Korea Electricity Bill Calculator

Korea prices household electricity in steep tiers, and summer bills catch a lot of people out. Enter your usage โ€” or last month's bill โ€” and see exactly where the thresholds sit.

Estimated bill

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What each usage level costs

Based on the season selected above. Notice how sharply the bill rises where a tier boundary sits.

UsageTierBase chargeEnergy chargeEstimated bill

Korea charges electricity in tiers, and the tiers bite

Most countries bill households at a flat rate per kilowatt-hour, or something close to it. Korea does not. Residential electricity is priced progressively across three tiers, and both the per-kWh rate and the fixed base charge climb as you move up. That structure is deliberate โ€” it exists to discourage heavy consumption โ€” and it's why the same apartment can produce a comfortable bill in May and an alarming one in August.

The most common misreading is assuming the top rate applies to everything you used. It doesn't. Each tier is charged only on the units falling within it. Use 350 kWh outside summer and the first 200 are billed at the tier 1 rate, with only the remaining 150 at the tier 2 rate. The base charge is the exception: the amount for your highest reached tier is applied once, in full.

The 400 kWh cliff

Outside July and August, the jump from 400 to 401 kWh is unusually expensive. The base charge rises from 1,600 to 7,300 won and the top per-kWh rate begins applying, so that single extra kilowatt-hour costs roughly 6,800 won rather than the few hundred you'd expect.

This is worth knowing near the end of a billing period. If you're at 390 kWh with a week to go, modest restraint is worth far more than usual. If you're already well into tier 3, the cliff is behind you and savings simply scale with the rate โ€” still worthwhile, but without the step change.

Summer tiers are wider, not cheaper

From 1 July to 31 August the tier boundaries move outward: tier 1 extends from 200 to 300 kWh and tier 2 from 400 to 450 kWh. The rates themselves don't change โ€” you simply stay in the lower brackets longer.

The effect is substantial. At 450 kWh you'd normally be in tier 3 paying the 7,300 won base charge, but in summer you remain in tier 2 at 1,600 won, and more of your usage is billed at the middle rate. The same consumption can differ by more than 20,000 won depending on the month.

What makes up the bill

The charged amount is not just energy. It's the base charge + energy charge + climate/environment charge + fuel cost adjustment, and then 10% VAT and a 3.7% electricity industry fund are added on top. The climate and fuel components are per-kWh, so they scale with usage.

A few things this calculator can't know. Meter reading dates rarely align with calendar months, welfare discounts apply to some households, and the fuel cost adjustment is revised quarterly. More importantly, these are low-voltage rates โ€” most Korean apartments are billed at high-voltage rates, which are lower, with shared building electricity appearing separately in the monthly maintenance fee. Detached houses and many officetels are on low voltage.

Rates used here

Rates change and the fuel adjustment is revised quarterly. Check your KEPCO bill or the KEPCO ON service for exact figures.