Korean Expressway Tolls and Hi-Pass in a Rental Car

Korean expressways are fast, well lit, and cheap: Seoul to Busan, almost 400 km, costs under ₩20,000 in tolls. And if you’re in a rental car, paying is almost automatic, as long as you understand one device on the windscreen.

This is Part 6 of our Korea driving series.

How does Hi-Pass work in a rental car?

Hi-Pass (하이패스) is a small box on the windscreen, usually behind the rear-view mirror, holding a payment card. As you pass through a blue Hi-Pass lane, it pays automatically and beeps with the amount.

• Check it when you pick up the car. When you start the engine, the device announces (in Korean) whether the card is working. If it beeps a warning, ask the staff before driving off.
• Slow down to about 30 km/h in a standard Hi-Pass lane. Multi-lane Hi-Pass gates (다차로 하이패스) remove the barriers between lanes so you can pass closer to road speed — the Incheon Airport tollgate is signed for 80 km/h — but follow the posted limit at each gate.
• After you return the car, the rental company totals your tolls and charges your card. Some add a handling charge.

How do you pay tolls without Hi-Pass?

Use the lanes marked 일반 (regular) or showing a ticket symbol, never the blue Hi-Pass lanes.

• At the entrance: stop at the machine and take a ticket (통행권). It records where you got on.
• At the exit: hand the ticket and your card to the booth, or insert them into the machine. Credit cards and cash both work.
• Don't lose the ticket. If you do, tell the exit booth or tollgate office. Without the ticket you may be charged as if you'd driven from the farthest entrance.

Some short expressway sections near cities use flat-fee (open) tollgates instead: no ticket, just pay a fixed ₩800–1,100 as you pass.

What if you drive through a Hi-Pass lane by mistake?

It happens to Koreans too. Don’t stop, don’t reverse: that’s how rear-end crashes happen at toll gates. The gate photographs your plate and records the toll as unpaid (미납통행료).

Pay it any of these ways:

• At the office of any tollgate (tell them you passed without paying).
• At a rest-area information desk or payment kiosk (card).
• In the Korea Expressway Corporation toll app (card).
• By phone: 1588-2504.

Online payment at excard.co.kr needs the registered owner’s digital certificate, so in a rental car that route belongs to the company. If the toll is still unpaid once the deadline on the reminder notice (독촉장) has passed, a surcharge of ten times the toll (부가통행료) applies (Toll Road Act Enforcement Decree Art. 14). In a rental car, the notice goes to the rental company, which will pass it on to you, so it’s far cheaper to settle it yourself right away.

How much are Korean expressway tolls?

🛣️ Sample expressway tolls, passenger car (class 1), Sep 2026

“Seoul tollgate” is the Seoul Tollgate near Pangyo, the start of most southbound trips, not central Seoul. Private expressways (such as some airport and ring roads) charge more per kilometre. Your navigation app shows the expected toll before you set off.

Tolls are also waived on the day before, the day of and the day after Seollal and Chuseok (the lunar new year and harvest holidays) on designated expressways. The flip side: those are the worst traffic days of the year.