Compare KCAB international arbitration or a domestic arbitration quote with Korean first-instance court advances, counsel and translation costs, and monthly cash shortfalls under 2026 rules.
2026 Korean courts · KCAB international online rates / domestic arbitration by quote
Verify the arbitration agreement and available procedures first. Defaults are hypothetical; a lower cost does not establish procedural availability.
Hypothetical example · Provisional until costs and procedure are checked
Agreement unverified — procedure pending
Agreement unverified — procedure pending
International online basis · our filing fee: 500,000 KRW / Case-wide administration: 500,000 KRW / Whole tribunal fee: 3,400,000 KRW ~ 10,400,000 KRW (midpoint 6,900,000 KRW). These are not statistical expectations or guaranteed caps; expenses and additional advances are separate.
Court stamp: 409,500 KRW / service deposit: 169,200 KRW. Assumed recovery and refunds do not finance the balances below. Each alternative uses the same starting cash independently.
| Month | Cumulative spend | Balance | Shortfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 7,700,000 KRW | -2,700,000 KRW | 2,700,000 KRW |
| 1 | 7,800,000 KRW | -2,800,000 KRW | 2,800,000 KRW |
| 2 | 7,900,000 KRW | -2,900,000 KRW | 2,900,000 KRW |
| 3 | 8,000,000 KRW | -3,000,000 KRW | 3,000,000 KRW |
| 4 | 8,100,000 KRW | -3,100,000 KRW | 3,100,000 KRW |
| 5 | 8,200,000 KRW | -3,200,000 KRW | 3,200,000 KRW |
| 6 | 8,300,000 KRW | -3,300,000 KRW | 3,300,000 KRW |
| Month | Cumulative spend | Balance | Shortfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4,078,700 KRW | 921,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 1 | 4,178,700 KRW | 821,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 2 | 4,278,700 KRW | 721,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 3 | 4,378,700 KRW | 621,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 4 | 4,478,700 KRW | 521,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 5 | 4,578,700 KRW | 421,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 6 | 4,678,700 KRW | 321,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 7 | 4,778,700 KRW | 221,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 8 | 4,878,700 KRW | 121,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 9 | 4,978,700 KRW | 21,300 KRW | 0 KRW |
| 10 | 5,078,700 KRW | -78,700 KRW | 78,700 KRW |
| 11 | 5,178,700 KRW | -178,700 KRW | 178,700 KRW |
| 12 | 5,278,700 KRW | -278,700 KRW | 278,700 KRW |
Send the clause, applicable rules, claim and counterclaim details, and this review to KCAB or counsel to confirm available procedures, actual advances, tax and additional costs.
A business pursuing an unpaid invoice often focuses first on the amount claimed.
The cash needed to start and sustain proceedings is a different number.
Institutional administration, arbitrator fees, counsel advances and translation can create a funding gap even when the claim is substantial.
This calculator helps business owners prepare an advance budget before discussing procedure and funding with KCAB or counsel.
This is a Korea-related 2026 planning tool covering KCAB international arbitration, a confirmed domestic arbitration quote, and the main monetary claim in a Korean first-instance civil court.
All money is in KRW.
The same claim can require different cash depending on the tribunal, advance allocation, actual professional quotes and assumed duration.
The results support a documented budget discussion; they do not replace a deposit notice or determine jurisdiction, legal validity, prospects of success or collectability.
Article 8 of the Korean Arbitration Act addresses the written form of an arbitration agreement.
Whether the clause covers this dispute and these parties, and which institution and rules it selects, requires a review of the actual wording and circumstances.
Under Article 9, a timely arbitration-agreement objection by the defendant generally requires dismissal of an action concerning a covered dispute, subject to exceptions including a nonexistent, invalid, ineffective or inoperable agreement.
Selecting a checkbox does not constitute a legal determination.
The main claim is treated as the monetary claim and court claim value for this comparison.
Confirm how interest and ancillary claims affect that value; a non-monetary claim cannot be entered unchanged.
The counterclaim is the other side's demand, not additional money recoverable by you.
A counterclaim switches the institutional calculation to your actual quoted advance.
Keep institutional payments separate from counsel and translation contracts.
Enter counsel amounts actually payable in advance, including tax; conditional success fees require separate consideration.
Check whether translation, experts, payment fees and other preparation costs are already in a quote before adding them again.
The durations are your scenarios for arbitration and first-instance litigation.
Monthly amounts should represent additional cash outlays attributable to that procedure.
Adding normal overhead that would arise anyway, or treating internal labour as an external payment, can overstate the shortfall.
Available cash is the money you can allocate now.
Assumed net recovery is your scenario after considering set-offs and counterclaim exposure; it need not equal the main claim.
Entering a recovery amount does not reduce advances or fund the monthly cash balance.
A blank means an amount is unknown and produces an input error.
Enter zero only when the absence of that cost is confirmed.
Amounts are whole KRW, limited to KRW 1 trillion per field and for combined main and counterclaims; durations range from 1 to 120 months.
