How many words do you need for each TOPIK level?

Level	New words	Cumulative
1	735	735
2	1,098	1,833
3	1,627	3,460
4	2,168	5,628
5	2,306	7,934
6	2,564	10,498

Is there an official TOPIK vocabulary list?

No. NIIED, which administers TOPIK under the Ministry of Education, publishes no vocabulary list.

More detail

The counts on this page come from the National Institute of Korean Language’s 2017 curriculum list, which is a teaching reference rather than an exam syllabus.

Where these counts come from

The 2017 list holds 10,635 headwords.

More detail

We exclude 137 affixes, which are word parts rather than words, leaving 10,498. Each word carries the level the list assigns it, so the per-level counts above are a tally of that list and not an estimate of ours.

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Where our TOPIK word counts come from
Our counts tally the National Institute of Korean Language's 2017 curriculum vocabulary list, excluding affixes, under the KOGL Type 1 licence.
How to register for TOPIK, and what it costs
In Korea, you register online at topik.go.kr and TOPIK I PBT costs KRW 40,000; abroad, the method and fee differ by country, per NIIED's rules.
TOPIK 2027 exam dates: where to check every sitting
NIIED publishes every TOPIK date on topik.go.kr; the Ministry of Education's plan lists 15 sittings for 2027, and overseas dates come from each country's institution.
TOPIK exam format: sections, questions and time
TOPIK I PBT is listening and reading, 70 questions in 100 minutes; TOPIK II PBT adds writing, 104 questions in 180 minutes, per NIIED's rules.

National Institute of Korean Language, Applying the International Standard Korean Curriculum (Stage 4): vocabulary level list (our translation), 2017. Accessed 2026-10-31.

2026-10-31 — First published.