Search for botox prices in Korea and the numbers seem impossibly far apart. The main reason is hiding in plain sight on every clinic's price list: the brand of botulinum toxin.
"Botox" is technically one brand — Allergan's. In everyday English (and on Korean menus aimed at foreigners) the word is used generically, but what goes in the syringe varies.
Korea manufactures its own botulinum toxin brands, approved by Korea's MFDS (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety). The two you'll see most often:
- Nabota (Daewoong Pharmaceutical) — sold in the United States as Jeuveau, FDA-approved in 2019.
- Botulax (Hugel) — sold in the United States as Letybo, FDA-approved in 2024.
Other domestic brands exist, and imported options (Allergan Botox, Xeomin, Dysport) appear on many menus as a separate, higher-priced tier.
"Korean botox vs American botox," Xeomin vs Botox, Letybo vs Botox — the same question underneath. These are among the most-searched botox comparisons, and for a visitor to Korea they mostly collapse into one distinction: domestic brand or imported brand? Xeomin (Merz) and Dysport (Ipsen) are imported toxins that sit in the higher tier alongside Allergan's Botox; Nabota and Botulax are the domestic ones — and confusingly, those two are the same molecules sold in the West as Jeuveau and Letybo. So a Westerner comparing "Letybo vs Botox" at home is often weighing the exact product a Korean clinic would simply call Botulax. Which brand a menu means by "botox" is the thing to pin down; the imported-vs-domestic tier usually explains the price.
Why domestic brands cost less: they're produced locally at scale, and Korea's unusually dense clinic market competes hard on posted prices for high-volume items. A Korean price list will often show the same area twice — once with a domestic brand, once with an imported one — at prices that can differ several-fold.
What this means when you compare quotes:
- Ask which brand the quote is for. The same area listed at two very different prices on one menu may simply be Botulax vs. Allergan.
- Ask how the dose is counted. Korean menus usually price per area (jaw, forehead) rather than per unit; two clinics quoting the same area may plan different doses.
- Ask what a touch-up costs. Some clinics include a follow-up window; others price it separately.
What we won't tell you — on purpose. Whether one brand works better or lasts longer than another is a medical question with real individual variation, and comparative claims are exactly the kind of marketing this site exists to avoid. Brand choice belongs in the consultation room, with a doctor who has examined you. What we can do is make the price structure legible before you get there.
The prices shown on SKINAVI treatment pages are prices advertised on clinics' own websites, with the source noted on each clinic's profile. Where a clinic publishes per-brand pricing, that's what you'll see.
SKINAVI lists factual information only and is not a booking agent — you always contact the clinic directly.