Cost of living figures are The Nomad HQ's editorial estimates of a comfortable monthly budget for one person (rent, food, coworking, getting around and some fun), in USD, not official data. Your real spend depends on your lifestyle. Income is after tax; taxes are not modelled. For a household, the one-person figure is scaled with the modified OECD equivalence scale that Eurostat uses for its income statistics: 1 for the first adult, 0.5 for each further adult and 0.3 for each child under 14. It is a standard rough guide, and schooling and childcare are not included. In the city view, lean is 0.72 and premium 1.5 times our comfortable estimate, our own rule of thumb for a cheaper and a more comfortable way of living.
What is geoarbitrage?
Geoarbitrage is the simple idea behind a lot of remote-work freedom: earn in a strong currency or a high-paying market, and live somewhere the cost of living is far lower. The gap between the two is money you keep. This calculator works both ways: enter what you earn and see how much you would save in every city we cover, or pick a city and see the take-home income you would need to live there.
The maths of geoarbitrage
The cheapest nomad cities
Multan (~$420/mo), Madurai (~$470/mo), Gilgit (~$480/mo), Bhubaneswar (~$480/mo), Nagpur (~$490/mo), Gondar (~$500/mo), Gokarna (~$500/mo), Bandipur (~$500/mo), Gorkha (~$500/mo), Hsipaw (~$500/mo), Shiraz (~$500/mo), Karakol (~$500/mo), Indore (~$500/mo), Coimbatore (~$520/mo), Luang Namtha (~$540/mo).
Best value for money (score per dollar)
Gangtok, Bhubaneswar, Shillong, Indore, Gokarna, Bandipur, Coimbatore, Trincomalee, Arugam Bay, Siwa. Enter your income above for a personalised savings ranking.
How it works
We start from each city’s estimated monthly cost of living for one person, a comfortable budget covering rent, food, coworking, getting around and some fun, and scale it to your household with the modified OECD equivalence scale: 1 for the first adult, 0.5 for each further adult and 0.3 for each child under 14. In the savings view, that cost is taken from your after-tax income; what is left is your monthly saving, and the savings rate is its share of your income. In the city view, the cost is grossed up by your savings goal and shown at three lifestyles: lean (0.72 times the comfortable budget), comfortable and premium (1.5 times). Costs are our editorial estimates in USD; taxes are not modelled, since they depend on your residency.
Frequently asked questions
What does geoarbitrage mean?
It means arbitraging geography: using the difference between where you earn and where you spend. A salary that barely covers rent in San Francisco or London can fund a very comfortable life with high savings in parts of Latin America, South-East Asia or Eastern Europe.
How much salary do I need to be a digital nomad?
It depends entirely on where you base yourself. A comfortable single-person budget ranges from roughly $500 a month in the cheapest towns of Asia and Latin America to $5,000 or more in cities like Zurich, Singapore or New York. Switch to the city view above to see the income you would need at a lean, comfortable or premium lifestyle, for yourself or your family.
Does the required salary include savings?
Only if you ask it to. Set a savings goal in the city view and the calculator grosses up the required income so that, after covering your living costs, you still put that share aside. At a zero savings goal the number is simply your monthly cost of living.
Which cities let me save the most?
On a typical remote salary, the highest savings rates are in South-East Asia (Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand), South Asia and parts of Latin America and the Balkans, where a good monthly budget can be well under $1,000. Enter your income above for a personalised ranking.
How accurate are the cost figures?
They are considered editorial estimates of a comfortable single-person budget, not official statistics. Your real spend depends heavily on your lifestyle, how you like to live and how long you stay, so treat them as a starting point for comparison.
Does this include taxes?
No. The calculator uses after-tax income you enter and does not model taxes in the destination, which vary with your residency and visa status. Speak to a cross-border accountant before making decisions based on tax.