Free tool · Updated 2026

Cost of Living Calculator

Compare what life actually costs across U.S. states, counties, cities and ZIP codes — rent, taxes, groceries, childcare, the long tail of small expenses. Sourced from Census, BLS, HUD and Zillow. Updated quarterly.

Pick a place to start

Search by state, county, city or ZIP. We'll pull the latest data.

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Comparing two places? Add a second to see the difference side by side.
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Pick a place to begin

Once you do, you'll see rent, taxes, the COL index, the salary you'd need to save 10%, and the full nine-category expense breakdown.

Living in

Monthly rent vs. national
Effective tax rate vs. national
COL index national avg = 100
Salary needed to cover expenses, taxes, and save 10%
Expense breakdown

Where the money actually goes

Each bar shows how this category compares to the national average. Bars to the left mean cheaper; bars to the right mean more expensive.

Category
−40% +40%
vs. avg
Total expenses
per year, post-tax
Total taxes
federal + state + FICA
Living in —

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Background

What is a cost of living calculator?

A cost of living calculator estimates what it costs to maintain a comparable standard of living in a given place. It rolls up housing, taxes, food, transportation, healthcare, utilities, childcare, insurance, and the long tail of miscellaneous spending into a single index against the national average — and translates that index into the salary you'd need to save at a steady rate.

The number is a starting point, not a verdict. Two households earning the same income in the same ZIP code can land in very different places depending on housing choices, family size, and the decisions they've already made. A calculator gives you the baseline; the rest is yours to shape.

Reading the data

How to Read These Numbers

Four headline metrics carry most of the signal. Here's what each one means and where to be skeptical.

Monthly Rent

HUD Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit — roughly the 40th percentile of recent-mover gross rents in the area, cross-checked against Zillow Observed Rent. It's representative of modest, middle-of-the-market housing — not the cheapest available, but well below newer apartments in popular neighborhoods.

Effective Tax Rate

The blended rate of federal, state and FICA tax on the salary needed in this place. State and local income tax structure matters more than the headline rate — Texas has no state income tax but higher property taxes; California is the inverse.

COL Index

A single number where 100 equals the national average. A COL index of 142 means a comparable lifestyle here costs 42 percent more than the U.S. baseline. The index weights housing heaviest because that's where most of the variation lives.

Salary Needed

The pre-tax annual income required to cover all expenses and still save 10 percent of gross. If you earn less, the math says your savings rate has to come down — or your expenses do. It's the most opinionated number on the page.

Context

Why cost of living feels so high right now

Headline inflation has cooled, but the things that dominate the average household budget — housing, food, childcare, insurance — have not. Rent in most metros is up 25–40 percent from 2019. Median home prices are up more. Childcare runs longer than a mortgage payment in most states. Auto insurance premiums have climbed two years running and show no sign of easing.

Wages have also risen. Across the bottom and middle of the income distribution, real wages are up modestly since 2019 — not by enough to offset what's happened to housing in expensive metros, but by enough to matter. The lived experience of "everything costs more" is real and, in many places, durable.

What that means for a calculator like this: a salary that felt comfortable five years ago likely doesn't anymore, even if your raises have kept pace with the official inflation number. That's why the salary-needed figure is calibrated to today's housing and childcare reality — not a 2019 baseline.

Questions

Cost of Living Calculator – FAQ

We weight nine spending categories — housing, food at home, food away, transportation, healthcare, utilities, childcare, personal insurance, and miscellaneous — by their share of average household spending in BLS Consumer Expenditure data, then index each region against the national average. Housing carries the heaviest weight because that's where the most variation between regions actually lives.
Rent and housing values from HUD Fair Market Rent and Zillow Observed Rent. Income and demographic data from Census American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates. Sales and income tax rates from each state's department of revenue. Childcare and healthcare costs from BLS and Federal Reserve household surveys. Methodology notes update with each quarterly refresh.
Quarterly. The most recent refresh is dated at the top of every place's result page. Tax tables update annually each January; rent and price data refreshes every quarter as new HUD and Zillow releases land.
Different calculators weight categories differently and pick different baselines. Most use Bureau of Labor Statistics data; many haven't refreshed their housing inputs since 2022. We document our weights and sources on every result so you can see exactly what's driving the number.
The pre-tax annual income required to cover all modeled expenses at this location and still save ten percent of gross income. It assumes one earner, no employer benefits beyond the standard, and median rent for a two-bedroom. It's a baseline; your number depends on your household, debts, goals, and tolerances.
Yes. The effective tax rate includes federal income tax, state income tax (if any), FICA, and an estimate of average state and local sales tax burden based on typical consumption baskets. Property tax is captured indirectly through housing costs.
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