Abstract. The notion of an open quantum subgroup of a locally compact quantum group is introduced and given several equivalent characterizations in terms of group-like projections, inclusions of quantum group C * -algebras and properties of respective quantum homogenous spaces. Open quantum subgroups are shown to be closed in the sense of Vaes and normal open quantum subgroups are proved to be in 1-1 correspondence with normal compact quantum subgroups of the dual quantum group.The theory of locally compact quantum groups, formulated in the language of operator algebras, is a rapidly developing field closely related to abstract harmonic analysis, and with various connections to noncommutative geometry, quantum probability and other areas of 'noncommutative' mathematics. A locally compact quantum group G is a virtual object, studied via its 'algebras of functions': a C * -algebra C 0 (G), playing the role of the algebra of continuous functions on G vanishing at infinity, and a von Neumann algebra L ∞ (G), viewed as the algebra of essentially bounded measurable functions on G; both of these are equipped with coproducts, operations encoding the 'multiplication operation' of G. It is often essential to study both of the avatars of G mentioned above (as well as the universal counterpart of C 0 (G), the C * -algebra C u 0 (G)) at the same time (see for example [15], [35]). This will also be the case in this article.In recent years we have seen an increased interest in the notion of morphisms between locally compact quantum groups H and G. These also have various incarnations (see [27]), one of which is given by C * -algebra morphisms π ∈ Mor(C u 0 (G), C u 0 (H)) intertwining the respective coproducts. It is then natural to consider what it means that a given morphism between H and G has closed image and moreover is a homeomorphism onto this imagein other words, identifies H with a closed (quantum) subgroup of G. This problem was studied in depth in the article [6], where two alternative definitions, due respectively to Vaes and Woronowicz, formulated respectively in the von Neumann algebraic and C * -algebraic language, were compared and interpreted in several special cases. Among the main results of [6] was the proof that a closed quantum subgroup in the sense of Vaes is always a closed quantum subgroup in the sense of Woronowicz, and in fact in many cases (classical, dual to classical, compact, discrete) the two definitions coincide. Understanding the concept of a closed quantum subgroup forms a very natural step in the development of the theory and was key in building and applying the induction theory for representations of quantum groups (as formulated in [22], [35]).In the current work, which can be naturally viewed as a continuation of H of a locally compact group G is automatically closed, a fact that leads to simplification of many questions concerning relations between representation theoretical and harmonic analytical properties of H and G. Perhaps, the main reason for the latter is that openness of H in G ...