Prices for 76 AI Textbooks Confirmed... 50,000 to 90,000 KRW per Year

Including 10,000 KRW Cloud Usage Fee
Subscription Fees May Increase in the Future

The prices of 76 types of AI digital textbooks, introduced to educational sites for the first time this year, have been finalized. Including cloud usage fees, the annual cost ranges from 50,000 to 90,000 KRW.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Education announced the "2025 Academic Year Approved AI Digital Textbook Prices by Book." There is no difference from the "74 Types First Agreement Price List" released on the 20th of last month, but an annual cloud usage fee of 10,000 KRW, which had not been finalized at that time, was added. Since the cloud usage fee is recalculated annually by the publisher and the cloud computing service provider, the fee may change next year.

Yonhap News

Textbooks are categorized by type, such as those used for one semester (6 months) like "Mathematics 3-1," and those used for one year like "English 1." For one-semester use, the cloud usage fee is specified as 5,000 KRW. Assuming all are used for one year, the lowest price including the cloud usage fee is 52,500 KRW, and the highest price is 90,500 KRW.

Earlier, there were criticisms that the Ministry of Education had underreported the subscription fees when releasing the first agreement price list for AI textbooks. On the 26th of last month, Go Min-jung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, said at the National Assembly Education Committee plenary meeting, "The 29,750 KRW you mentioned as the minimum price is not the annual subscription fee but the semester subscription fee," and added, "The Ministry of Education should have clarified that it was not the annual subscription fee when announcing it."

The cost of subscribing to AI textbooks may increase further in the future. This is because cloud usage fee negotiations are held annually, and the subjects adopting AI textbooks are expanding. Although selection is autonomous by school this year, if the policy changes to "mandatory selection," the number of users will increase significantly. According to a report by the National Assembly Legislative Research Office, assuming an average monthly subscription fee of 7,000 KRW and a 6-month subscription per volume under "mandatory adoption" of AI textbooks, the total subscription fee over four years is estimated to be 4.4922 trillion KRW.

Although the new semester has started, AI textbooks are expected to be used in earnest from around the second week of this month due to the need for IT processes such as registering AI textbook selection information and academic record processing. A Ministry of Education official explained yesterday, "The current status of AI textbook selection is tentatively at 33%," and added, "Since schools usually finalize their academic operation plans around February next year, (related procedures) will be practically processed in advance without any issues."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.