Cost of Living Calculator & City Comparison
Thinking about moving? Compare the cost of living across 30 of the most popular US cities, find the salary you'd need to keep your lifestyle, and see exactly where the money goes.
Estimated Monthly Budget by Category
Estimates use national-average household spending scaled by each city's cost-of-living index and your selected household size. Actual costs vary by neighborhood, lifestyle, and current market conditions. Figures exclude income taxes.
Understanding the Cost of Living
What is a cost-of-living index?
A cost-of-living index expresses how expensive a place is relative to a benchmark — here, the US national average, which is set to 100. A city with an index of 150 is roughly 50% more expensive than the national average, while an index of 90 is about 10% cheaper. The index blends everyday expenses like housing, food, utilities, transportation, and healthcare.
How the equivalent salary works
To keep the same standard of living when you move, your income should scale with the cost-of-living difference. We multiply your current income by the ratio of the two cities' indices. For example, moving from a city at index 100 to one at index 150 means you'd need about 50% more income just to break even on lifestyle.
Why housing dominates the math
Housing is usually the single largest expense and the biggest driver of differences between cities. Groceries, utilities, and healthcare vary far less from place to place. That's why two cities can have similar grocery prices but wildly different overall costs — rent and home prices do most of the heavy lifting.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate are these cost-of-living numbers?
The figures are blended estimates based on typical national spending and published cost-of-living patterns, designed for quick planning and comparison. Real costs depend heavily on your neighborhood, lifestyle, and current market conditions, so treat the results as a starting point rather than an exact budget.
Do these estimates include income taxes?
No. The monthly budget estimates cover living expenses only. State and local income taxes vary significantly — some states have no income tax at all — so factor those in separately when comparing take-home pay between cities.
How does household size change the result?
Larger households spend more on most categories, so we scale the national-average single-person budget up for couples and families. A couple is estimated at roughly 1.6× a single person's spend and a family of four at about 2.4×, reflecting shared housing and utilities rather than a simple per-person multiple.
Which US cities are included?
The calculator covers 30 of the most popular and most-searched US metros, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, Denver, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, and many more — plus the US national average as a neutral baseline.