A Gram-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile, non-spore-forming bacterial strain, designated Gsoil 104^T, was isolated from a soil sample from a ginseng field in Pocheon Province (South Korea) and was characterized taxonomically by using a polyphasic approach. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, strain Gsoil 104^T was shown to belong to the family Sphingobacteriaceae, being related to Pedobacter africanus DSM 12126^T (97.0 %), Pedobacter caeni LMG 22862^T (96.9 %), Pedobacter cryoconitis DSM 14825^T (96.8 %) and Pedobacter heparinus DSM 2366^T (96.6 %). The phylogenetic distance from any other Pedobacter species with a validly published name was greater than 3.4 % (i.e. <96.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity). DNA–DNA hybridization experiments showed that values for DNA–DNA relatedness between strain Gsoil 104^T and its phylogenetically closest neighbours were below 37 %. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 43.6 mol%. The predominant respiratory quinone was MK-7. The major fatty acids were C_16 : 1 ω7c, iso-C_15 : 0, C_16 : 0, iso-C_17 : 0 3-OH and iso-C_15 : 0 2-OH. These chemotaxonomic data support the affiliation of strain Gsoil 104^T to the genus Pedobacter. On the basis of its phenotypic properties and phylogenetic distinctiveness, strain Gsoil 104^T represents a novel species in the genus Pedobacter, for which the name Pedobacter ginsengisoli sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Gsoil 104^T (=KCTC 12576^T=LMG 23399^T).