--- title: South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI... description: South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has opened bidding for a free, unlimited AI chatbot and public-service agent for all 52 million citizens under a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-will-give-all-52-million-citizens-free-ai-access-becoming-the-first-g20-nation-to-do-so-z0mvnlctu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI access, becoming the first G20 nation to do so | daily.dev og:description: South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has opened bidding for a free, unlimited AI chatbot and public-service agent for all 52 million citizens under a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-will-give-all-52-million-citizens-free-ai-access-becoming-the-first-g20-nation-to-do-so-z0mvnlctu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/z0MVnlCtU.png og:image:alt: South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI access, becoming the first G20 nation to do so og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI access, becoming the first G20 nation to do so **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 2 upvotes · 2 comments ## Summary South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has opened bidding for a free, unlimited AI chatbot and public-service agent for all 52 million citizens under a programme called 'AI for Everyone.' It would make South Korea the first G20 nation to offer AI as a public service. At least 50% of the system must use domestic AI models, with selected companies receiving up to 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs from the government. A beta launch is planned for September, with full rollout by year-end and the programme running through 2030. The initiative is partly a sovereign AI strategy, creating a guaranteed market for Korean AI developers while reducing reliance on foreign providers like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, which currently dominate Korean AI usage. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is South Korea's AI for Everyone program and when does it launch? AI for Everyone is a South Korean government program offering a free, unlimited AI chatbot and public-service agent to all 52 million residents. The Ministry of Science and ICT opened bidding on July 13, with applications open through August 11, a beta launch in September, and a full launch by year-end, running through 2030. _Track how citizen-facing AI programs like this reshape developer opportunities on daily.dev._ ### Does South Korea's free AI chatbot program require domestic AI models? Yes, at least 50% of the system must use domestic South Korean AI models, with other domestic companies required to cover at least 30% more. Selected companies also receive up to 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs from the government but must match that support with their own funding. _Developers weighing sovereign versus foreign AI models can follow policy shifts like this on daily.dev._ ### How many Koreans use ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude? As of April 2026, ChatGPT led with 23.45 million Korean users, followed by Gemini at 8.45 million and Claude at 2.41 million. Overall, about 44.5% of Koreans (roughly 23 million people) use generative AI regularly, but only 1.8 million pay for AI services. _Anyone comparing AI chatbot adoption across markets can follow usage trends like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@akashskypatel** · 0 upvotes > If US doesn't make AI a public utility to get better control over job losses from AI, the US is going to get cooked trying to compete against China and other eastern economies that is making governments have stake in AI companies. The wealth disparity is going to get much much worse as wealth starts concentrating into AI companies as people lose jobs. This is the worst case scenario for near-term AI outlook. **@kartiknvj** · 0 upvotes > National-scale rollout makes the reliability question unavoidable for me. Serving 52 million people means the long-tail wrong answers stop being edge cases and become daily events at volume. I'd want heavy output monitoring on that before launch. Has anyone seen what guardrails they're planning? ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why do South Koreans love AI so much?](https://daily.dev/posts/why-do-south-koreans-love-ai-so-much--tqhs6sbcd) · MIT Technology Review · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Malta just became the first country to give every citizen free ChatGPT Plus. There’s one condition.](https://daily.dev/posts/malta-just-became-the-first-country-to-give-every-citizen-free-chatgpt-plus-there-s-one-condition--9p4kzphmq) · The Next Web · 48 upvotes · 15 comments - [South Korea AI investment: $880bn for chips and robots](https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-ai-investment-880bn-for-chips-and-robots-0gdp5xleo) · The Next Web · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [South Korea making its own security-centric AI model](https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-making-its-own-security-centric-ai-model-ixoq4vdrs) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Download: the first brain implant power user and South Korea’s AI obsession](https://daily.dev/posts/the-download-the-first-brain-implant-power-user-and-south-korea-s-ai-obsession-1buq6linp) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#genai](https://daily.dev/tags/genai), [#ai-governance](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-governance) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-will-give-all-52-million-citizens-free-ai-access-becoming-the-first-g20-nation-to-do-so-z0mvnlctu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI access, becoming the first G20 nation to do so","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-will-give-all-52-million-citizens-free-ai-access-becoming-the-first-g20-nation-to-do-so-z0mvnlctu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-will-give-all-52-million-citizens-free-ai-access-becoming-the-first-g20-nation-to-do-so-z0mvnlctu"},"datePublished":"2026-07-15T15:15:23.100Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:13:04.824Z","description":"South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has opened bidding for a free, unlimited AI chatbot and public-service agent for all 52 million citizens under a...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8f2e376b2a9a584774ad29079d6985e6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8f2e376b2a9a584774ad29079d6985e6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":2,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-will-give-all-52-million-citizens-free-ai-access-becoming-the-first-g20-nation-to-do-so-z0mvnlctu","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}],"keywords":"ai,genai,ai-governance","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"South Korea will give all 52 million citizens free AI access, becoming the first G20 nation to do so"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/south-korea-will-give-all-52-million-citizens-free-ai-access-becoming-the-first-g20-nation-to-do-so-z0mvnlctu","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"If US doesn’t make AI a public utility to get better control over job losses from AI, the US is going to get cooked trying to compete against China and other eastern economies that is making governments have stake in AI companies. 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