These limits protect the calculation, rather than imposing legal claim limits.
Initial numbers are hypothetical examples, not market quotes or official determinations.
Automatic estimates follow the official KCAB 2026 online calculator checked on 2026-10-26.
The schedules in the International Arbitration Rules and the online calculator's small-dispute and expedited amounts differ.
This tool uses the checked online basis consistently and does not combine it with the old tariff or selected pieces of the standard schedule.
Actual deposits can vary with the Secretariat's directions, additional services, arbitrator expenses and fee adjustments.
| Main claim band | Filing fee, KRW |
|---|---|
| Below 20,000,000 | 0 |
| 20,000,000 to 50,000,000 | 200,000 |
| Over 50,000,000 to 200,000,000 | 500,000 |
| Over 200,000,000 | 2,000,000 |
For amounts up to KRW 100 million, online administration is the greater of 1% of the amount or KRW 100,000, less the filing fee.
Above KRW 100 million and up to KRW 200 million, it is KRW 1 million plus 0.5% of the excess over KRW 100 million, less filing.
Other bands follow the official graduated schedule; administration is rounded down to KRW 1,000.
General-procedure tribunal minimum, midpoint and maximum amounts are each rounded down to KRW 10,000 before multiplying by the number of arbitrators.
The ordinary administration cap is KRW 150 million and the per-arbitrator fee cap is KRW 2 billion, subject to exceptional institutional decisions.
Our institutional advance = our filing fee + (case-wide administration + whole tribunal fee) × advance share + our additional institutional VAT
Compare an equal 50% allocation with a 100% scenario including substitute payment if the other side defaults.
Our filing fee is not halved again with administration and tribunal fees.
Enter the additional VAT actually payable by us as advised by the institution.
The tool does not impose a blanket rate because tax treatment and overseas foreign-currency remittance exceptions can differ.
Article 2 of the Civil Litigation Stamp Act provides four main claim bands: below KRW 10 million, 0.5%; from KRW 10 million to below KRW 100 million, 0.45% plus KRW 5,000; from KRW 100 million to below KRW 1 billion, 0.4% plus KRW 55,000; and KRW 1 billion or more, 0.35% plus KRW 555,000.
The base fee is at least KRW 1,000, with amounts below KRW 100 discarded above that minimum.
Electronic filing uses 90% of the Article 2 amount under Article 16, rounded down to KRW 100, allowing a minimum electronic fee of KRW 900.
No KRW 500,000 cap on the electronic discount is imposed.
Service deposit = actual people included × KRW 5,640 × 10 small-claim or 15 ordinary first-instance rounds
Article 1-2 of the Small Claims Trial Rules sets the KRW 30,000,000 monetary first-instance threshold and exclusions.
This tool uses 10 rounds only for a main claim at or below that threshold without a counterclaim.
A counterclaim uses ordinary rounds for planning because actual consolidation and classification require review.
The claimant is not automatically excluded simply because electronic filing is selected; enter the actual people specified by the court.
An unused-service refund is a later settlement and does not finance the current budget.
The statutory claim brackets reuse existing court-cost data, while this comparison applies the checked service rate and electronic rule.
The court side covers only the main first-instance claim.
Counterclaim defence, appeals, enforcement and foreign recognition need separate professional quotes or a separate budget.
This calculator does not predict whether any of those stages will be necessary.
Initial cash = institutional advance + counsel advance + translation and other preparation
Full budget = initial cash + monthly spending × months
Monthly balance = available cash − cumulative spending
Shortfall = positive excess of cumulative spending over available cash
Cost ratio = full budget ÷ main claim × 100%
Recovery break-even = full budget
Assumed recovery less costs = assumed net cash recovery − full budget
Month zero assumes institutional and contract advances have all been paid before filing.
Thereafter only the entered monthly cash outlay accumulates.
Interim receipts, instalments, interest, loan costs and refunds are not added automatically.
The maximum shortfall is therefore based on final cumulative spending, and each procedure independently uses the same starting cash.
A fee-range midpoint is not a statistical expected cost, while the displayed upper estimate does not prevent additional advance requests.
Assume international general proceedings, one arbitrator, no counterclaim, an equal advance share and zero additional VAT.
The online filing fee is KRW 500,000 and case-wide administration is KRW 500,000.
Tribunal fees range from KRW 3,400,000 to KRW 10,400,000, with a KRW 6,900,000 midpoint.
Our institutional advance is KRW 2,450,000–5,950,000, with a KRW 4,200,000 midpoint.
Zero additional VAT is an illustrative input, not a tax-exemption ruling; replace it with the actual notice.
| Item | Arbitration midpoint | Electronic court |
|---|---|---|
| Institutional advance | 4,200,000 | 578,700 |
| Counsel + other preparation | 3,500,000 | 3,500,000 |
| Monthly spending: 100,000 | 6 months / 600,000 | 12 months / 1,200,000 |
| Full budget | 8,300,000 | 5,278,700 |
| Shortfall against cash of 5,000,000 | 3,300,000 | 278,700 |
The court stamp is KRW 409,500; the service deposit for two people is KRW 169,200.
