How Seoul and Bangkok compare on cost, visas, working hours, weather, internet and safety. Every figure comes from our city guides and tools, checked and dated there.
The short answer
Seoul Pick it for more comfortable months.
Bangkok Pick it for easier UK working hours and easier US East Coast hours.
Everyday costsEven
What we have checked of rent, a coworking desk, weekday lunches and getting around comes to $939 to $1,200 (£703 to £896) a month in Seoul, against $532 to $1,310 (£398 to £982) in Bangkok. We can't call it: Bangkok has no checked figure for transport, so that total leaves it out.
The visaEven
Different tests, so they don't line up neatly. Seoul: Workation visa (F-1-D), about $3,290 to $6,580 a month (KRW 52,410,000 a year, depending on your age and where you live). Bangkok: Destination Thailand Visa (DTV), about $14,870 in savings (THB 500,000).
A London 9 to 5Bangkok
Bangkok: 15:00 to 23:00, a late finish. In Seoul it's 17:00 to 01:00, a finish after midnight.
A New York 9 to 5Bangkok
Bangkok: 20:00 to 04:00, a night shift. In Seoul it's 22:00 to 06:00, a night shift.
WeatherSeoul
Seoul has more comfortable months. Comfortable months on our best-time rule: 4 in Seoul, 1 in Bangkok. No month is comfortable in both.
InternetEven
Much the same. Typical download speed: 258 Mbps in Seoul, 237 Mbps in Bangkok, from each guide.
SafetyEven
The US State Department puts both countries at level 1. Watch for drug laws, nightlife and protests in Seoul; gem and bar-bill scams in Bangkok.
Side by side
Measure
Seoul
Bangkok
Country
South Korea
Thailand
Language
Korean
Thai
Currency
South Korean won (KRW)
Thai baht (THB)
Time zone
UTC+9 today
UTC+7 today
A month's basics
$939 to $1,200 (£703 to £896)
$532 to $1,310 (£398 to £982), with transport missing
Remote work visa
Workation visa (F-1-D)
Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)
Income needed
About $3,290 to $6,580 a month (KRW 52,410,000 a year, depending on your age and where you live)
About $14,870 in savings (THB 500,000)
Without a visa
British passports: 90 days, with no K-ETA needed until 31 December 2026. American: 90 days. No K-ETA needed until 31 December 2026; required from 1 January 2027
British and American passports: 30 days, down from 60 on 15 September 2026
Tax residency
183 days or more in a tax year, or from 2026 183 days in a row across two tax years, or a domicile in Korea
180 days in a calendar year, on foreign income you bring in
Download speed
258 Mbps
237 Mbps
Comfortable months
May, June, September and October
December
US travel advice
Level 1: normal precautions
Level 1: normal precautions
Meetups
1 regular group still running
4 regular groups still running
Dollars and pounds at today's exchange rate. Download speeds are the typical figure from each guide, which says where it comes from: some are for the city, some for the whole country, so treat a small gap as no gap.
What a month costs
Rent, a coworking desk, a cheap lunch on each of 22 working days, and getting around: the same four costs our budget calculator uses. The rent figures aren't always the same kind of figure (some are furnished one-beds, some are averages across every size of flat), so read the note under each.
Seoul
$939 to $1,200£703 to £896 a month
Rent
$511 to $769Average one-room rent, 33 square metres or less, unfurnished, on a KRW 10 million deposit: Mapo to Gangnam, June 2026. KRW 678,000 to 1,020,000
$143Kimchi-jjigae baekban, the set lunch, Seoul average, KRW 8,654 each, 22 working days
Getting around
$51Subway at the KRW 1,550 base fare, two trips each working day: our estimate over 22 working days. The Climate Card closed on 1 September 2026; its replacement is for Seoul residents only and had no launch date. KRW 68,200
About $3,290 to $6,580 a month (KRW 52,410,000 a year, depending on your age and where you live); in pounds, about £2,460 to £4,930 a month
How long
One year, renewed a year at a time: three years at most, up from two on 30 June 2026
What it leads to
Nowhere directly, says one weak source. Years to permanent residence and citizenship not checked
Without a visa
British passports: 90 days, with no K-ETA needed until 31 December 2026. American: 90 days. No K-ETA needed until 31 December 2026; required from 1 January 2027
The catch. The bar depends on your age and address. The lowest checked figure, KRW 52.41 million, is only for 18 to 34 year olds living outside Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi or in a population-decline area; in Seoul you need KRW 78.62 million at 18 to 34 and KRW 104.83 million at 35 or over. The bands follow GNI per capita, so they move every year, and many embassy pages still show the old flat rule.
About $14,870 in savings (THB 500,000); in pounds, about £11,130 in savings
How long
Five years, 180 days a visit, extendable once by 180
What it leads to
Nowhere: no residence and no citizenship
Without a visa
British and American passports: 30 days, down from 60 on 15 September 2026
The catch. Since 31 August 2026 you need a criminal record certificate, and you must apply in a country where you are a citizen or permanent resident, so a border run no longer works.
The average high in °C each month, coloured by the rule on our best-time page: green is a high of 20 to 32°C with under 150mm of rain; red is a high of 38°C or more or under 12°C, 250mm of rain or more, or 33°C or more with 150mm of rain or more. Hover over a month for its rain.
Crime against foreigners is rare, with occasional thefts. Take care near the DMZ, where tension can rise without notice. (The FCDO headline itself was not checked.)
Bangkok isn't in an area advised against, but the UK warns of severe flooding there. It advises against all but essential travel to the far southern provinces and within 20km of the Cambodian border.
The US level is for the whole country, as the State Department sets it, and some countries have stricter advice for particular regions.
Who each one suits
From each city guide, word for word.
Seoul
It suits
Salaried employees of foreign companies, with at least a year in the job, who are 18 to 34 and earn KRW 78.62 million a year or more, or 35 and over on KRW 104.83 million. It also suits anyone happy to live outside the capital region, where the bars are lower. You get very fast broadband, cheap everyday meals from KRW 3,800 for gimbap, a mature coworking market and a city where violent and property crime is rare.
It doesn't suit
Freelancers with a list of clients and no employer letter: the visa is written around employment by, or ownership of, a foreign company, and freelancers are not mentioned. Without it you get 90 days and no right to work. Anyone who will not deal with Korean-language leases and deposits in the millions of won. Anyone who hates heat or cold: July and August bring over 750mm of rain between them and highs of 29 to 30 degrees, and nights are below freezing from December to February. And anyone who uses cannabis anywhere: people have been detained on drug tests alone.
You want a genuinely world-class city on a mid-tier budget and you are willing to do paperwork. The DTV gives you five years, unlimited entries and 180 days a visit with one 180-day extension — nothing else in the region is that generous. If your work is asynchronous, your employer is foreign, your income is stable enough to leave half a million baht sitting in a bank for three months, and you are content to leave every six months, Bangkok is close to the best deal available anywhere.
It doesn't suit
You want any of this to be permanent, simple, or as cheap as the internet told you. The DTV leads nowhere — no residence, no citizenship, no accrual, just a renewal treadmill with a discretionary extension at the end of every 180 days. From 31 August 2026 you cannot even apply from Vientiane; you go home for it, with a police certificate. Stay 180 days and you are a Thai tax resident, and the remit-it-a-year-later trick died on 1 January 2024. Your landlord must file a form within 24 hours every time you re-enter the country or your next immigration appointment fails, and nobody will tell you this until it does. Vaping is flatly illegal. A post about the monarchy is a prison sentence.
