This page explains the 가격 조사 방법론 (gagyeok josa bangbeolleon — price research methodology) behind every cost figure published on BPSK. Reading it takes about nine minutes and will make every other cost page on this site more useful.
How We Collect Quotes
BPSK researchers obtain quotes the same way any prospective patient would: by contacting clinics directly through their standard consultation channels — online inquiry forms, in-person consultations, and telephone inquiries.¹ No figures are sourced from published price lists, clinic websites, online calculators, or third-party aggregators.¹
For each procedure and each city covered, a minimum of 12 clinics are sampled.² Clinics are selected deliberately to span three pricing tiers — economy, mid-range, and premium — so the published range reflects the actual market spread rather than clustering around a single price point.² This means the low end of a range genuinely represents what the lowest-tier sampled clinics quoted, and the high end represents what premium-tier clinics quoted during the same sampling window.
The sampling window for current data ran from January to July 2026.¹ Researchers recorded the quoted surgical fee and any additional cost components disclosed at the time of inquiry. Where a clinic quoted a bundled price without itemization, researchers asked explicitly for the surgical fee in isolation so that figures remained comparable across clinics.
Korea’s medical tourism sector is large enough that this sampling approach is feasible at scale. In 2024, 1,170,467 foreign patients received treatment in Korea, with plastic surgery and dermatology collectively accounting for the largest share of procedures sought by international visitors.³ ⁴ Gangnam-gu alone receives approximately 60% of medical tourists seeking aesthetic procedures,⁵ which is why it receives the most concentrated sampling in BPSK’s methodology.
Tier definitions are based on pricing level, location, and facility profile — not on any quality assessment. Economy clinics are typically smaller practices operating outside central Gangnam. Premium clinics are typically located in Apgujeong or Cheongdam and carry high-footfall international patient bases. Mid-range spans the majority of the market. BPSK does not rank clinics and does not endorse any tier over another.
Published ranges are not guarantees.⁶ Final quotes depend on individual assessment by the surgeon and may differ from published figures.⁶
What ‘Surgical Fee’ Means vs All-In Cost
Every price range on BPSK represents the surgical fee only, unless the page explicitly labels the figure as “all-in.”⁷ The surgical fee covers the surgeon’s professional fee for performing the procedure. It does not include anesthesia, the facility or operating room charge, post-operative medications, compression garments, follow-up consultations, or translation services.⁷
This distinction matters because ancillary costs are real and add up. BPSK’s all-in estimate methodology adds the following typical ranges on top of the base surgical fee: anesthesia ₩300,000–800,000 (≈$217–580 USD / ≈$330–880 AUD), facility fee ₩200,000–500,000 (≈$145–362 USD / ≈$220–550 AUD), initial consultation ₩0–50,000, and compression garments or post-operative medications ₩100,000–300,000.⁸
The table below maps each cost component, what it typically covers, its typical KRW range, and whether it is quoted separately from the surgical fee.
Quotes that fall below the market median for a given procedure may be excluding one or more of these standard components.⁹ If a quoted price looks unusually low, confirm with the clinic exactly what is and is not included before drawing comparisons.⁹
FX Convention and Update Schedule
All KRW figures on BPSK are converted to USD and AUD using fixed quarterly rates, not live interbank rates.¹⁰ ¹¹ This approach keeps figures consistent across the site during a given quarter but means converted amounts will drift from real-world exchange values as FX markets move. Treat USD and AUD figures as directional — useful for budgeting order-of-magnitude, not for calculating exact payment amounts.
The current rates are: KRW 1,380 per USD (equivalent to 1 KRW = 0.00072 USD) and KRW 910 per AUD (equivalent to 1 KRW = 0.0011 AUD), both reflecting the July 2026 exchange rate.¹⁰ ¹¹ GBP conversions are not currently maintained in BPSK’s cost data; the table below reflects this.
Price data is refreshed quarterly.¹² Each cost page displays the sampling date so readers can assess how current the figures are.¹² If you are reading a page more than six months after its stated refresh date, treat the ranges as broadly directional rather than precise market figures.
Why Quotes Vary So Much
Wide price spreads on BPSK cost pages are not data errors — they are an accurate reflection of genuine market variation. Several structural factors drive the spread.
Surgeon seniority and specialization. A surgeon with ten years of rhinoplasty-specific experience commanding a premium patient base will quote meaningfully more than a general plastic surgeon performing the same procedure code. The procedure name is the same; the skill composition is not.
Clinic location and overhead. Clinics in Apgujeong and Cheongdam carry higher real-estate costs than practices in surrounding districts. Some of that overhead passes through to quoted fees. Gangnam-gu alone hosts approximately 60% of Korea’s aesthetic medical tourists,⁵ and premium-district clinics price accordingly.
Procedure complexity within a category. “Rhinoplasty” covers a range from simple tip refinement to full structural reconstruction with rib cartilage grafting. Clinics often quote for their standard case; complex cases are repriced after consultation. This is why the rhinoplasty range is ₩3.5M–15M and both ends are real quotes from real clinics.¹
Package versus unbundled pricing. Some clinics include post-operative care, compression garments, or follow-up consultations in a single quoted fee. Others strip all ancillaries out. Two quotes that look far apart may be closer once components are aligned.⁷ ⁸
When a spread looks wide, the spread itself is the signal — it tells you the procedure has high price variability in the Korean market and that quote-shopping and component verification are especially important.
How to Use the Cost Data
Three rules make BPSK cost data more useful in practice.
Use ranges as a market map, not a price tag. The low end tells you what economy-tier clinics quoted for a standard case. The high end tells you what premium-tier clinics quoted. Your actual quote will land somewhere in between depending on your case complexity, chosen clinic, and the inclusions negotiated.⁶
Always build an all-in estimate before comparing. When comparing two clinic quotes, make sure both include the same components. Use BPSK’s all-in estimate methodology — add ₩300,000–800,000 for anesthesia, ₩200,000–500,000 for facility fees, and ₩100,000–300,000 for medications and garments to any surgical-fee-only quote⁸ — so the comparison is apples-to-apples.
Check the refresh date before making financial decisions. Every BPSK cost page displays the date the underlying quotes were collected.¹² FX rates shift; market pricing shifts. A page refreshed within the last three months is reliable for current planning; a page more than six months old should be treated as directional context rather than current market data.¹²
Quotes that appear unusually low relative to the published range may be excluding standard cost components and should be queried directly with the clinic before drawing conclusions.⁹
References
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-data-source] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-sample-size] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [khidi-2024-stats-total-patients] KHIDI — Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Medical Tourism Statistics 2024.
- [khidi-2024-stats-top-specialties] KHIDI — Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Medical Tourism Statistics 2024.
- [khidi-2024-stats-gangnam-concentration] KHIDI — Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Medical Tourism Statistics 2024.
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-no-guarantee] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-quote-scope] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-all-in-estimate] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-low-quote-flag] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-fx-krw-usd] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-fx-krw-aud] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/
- [bpsk-cost-methodology-refresh-cadence] BPSK Cost Methodology — Sampling Approach and FX Convention. /costs/cost-methodology/