The arbitration full-budget range is KRW 6,550,000–10,050,000, or 6.55–10.05% of the main claim.
With assumed net recovery of KRW 100 million, recovery less these costs is KRW 89,950,000–93,450,000.
These figures do not predict successful collection, and a valid arbitration agreement makes the court figures hypothetical unless a separate review establishes otherwise.
Articles 45–46 and 50–51 of the 2026 International Arbitration Rules address expedited and streamlined proceedings and arbitrator appointments.
The agreement date, dispute amount, party agreement and institutional decisions matter; the amount alone does not establish eligibility.
Automatic fast-procedure results remain pending until procedure and tribunal size are confirmed.
Do not assume that three arbitrators can be chosen freely where the applicable procedure normally uses a sole arbitrator.
The official online calculator uses small-dispute amounts or a reduced general midpoint for fast/streamlined proceedings at or below KRW 4 billion.
The per-person amount is KRW 1,600,000 up to KRW 50 million; above KRW 50 million to KRW 100 million, KRW 1,800,000 plus 2.4% of the excess; and above KRW 100 million to KRW 200 million, KRW 3,000,000 plus 1.35% of the excess.
Above KRW 200 million to KRW 1 billion, the general midpoint is first rounded down to KRW 10,000 and multiplied by 55%; above KRW 1 billion to KRW 4 billion, it is multiplied by 90%.
The result is again rounded down to KRW 10,000.
Discontinuities at small-dispute boundaries follow the checked online basis and are not smoothed artificially.
Changing the KRW 100 million example to confirmed fast proceedings with one arbitrator gives a tribunal fee of KRW 3,000,000 and a full budget of KRW 6,350,000 with the other inputs unchanged.
An estimate whose lower and upper ends coincide is still not a guaranteed notice amount.
Use a direct institutional quote when KCAB advises a different amount.
Above KRW 4 billion, the tool shows the general fee range as the online calculator does; procedural availability remains a separate review.
The Domestic Arbitration Rules applying to cases filed from 2025-03-01 have a separate tariff.
International rates are not applied to domestic arbitration.
Selecting domestic rules or entering a counterclaim requires our total institutional advance including our filing fee, allocation and tax.
The tool does not add the selected share or additional VAT to that quote again.
For international cases with hourly remuneration, set-offs, cross-claims, unquantified claims or separately assessed advances, select the quote mode as well.
Article 54 of the International Arbitration Rules addresses equal allocation, joint payment responsibility, separate advances for counterclaims, substitute payment and final reconciliation.
Funding an equal share alone does not guarantee continued progress if the other side does not pay.
Use the automatic 100% scenario to assess additional funding capacity, then confirm the actual institutional request.
The person advancing cash may differ from the person ultimately allocated costs in the award.
Possible later reimbursement must remain separate from cash available now.
A domestic supplier can compare the first-instance court budget against its actual domestic arbitration notice.
An owner with a foreign-language contract can isolate translation costs and the effect of tribunal size.
For a cash-constrained business, money payable at filing and substitute-payment capacity may matter more than the assumed end date.
In every scenario, treating the entire receivable as immediately available cash would undermine the funding plan.
No.
Tribunal fees, administration, counsel, translation and duration all matter.
Price alone does not determine procedural availability or the merits.
Confirm the applicable rules first.
Domestic arbitration has its own rules, so this calculator requires our quoted total.
No.
Enter the actual people included as advised by the court.
The 90% electronic stamp rule and the service-deposit population are separate questions.
Only if no additional amount is actually payable.
The initial zero is hypothetical, and tax already included in a quoted total must not be added twice.
It is a planning value based on tariff endpoints.
It is not a statistical expected cost or a guaranteed maximum; actual remuneration and expenses may differ.
No.
Recovery timing and success are not guaranteed, so recovery is excluded from monthly cash.
It is used only for the separate recovery-less-cost calculation.
No.
The main Korean first-instance claim and the entered arbitration budget are covered.
Appeals, counterclaim defence, enforcement and foreign recognition require separate quotes.
Cost allocation and actual collection are different.
The award or court determination and the other party’s ability to pay require review, so advances are not automatically treated as refundable.
Checked 2026-10-26; international rules effective 2026-01-01; domestic rules apply from 2025-03-01.
Direct National Law Information OPEN API checks covered Arbitration Act MST 276293, effective 2025-10-01, Articles 8–9; Civil Litigation Stamp Act MST 258671, effective 2025-03-01, Articles 2 and 16; and Small Claims Trial Rules MST 187995, effective 2017-01-01, Article 1-2.
Before filing, recheck later amendments, online reductions, exceptions in the actual notice and the service-deposit population.
Collect the arbitration clause, claim details, counterclaim material and actual counsel and translation quotes before replacing the example inputs.
Inspect when initial and monthly funding gaps arise, then save the review for your consultation.
Confirm procedural availability, rule version, tribunal size, allocation, substitute payment, tax and additional expenses before using the numbers as a working budget.