KakaoTalk Channel for foreign brands: set-up, message rules and costs

Korean customers who like your product will want to ask you something, and many will expect to do it in KakaoTalk. Opening a KakaoTalk Channel costs nothing. The costs, and the legal rules, start with the first promotional message, and a message scheduled for 2 p.m. in Berlin lands at 9 p.m. in Seoul.

Why a channel, and what it costs to open

KakaoTalk is Korea's default messenger. In the Ministry of Science and ICT's 2025 survey of 2,500 adults, published in June 2026, 92.5% named it as the messenger they mainly use. Kakao's own results show businesses following them there: revenue from business messages grew 20% year on year in the second quarter of 2026 (results published on 6 August 2026).

A KakaoTalk Channel is a business profile inside the app. Customers add it as a friend, chat with you one to one, and receive your messages. Kakao's business guide says anyone can open one for free.

For your company: the channel gives Korean customers a way to ask about delivery, returns and authenticity in the app they already use, instead of writing an email in English.

Setting it up from outside Korea

You start with a Kakao account and join Kakao Business; the guide lets you sign up with an overseas phone number by choosing the country code. A channel opened without a business registration is a general channel and shows a "business information unconfirmed" notice until you convert it to a business channel, which requires document checks.

Kakao's guide describes the documents in Korean terms. Infobank's Bizgo, an official Kakao dealer, wrote in February 2026 that overseas businesses can apply for a business channel without a country restriction, using their foreign business registration. Separately, since 24 June 2026 overseas companies can register in Kakao Developers with a D-U-N-S number instead of a Korean business number, which matters if you plan Kakao Login or other developer features on your Korean site.

Two settings decide whether Koreans can find you: "channel public" and "search allowed". Turn both on. Customers will look for you with searches like [brand] 카카오톡 채널 or [brand] 카톡 문의 (KakaoTalk enquiry).

For your company: apply for the business channel conversion early, write the profile in Korean, and state reply hours in Korean time. A verified business channel is also the entry ticket for the paid message types below.

Three ways to send, three price models

FriendTalk, the old API message for channel friends, ended on 31 December 2025 and was replaced by Brand Message from 1 January 2026. That leaves three main options:

Type	Who receives it	How you pay
Channel message (from the admin centre)	Your channel friends	KRW 15 per message to all friends, KRW 20 per targeted message (by group, gender or age), before VAT, from prepaid cash
Brand Message	Channel friends, plus customers who gave you consent to receive KakaoTalk ads	Through an official Kakao dealer; price per the dealer contract
AlimTalk	Customers, by phone number, even if they have not added your channel; information only, such as order and delivery notices	Through an official dealer; each template is reviewed by Kakao

Brand Message and AlimTalk both need a business channel. For Brand Message, Kakao also asks for the channel home to be public and customer service details to be filled in. Channel message cash is deducted when you schedule a send, based on the audience size, and unsent messages are refunded afterwards.

For your company: start with channel messages. With 5,000 friends, one message to everyone costs KRW 75,000 before VAT (our arithmetic from Kakao's per-message price). Add a dealer for AlimTalk once you have enough Korean orders to need automatic delivery notices.

The rules on promotional messages

Article 50 of Korea's Network Act sets the basics for any electronic advertising message: the recipient's explicit prior consent, a separate consent for messages between 21:00 and 08:00, the sender's name and contact details, and an easy way to opt out. Breaking these can bring an administrative fine of up to KRW 30 million (Article 76), and a business that hands sending to an agency must supervise it (Article 50-3).

Kakao's guides add their own layer on top:

Promotional messages must carry (광고) (advertisement) and show how to opt out.
The Brand Message guide allows promotional messages only from 08:00 to 20:50 Korean time, ten minutes inside the legal night limit.
Every message must include customer service contact details.
When someone adds your channel, Kakao sends an automatic notice that they will receive messages, with the date and how to opt out.
For Brand Message, alcohol brands need an adult-verified channel or age check, and material made with generative AI must be marked as such.

Time-zone check for European teams: 08:00 to 20:50 in Seoul is 01:00 to 13:50 in Berlin or Paris while summer time lasts, and 00:00 to 12:50 after the clocks change on 25 October 2026. For London, subtract one more hour. Schedule in Korean time, not your own.

How HB Crossborder helps

Our Korea Entry package opens and sets up the KakaoTalk Channel alongside Naver, and keeps it running with monthly content. Our AI operations add-on can answer Korean enquiries in the channel through a chatbot; KakaoTalk message fees are billed at cost. This article is general information, not legal advice. See our services, or get a free visibility check within 48 hours.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Check with a professional before acting on it.