Cost-of-Living Comparison Calculator
Compare cost of living between US cities to find the salary you need in a new city to maintain your current standard of living — with a clean breakdown of housing, food, transit, and healthcare.
To maintain your standard of living moving from Austin, TX to San Francisco, CA.
Cost breakdown by category
Each row shows how much more (or less) the category costs in San Francisco vs Austin.
Housing is usually the dominant swing factor — if the housing delta and overall delta diverge a lot, that's your story.
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded or saved.
How to compare cost of living between cities
Cost-of-living indices give each city a number relative to a national average of 100. A city at 150 costs 50% more to live in than the average; a city at 80 costs 20% less. The simplest comparison is: your current salary times (target index ÷ current index) gives you the salary you need to land in the new city without a real-world pay cut.
The Cost-of-Living Comparison Calculator does this in one step and breaks the result out by housing, groceries, transportation, and healthcare so you can see where your money is actually going — and where the gap between two cities is coming from.
Why housing dominates the comparison
Housing is by far the biggest single category of household spending in most US cities, and it has the widest variation between metros — rent and home prices in San Francisco are 2 to 3x those in Cleveland, while groceries differ by only 10 to 20%. A relocation that looks neutral on the overall index can be a big upgrade or downgrade once you isolate housing.
The calculator highlights the housing-only delta so you can see whether a move is genuinely cheaper or only cheaper outside housing — and whether your housing standard will need to change to keep the comparison fair.
Use it before you start applying
The most common mistake in remote-era job search is applying to roles in cheaper cities at your current salary — and getting offers that look generous in the listing but represent a real-terms pay cut once cost of living is normalized. Run cities through the calculator before you apply so you know the target salary going in, not after the offer arrives.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate cost of living between two cities?+
Use a cost-of-living index that scores each city relative to a national average. Your equivalent salary is (your current salary) × (target city index ÷ current city index). The calculator does this and adds a category breakdown.
What is the cost-of-living index?+
A standardized score where 100 represents the national average cost of living. A city at 130 is 30% more expensive than average; a city at 85 is 15% less. The index covers housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, and healthcare.
What city has the highest cost of living in the US?+
Manhattan (New York City), San Francisco, San Jose, Honolulu, and Boston consistently lead the US in cost-of-living indices, mostly driven by housing costs. The calculator includes all of these for direct comparison.
Should I take a pay cut to move to a cheaper city?+
It depends on the size of the cut versus the cost-of-living difference. A 10% pay cut to move to a city that is 25% cheaper is a real-terms raise; a 10% pay cut to move somewhere only 5% cheaper is a real pay cut. Run the numbers before deciding.
Is the Cost of Living Calculator free?+
Yes — free, no signup, and private. Cost-of-living indices for major US metros are bundled into the page, so nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.
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