Cost of Living Comparison Calculator
Compare housing, food, transport, and healthcare costs between 66 cities and calculate the equivalent salary to keep your lifestyle.
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What is Cost of Living Comparison Calculator?
A free cost of living comparison calculator that weighs housing, food, transportation, healthcare, and everyday spending across 66 cities, with New York City as the base index. Enter your net salary to see the equivalent income you would need in another city to keep the same lifestyle.
Key Benefits
- Weigh real budget categories instead of a single generic index
- See per-category percentage differences between any two cities
- Get an equivalent net salary with indicative FX conversion
- Works offline with zero data collection
- Copy a formatted summary for negotiations and planning
Common Use Cases
- •Evaluating a job offer in another city or country
- •Negotiating a relocation package or remote-work allowance
- •Comparing expat destinations before moving abroad
- •Budget planning for students choosing where to study
- •Quick sanity checks on salary benchmarks across regions
How to Use the Cost of Living Comparison Calculator
- Pick your current city: Select the city you live in now from the first dropdown. The tool bundles indicative cost indices for 66 cities.
- Choose the city to compare: Select the destination city you are considering for a move, an offer, or a comparison.
- Enter your net salary (optional): Type your monthly net income in your current city currency to unlock the equivalent-salary calculation.
- Read the results and copy: Review the overall index, the category table, and the equivalent salary, then use Copy summary to grab everything as text.
Key Features
- Bundled cost indices for 66 cities with New York City as the base (100)
- Five weighted categories: housing, food, transport, healthcare, and other spending
- Equivalent net salary calculation with indicative static FX conversion
- Per-category percentage table showing exactly where costs differ
- Copyable plain-text summary for offers, notes, and negotiations
- Fully offline and private - nothing is uploaded from your browser
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the overall cost of living index calculated?
Each category index (housing, food, transport, healthcare, other) is weighted - housing 35%, food 25%, transport 15%, healthcare 10%, other 15% - and summed into a single index relative to New York City (100).
Is the data live or updated in real time?
No. The indices and exchange rates are static indicative snapshots bundled into the page so the tool works fully offline. Treat results as directional estimates and verify with official sources before major decisions.
What does the equivalent salary mean?
It converts your monthly net income into the destination currency using static FX rates and then adjusts it by the cost-of-living difference, showing the income that would roughly preserve your current lifestyle.
Does my salary data leave my browser?
Never. All calculations run client-side in JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or sent to any server.