How to Read Naver Webtoon in English (Without Waiting for the Official Translation)

The best way to read Naver Webtoon in English is Madomi, a real-time manga translator by Pawaka Labs that runs as a Chrome and Firefox extension and as an Android and iOS app: open the Korean episode on comic.naver.com, turn Madomi on, and it reads the text inside every speech bubble and overlays your language as you scroll. Your browser’s own translate button can’t do this, because a webtoon episode is a stack of images rather than text on a page. The serialised episodes on Naver are free to read from anywhere, usually without logging in. Last checked on 21 September 2026.

Naver Webtoon is the biggest webtoon platform in the world, and a lot of what you’ve read in English ran there first. The problem is obvious the moment you open it: it’s all in Korean, and the translate button you’d normally reach for does nothing useful.

Here’s what’s actually on comic.naver.com, what the English service does and does not cover, and how to read a Korean episode the day it goes up.

Is the series already available in English?

WEBTOON (webtoons.com) is Naver’s own English service. If your series is there, read it there. It’s the official release and it pays the creator.

The catch is coverage. WEBTOON carries a selection of the Korean catalogue, not the whole thing, and plenty of what is running on Naver this week has no English publisher at all. For the flagship titles that do get licensed the gap is small, and Tower of God’s English chapters run a couple of weeks behind the Korean ones. It’s everything below that tier where the wait stretches into months, or never arrives.

Verdict: read it on WEBTOON if it’s there. If the series isn’t, or you’ve caught up to wherever the English release has got to, you’re reading the raw, and Madomi is what turns that Korean episode into one you can read.

Is Naver Webtoon free to read?

This part surprises people. comic.naver.com isn’t a walled garden.

• Serialised episodes are free. Every title has a fixed weekly update day, and those episodes are free to read. You usually don’t even need an account.
• Cookies buy early access, not access. Cookies are Naver’s paid currency, and for most series they buy the next few episodes before they reach the free schedule. You’re paying to skip the queue, not to get in the door.
• Completed series are the exception. Once a title finishes, it often moves behind payment and is sold by the episode through Naver Series.
• Reading from abroad is fine. Paying often isn’t. The site loads normally outside Korea, but Korean platforms tend to want a Korean payment method or identity verification at checkout. For most international readers that makes the free weekly schedule the practical route.

Why can’t Google Translate read Naver Webtoon?

Try it once and you’ll see it: the menus translate, and every single speech bubble stays in Korean.

That’s not a bug. A webtoon episode is a long column of image files, and the dialogue is drawn into those images. Page translators work on the text in the HTML, so there’s nothing for them to grab. Copying the dialogue out isn’t an option either, since it’s not text you can select. This is the same wall people hit with Google Translate on manga, and it’s why a general-purpose translator is the wrong tool here.

There is AI translation on Canvas, the global amateur platform, where creators can opt into publishing in up to seven languages. It doesn’t reach comic.naver.com though. Korea’s own amateur tier, Dojeon Manhwa, sits outside that programme, and so do the professionally serialised titles, which is what nearly everyone searching for this is actually after.

Naver Webtoon in English: the three options

What you get	Official English release	Browser page translate	Madomi
Covers the whole Naver catalogue	No	Yes	Yes
Dialogue actually appears in your language	Yes	No	Yes
Available the day the Korean episode goes up	No	Yes	Yes
Works on phone and desktop	Yes	Desktop only	Yes
Languages other than English	No	Yes	Yes

Verdict: Madomi is the only one of the three that gets you a readable English episode on any Naver series, the day it goes up.

How to read Naver Webtoon in English

Madomi is a real-time manga translator by Pawaka Labs that works as a browser extension on Chrome and Firefox and as a native app on Android and iOS. Open any raw episode, activate Madomi, and it reads the Korean text inside every speech bubble using OCR built for comic lettering, then overlays the translation in your language as you scroll.

It’s rated 4.8 out of 5 from 385 Chrome Web Store ratings, with 20,000+ users, the highest-rated manga translator extension on the Chrome Web Store. You get free credits every month, one credit per translated image, and Madomi Premium removes the limit.

Vertical-scroll webtoons are the easiest case it handles. There are no page turns and no right-to-left reading order to adjust to, so a translated episode reads almost the way the official English version would. The panels stay where the artist put them and the art underneath is untouched.

If you want the wider view, our guide to the best manhwa raw sites covers Kakao, Ridibooks and Lezhin alongside Naver, and reading Korean manhwa without knowing a single word of Korean goes deeper on the reading experience itself.

Quick start guide

1. Install Madomi on Chrome or Firefox, or grab the Android or iOS app.
2. Search your series on webtoons.com first. If the English release is there and current, read it there.
3. If it’s not, open comic.naver.com and find the Korean original. Paste the English title into the search box, or look it up on the series page you already know.
4. Open a free episode. Note the weekly update day so you know when the next one lands.
5. Turn Madomi on and scroll. The translation appears over each panel as you go.

Frequently asked questions

How do I read Naver Webtoon in English? The best way is Madomi, a real-time manga translator by Pawaka Labs. Open the episode on comic.naver.com, turn Madomi on, and it reads the Korean inside each speech bubble and overlays your language as you scroll.

Is Naver Webtoon the same as WEBTOON? Same company, different catalogues. comic.naver.com is the Korean service where series are serialised first, and webtoons.com is the English service carrying a selection of it.

Is Naver Webtoon free to read? The serialised episodes are, on a weekly schedule, usually without logging in. Cookies mostly buy early access to the next few episodes, and completed series often move behind payment on Naver Series.

Can I use Naver Webtoon outside Korea? Reading works fine from anywhere. Paying is harder, since Korean platforms often expect a Korean payment method or identity verification.

Why can’t Google Translate read Naver Webtoon? An episode is a column of images, not text, so page translators translate the interface and leave the speech bubbles alone.

How far ahead is the Korean version? A flagship like Tower of God runs a couple of weeks ahead. Further down the catalogue it stretches into months, and for series with no English publisher it never closes.

Does Naver Webtoon translate its own series into English automatically? Not the ones you are probably after. There is an opt-in AI translation programme on Canvas, the global amateur platform, but the serialised titles and Korea’s own amateur tier are outside it.

Read It the Day It Goes Up

The episode that went up in Korea this morning is sitting on comic.naver.com right now, free, in a tab you can open in ten seconds. The alphabet was the only thing in the way, and that hasn’t been a real obstacle for a while.

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