wait for the 2029 TOPIK?

Probably not. The 2029 version is real, but nothing changes for the 2027 tests. A committee was due to form in October 2026, the new format is to be unveiled in June 2027, it is piloted in 2028 and it applies from 2029. It will bring AI-assisted question writing and marking, with experts checking the output, and a home test that starts from 2029 at the earliest, with lower levels not used for study or visa purposes first.

Applicants hit 566,665 in 2025, and the ministry wants one million by 2030. It also plans more test sites in the Seoul area, so seats may ease, but not necessarily in 2027. A score from a December 2027 release stays valid until December 2029, so it bridges the change. The reform committee's list of open questions includes whether to merge the intermediate and advanced stages and how to equate PBT and IBT scores. Practise for the test you can book.

Sitting TOPIK outside Korea

The topik.go.kr online system is only for people sitting in Korea. Abroad, you register with the local agency, usually an embassy or Korean Education Center, about two to three months before the test. Overseas fees differ by country.

Two dated examples for round 105 in April 2026: the New York Korean Education Center charged $45 for TOPIK I and $60 for TOPIK II, and the Korean Embassy in Finland charged €60 and €80. Both warned that a level with fewer than 10 applicants could be cancelled. Round 110 and IBT round 17 are Korea only, so the first 2027 test abroad is IBT round 18 on 20 March, where IBT is available, and PBT round 111 on 10–11 April elsewhere.

You might like: Do You Have to Carry Your Passport in Korea?, since your physical ID is about to matter more on test day.

FAQ

Q: When is the first TOPIK in 2027?

A: PBT round 110 on Sunday 10 January 2027, in Korea only. Registration runs from 8 to 14 December 2026, and results come out on 4 February 2027 at 15:00 Korean time.

Q: How much does TOPIK cost in 2027?

A: The 2027 fees have not been published. The 2026 fees in Korea are ₩40,000 for TOPIK I PBT, ₩55,000 for TOPIK II PBT, ₩70,000 for TOPIK I IBT, ₩95,000 for TOPIK II IBT and ₩80,000 for speaking. Overseas fees differ by country.

Q: Can I still get the ₩50,000 TOPIK fee refund?

A: Not for 2026. The private scheme closed at 17:00 on 7 October 2026, and no 2027 round has been announced. It was never a government refund.

Q: Is IBT easier than PBT?

A: We cannot say, and the ministry does not. Officially they have the same validity and the same six levels. IBT is shorter, has fewer questions and returns results in 20 days, but it costs more, runs in 12 countries, and comparing the two scores is still on the reform committee's list.

Q: Can I pay the TOPIK fee with a foreign credit card?

A: No, not when you register in Korea through topik.go.kr. Foreign-issued cards and overseas transfers are refused. You need a Korean-issued card or a Korean virtual account. Abroad, you pay your local test agency.

Q: How long is a TOPIK score valid?

A: Two years from the results date, under Article 4(2) of the TOPIK operating rules. Check with the university or employer receiving it if your score is close to expiry.

Q: Can I use a mobile ID at TOPIK?

A: Plan on no. The ministry plans to stop accepting mobile IDs and paper substitutes from January 2027. Bring a physical passport or alien registration card.

Sources

• 2027 schedule, applicant numbers, 2029 reform, cheating and ID changes: Ministry of Education and NIIED press release and attached plan, 토픽 개편 및 시행 확대 방안, 29 September 2026. Read in the original Korean attachments.
• 2026 fees and score validity: 2026 TOPIK plan, Ministry of Education notice 2025-317 (NIIED).
• Current calendar, including round 110: TOPIK test schedule (시험일정), read 3 November 2026.
• Payment and refund rules: TOPIK FAQ; round 109 registration notice, 24 August 2026; IBT round 16 notice, 15 September 2026.
• Operating rules: 한국어능력시험 기본운영 규정, Articles 4, 8 and 9.
• Priority registration: round 110 교통약자 우선접수제 notice, 30 October 2026.
• ₩50,000 support: 노동인권회관, 2026 TOPIK fee support poster and closing notice; The Korea Herald, 12 August 2026.
• University example: Seoul National University College of Engineering notice, 28 September 2026.
• Overseas fees: New York Korean Education Center; Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Finland.