Cost of Living Comparison
Compare monthly expenses between two cities, auto-filled with real government cost-of-living data for major U.S. metros
Type a major U.S. city above (or its ZIP code, if the city name doesn't match — useful for smaller towns not directly on our list, since it resolves to the nearest of the 127 metros we cover) to auto-fill estimates from real cost-of-living data, or enter your own numbers directly below.
$3,060/mo
Current City Total
$3,060/mo
New City Total
+0.0%
Difference
Excludes housing unless you enter rentTo maintain the same standard of living in New City, you'd need roughly
$70,000/year
Excludes housing unless you enter rentAbout Cost of Living Comparison
Compares your actual monthly expenses against a new city, then calculates the difference and the equivalent salary needed to maintain the same standard of living. When you enter a recognized major U.S. metro area (by city name or ZIP code), groceries, utilities, transportation and other everyday categories are auto-filled using real government cost-of-living data (rent is left for you to enter, since the all-items index misstates housing), and a state-level tax and housing comparison appears below — everything stays fully editable, so you can adjust any number to match your actual situation.
Type a current and new city, or their ZIP codes if the city name doesn't match directly (useful for smaller towns not on our list of 127 covered metros — the ZIP resolves to the nearest one). Category estimates and a state tax/housing comparison auto-fill from real data, adjustable to match your own research, then enter your salary to see the equivalent needed in the new city.
Auto-filled estimates come from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis's Regional Price Parities (2023, the most recent available) — a real government cost-of-living index, not a crowdsourced or made-up number, but still a metro-area-wide average, not neighborhood-specific, and about a year old like every free cost-of-living source. State tax and property figures come from Tax Foundation and Census Bureau data, and are state-level averages, not metro-specific — property tax rates and home values in particular can vary a lot by county. Treat all of this as a solid starting point, then adjust with real listings and your specific target county for anything that matters to your decision.
Watch: Cost of Living Comparison in Action
- Where does the auto-filled cost data come from?
- From the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis's Regional Price Parities, a real government cost-of-living index, not a crowdsourced or made-up number — though it's still a metro-area-wide average, not neighborhood-specific, and about a year old like every free cost-of-living source.
- How do I compare the cost of living between two cities?
- Choose your current city and the one you are considering. The monthly figures for housing, food, transport and other categories are filled in from government data, and the tool shows the difference and the salary that would give you the same standard of living. Change any figure that does not match your own spending.
- What salary do I need to move to a more expensive city?
- The equivalent salary is your current pay adjusted for the price difference between the two metros, so your purchasing power stays the same. A raise smaller than that difference is a pay cut in real terms. Compare the result with the offer you have.
- Which cities does the cost of living comparison cover?
- It covers 127 US metropolitan areas using Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price data. For a smaller town, a ZIP code lookup uses the nearest covered metro as an estimate, which is close but not specific to that town.
- How current is the cost of living data?
- The regional price data is from 2023, the latest available when it was added. Housing can move quickly, so check current listings in the neighborhood you are considering before you decide.
How to use Cost of Living Comparison
A cost of living comparison puts the monthly expenses of two cities next to each other, so you can see what the same lifestyle would cost in each and what salary would match it. This one pre-fills housing, food, transport and other categories from government price data for 127 US metro areas, and you can overwrite any figure with your own. People use it when weighing a job offer, planning a move or setting a salary target. Moving Cost Estimator covers the one-off cost of the move itself.
Beyond the auto-fill described above, it's worth understanding what "equivalent salary" actually means here: the tool takes your current salary and the cost difference between the two metro areas, then calculates what you'd need to earn in the new city to maintain the same real purchasing power — not the same nominal salary, but the same actual standard of living once local prices are accounted for. If a category estimate looks off for your specific situation (you don't drive, so transportation costs less for you than the metro average, for instance), edit that number directly — the auto-filled figures are a starting point pulled from real government data, not a locked-in answer.
When to use it
The clearest use is evaluating a job offer or relocation to a different city — seeing whether a higher salary in a new city actually represents a real raise once cost of living is factored in, since a 15% salary increase moving to a notably more expensive metro can actually be a pay cut in real terms. It's also useful earlier in a job search, before an offer even exists, to set a realistic salary expectation or negotiating target for a specific city based on what your current compensation would actually need to become to maintain your lifestyle.
When not to use it
If you need neighborhood-level precision rather than metro-area averages — comparing two specific neighborhoods within the same city, for instance — this tool's data operates at the broader metro level and won't capture that finer-grained difference; local real estate listings and a cost-of-living discussion with people who actually live in the specific area are more precise for that level of detail. For a smaller town not among the 127 covered metro areas, the ZIP-code fallback estimates based on the nearest covered metro, which is a reasonable approximation but genuinely not the same as data specific to that smaller town.
Tips for best results
Before making a final decision based on this comparison, cross-check the housing estimate specifically against real current listings in your target neighborhood — housing is usually the single largest driver of cost-of-living difference between cities, and metro-wide averages can meaningfully understate or overstate what a specific desirable neighborhood actually costs. If you're comparing offers from two different cities at once, run the comparison twice from your current city as the baseline each time, rather than comparing the two new cities directly against each other, since that keeps both results grounded in your own actual current cost of living.
Limitations
The underlying government data (Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities) is from 2023, the most recent available at time of writing — cost of living, especially housing, can shift meaningfully in a year or two in a fast-changing market, so treat the auto-filled numbers as a solid recent baseline rather than up-to-the-minute pricing. State tax and property figures are state-level averages, not metro-specific, so property tax rates and typical home values in particular can vary considerably by county within the same state.
Privacy
All calculation happens in your browser using the auto-filled or manually entered figures — your salary and expense numbers aren't sent to or stored on any server, the comparison is computed locally from data already loaded with the page.
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