Korean New Year Money (Sebaetdon) CalculatorBeta

How to use

Choose a relationship (my child, niece/nephew, a relative’s child, a friend’s/acquaintance’s child, or parents/elders) and a school level (from preschool through job seeker/early-career adult), enter a headcount, and the calculator shows a recommended amount and its reasoning for that combination. Next to the reasoning, you’ll also see what real surveys actually answered for that combination (the “reference amount”) — the two figures can differ, so compare them and pick what fits. If you already know the amount the other side gave your child, as with a niece or nephew, enter it in “amount the other side gave.” The calculator will recommend that amount, rounded to a commonly used one, instead of the level’s default. Set a total budget and the tool automatically lowers amounts so the total stays within it (see rule 5 under “How recommendations are made” below). Below the result, you’ll also see how many ₩50,000 bills to prepare first, with the remainder in ₩10,000 bills.

How recommendations are made

This calculator’s recommended amounts come from applying five rules in order.

1. Level default and range — For each school level, we set one default amount within the range reported by recent surveys (see the table below). We split elementary school into lower and upper grades, but no survey has asked about them separately — we use KB Kookmin Card’s single combined elementary range (30,000–50,000 won) for both, with the bottom of that range (30,000 won) as the default for lower grades and the top (50,000 won) for upper grades, which is a rule this calculator sets, not a survey finding. Middle and high schoolers also share KB Kookmin Card’s combined range (50,000–100,000 won), but reflecting Kakao Pay’s (2025) finding that the amount received in the high-school age range has shifted toward 100,000 won, we set the middle-school default at the bottom (50,000 won) and the high-school default at the top (100,000 won). Beyond that, Lotte Members (2024) found different amount ranges for college students (50,000–100,000 won) and job seekers/early-career adults (100,000–200,000 won), so we split them into two levels.
2. Position by relationship — Within the same level, your own child and a niece/nephew get the range’s default amount, while a relative’s child or a friend’s/acquaintance’s child get the range minimum. However, no survey we found distinguishes relationships (own child / niece-nephew / relative’s / friend’s child) except Danggeun Market, which specifically asked about nieces and nephews — so the “reference amount” for every relationship except niece/nephew shows the same level-wide reference. The idea that closer relationships get the usual amount while more formal ones get a modest minimum is this calculator’s own policy, not a survey result.
3. Reciprocity — It’s often said that siblings match the amounts they give each other’s children, but we couldn’t find a survey backing that up. Still, as a practical convenience, if the other side has already given your child an amount, that amount is recommended instead of the level default (rounded to a commonly used sebaetdon amount — 10,000 / 20,000 / 30,000 / 50,000 / 70,000 / 100,000 / 150,000 / 200,000 / 300,000 / 500,000 won — rather than used exactly as entered).
4. Consistency — Rows with the same level and the same relationship always get the same recommended amount. When amounts are lowered for budget reasons (rule 5), rows sharing a level and relationship are lowered together.
5. Budget — If you set a total budget and the total exceeds it, amounts are lowered starting with the most distant relationships and, among those, the largest amounts, one commonly used amount at a time, but never below the level’s reference range minimum. If the total still exceeds the budget even after lowering everything to its minimum, the shortfall is shown as is.

The parents/elders group also includes a spouse’s parents — it’s often said that couples give both sides the same amount, but we couldn’t find a survey backing that up, so no separate reference amount is given for them. We also couldn’t find data on sebaetdon that grandparents give grandchildren, or on regional differences, so neither is reflected in this calculator.

Reference amounts from recent surveys

Danggeun Market’s survey grouped nieces and nephews from preschool age through high school together, so the same most-common amount (50,000 won) is used across that whole span. No survey has split elementary schoolers into lower and upper grades, so the table shows only the combined range there too.

Sebaetdon amounts have also been trending upward in recent years. Based on Kakao Pay’s transfer data, the average amount received by middle/high schoolers rose from 54,000 won in 2021 to 74,000 won in 2024, and JobKorea’s average total budget rose from 169,000 won in 2016 to 186,000 won in 2018. When Woori Bank asked 3,729 teenagers directly, the desired amount was 100,000 won per adult while the amount actually received was 50,000 won per person — showing that givers and receivers can have different expectations.

This expectation gap even points in different directions depending on the survey. When Kakao Pay polled about 78,000 people, 70% of those in their 40s to 60s (mostly givers) picked 50,000 won as reasonable, while 60% of teens (mostly receivers) picked 100,000 won. In the Albachunguk survey, however, people who identified as mostly “giving” (51.7%, mostly in their 30s and older, married) most often picked 100,000 won (32.3%), while those who identified as mostly “receiving” (48.3%, mostly in their 20s, unmarried) most often picked 50,000 won (38.1%) — the opposite direction. The two surveys asked different kinds of questions (Kakao Pay asked “what’s reasonable for a middle/high schooler,” Albachunguk asked “what’s reasonable from your own position”), so they aren’t directly comparable, but it’s worth noting that the same person might answer differently depending on how the question is framed.

Preparing new bills and envelopes

In Korea, there’s a custom of preparing sebaetdon in crisp, newly issued bills, as a way of giving and receiving the first money of the new year cleanly. It’s considered good manners to write the recipient’s name on the envelope before handing it over. Because demand for new bills spikes right before Seollal, the Bank of Korea’s regional offices sometimes raise their new-bill exchange limits above the usual level during the holiday, but the exact limit varies by region and year, so it’s worth checking with your bank before you go.

There’s no single right answer

This calculator’s recommended amounts are reference values based on survey data and the five rules above — they aren’t a fixed answer you must follow. In particular, rules 2 (position by relationship), 3 (reciprocity), and 5 (budget) are this calculator’s own approach, not survey findings, and it’s worth restating that. Because surveys differ in who they ask and how, reference amounts differ even for the same level. Feel free to adjust them to fit your own household’s circumstances and how close your relationships are.