Seoul makes this easy. Nearly every subway station has coin lockers a few steps from the gates, and a handful of big stations also run a staffed desk that takes oversized bags — some will even deliver them to your hotel or the airport. For a normal suitcase you are looking at roughly ₩2,200 to ₩4,400 for four hours, the machine speaks English, and you do not need a Korean card, phone number, or ID to use one.

Coin lockers vs. the staffed desk

There are two systems, both run by Seoul Metro. Coin lockers — the brand on the machines reads T-Locker (또타라커) — are the default: self-service, cheap, and almost everywhere. The staffed option, T-Luggage (또타러기지), sits at a few major stations behind a real counter. Use the desk when your bag is too big for a locker, when you have several pieces, or when you would rather have everything sent ahead than haul it around.

For 90% of trips, a locker is all you need.

What a locker costs

Pricing is the same across the network and depends only on size. For the first four hours on a weekday it runs about ₩2,200 for a small locker, ₩3,300 for a medium, and ₩4,400 for a large, then a few hundred won for each extra hour. There is no deposit and no membership — you pay for the time you use.

Will a 28-inch suitcase fit?

A large locker takes most 28-inch checked bags. The exception is a very wide hard-shell case, which can be a tight squeeze. Rather than guess after dragging your bag down to the platform, check the exact large-locker dimensions and how many are free right now on the station pages — for example Seoul Station, Hongdae, Myeongdong and Gangnam.

Paying without a Korean card

This trips up a lot of visitors, and it shouldn't. The touchscreen takes foreign Visa and Mastercard, and it takes cash. You tap "store," pick a free locker, pay, and the screen gives you a code or QR to reopen it. The T-Locker app exists if you want to reserve ahead, but you can walk up and use a locker without ever downloading it. If you lose the code, the same screen can pull up your locker again with the card you paid with.

Where the lockers are

Start from the station nearest your next stop, not the one you just left. If you are checking out and spending the day in Myeongdong before a night flight, store the bag at Myeongdong, not back at your guesthouse station. The area pages on this site list every locker spot per station — by line and exit — with live availability, so you can see at a glance where the large lockers are open.

When every locker is taken

Large lockers fill first, usually late morning and on weekends. Two fixes: try a different exit — big stations like Seoul Station and Gangnam have lockers in several spots, not one — or walk to the staffed T-Luggage desk, which never "runs out" the way a locker bank does. The live counts on each station page tell you which size is still open before you commit.

Leaving a bag overnight or for a few days

Lockers run on station hours — roughly first train to last train — and you can leave a bag overnight. You simply pay the extra day when you come back. For three or four days, or for a large suitcase, the staffed desk usually works out cheaper and is far less fiddly than feeding a locker every morning.

Quick picks by situation

  • Landed early, room not ready: a locker at the station nearest your accommodation.
  • Last day, late flight: the staffed desk near Seoul Station or on the airport line — or a locker if you travel light — so you can sightsee bag-free.
  • Day trip out of the city: a locker at the station you depart from, picked up on the way back.