급수TOPIK Levels 1 to 6, Explained
TOPIK does not pass or fail anyone. It awards a grade from 1급 to 6급 on the score you get, and the two papers cover different halves of that range.
Here is what each grade certifies, what score awards it, and how much of the language sits behind it — 12,331 graded words and 336 grammar points, on the same 급 scale.
- 급수Grades
- 6
- 전체 어휘Words graded here
- 12,331
- 문법Grammar points
- 336
- 관용구Idioms
- 4,004
급수표The six grades
What the exam awards, what each one certifies, and how much material sits behind it here.
| Grade | Name | Paper | Score | Words to here | What it certifies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOPIK 1 | Beginner | TOPIK I | 80 / 200 | 1,065 | Introduce yourself, order food, buy things and handle the everyday exchanges you cannot avoid. |
| TOPIK 2 | Elementary | TOPIK I | 140 / 200 | 2,381 | Keep up a conversation on familiar topics — the post office, the bank, making plans, asking a favour. |
| TOPIK 3 | Lower Intermediate | TOPIK II | 120 / 300 | 4,353 | Live day to day in Korean without much difficulty, use public services and hold social relationships. |
| TOPIK 4 | Upper Intermediate | TOPIK II | 150 / 300 | 7,176 | Follow the news and straightforward newspaper articles, and handle general social and abstract topics. |
| TOPIK 5 | Advanced | TOPIK II | 190 / 300 | 9,366 | Carry out research or professional work in your field and use formal and written registers correctly. |
| TOPIK 6 | Mastery | TOPIK II | 230 / 300 | 12,331 | Perform research and professional duties accurately and fluently, close to a native speaker. |
"Words to here" is cumulative: it is every graded word up to and including that level on this site, because that is what a learner at 4급 is expected to have met — not the 2,823 words that 4급 itself adds.
단계별The six, one at a time
Your first Korean: Hangul, greetings, numbers, and the sentence endings that make a phrase polite.
You can: Introduce yourself, order food, buy things and handle the everyday exchanges you cannot avoid.
Everyday Korean: past and future, 해요체 in full, and the connectives that join two clauses.
You can: Keep up a conversation on familiar topics — the post office, the bank, making plans, asking a favour.
The independent-user threshold: honorifics used properly, indirect speech, and 합니다체 for formal settings.
You can: Live day to day in Korean without much difficulty, use public services and hold social relationships.
News, workplace Korean and the 한자어 layer — the level where a big vocabulary starts to compound.
You can: Follow the news and straightforward newspaper articles, and handle general social and abstract topics.
Politics, economics, culture and research Korean, plus the idioms native speakers use without explaining.
You can: Carry out research or professional work in your field and use formal and written registers correctly.
Near-native command: nuance, register, proverbs, and unfamiliar specialist material read at speed.
You can: Perform research and professional duties accurately and fluently, close to a native speaker.
무엇에 쓰이나What a grade is actually for
Set by the people asking for it, not by TOPIK — so verify with them.
University
Undergraduate admission commonly asks for 3급 or 4급, with 4급 to graduate; Korean-taught postgraduate programmes usually ask for more. Each university sets its own bar and several accept a language-institute certificate instead.
Visas and residency
Several Korean visa and residency routes award points for Korean ability, and TOPIK is the usual evidence. Which grade is worth what is set by immigration policy and changes — check the current rules, never a study site.
Work
Employers hiring in Korean typically look for 4급 upward, and the E-9 route has its own separate Korean test rather than TOPIK. A certificate is valid for two years from the results date, so time it against the application.
이어서Where to go next
자주 묻는 질문Common questions
What does TOPIK level 3 mean?
Lower Intermediate, and the threshold the exam is really built around: Live day to day in Korean without much difficulty, use public services and hold social relationships. It is the first grade TOPIK II awards, at 120 of 300, and it is the level most Korean universities ask for before admitting an undergraduate.
Which TOPIK level do I need for university in Korea?
Most undergraduate programmes ask for 3급 or 4급 to enter and 4급 to graduate, and postgraduate and Korean-taught programmes commonly ask for more. Requirements are set by each university rather than by TOPIK, they change, and some accept a language-institute certificate instead — so check the department you are applying to rather than any general rule, including this one.
How many words do I need for each TOPIK level?
On this site's graded lists, 1급 is 1,065 cumulative, 2급 is 2,381 cumulative, 3급 is 4,353 cumulative, rising to 12,331 by 6급. Those are the 국립국어원 dictionary's own gradings rather than an official TOPIK word list — no such list is published — so treat them as a syllabus of the right size, not as the exam's vocabulary.
Is 6급 the same as being fluent?
mastery in TOPIK's terms: Perform research and professional duties accurately and fluently, close to a native speaker. It is the top grade the exam awards, which is not the same as the top of the language — it certifies that unfamiliar specialist material and formal registers no longer stop you.
Check before you rely on this. The shape of the exam — sections, item counts, timing and the score each 급 is awarded at — is hand-entered from TOPIK's published 시행 계획 and is the one part of this site with no machine-readable source behind it. It is reviewed once a year. Confirm the current figures at topik.go.kr before you register, and treat the exam calendar as theirs alone — it is not published here, because a stale date is worse than no date.