What will life in the USA cost each month?
Estimate your monthly costs by city and household: rent, bills, groceries, transport, health insurance and school fees.
Your results
Rent: Zillow Rentals listings on 6 October 2026: median asking rent (mid) and 25th and 75th percentiles (value, prime) by bedrooms; 3- and 4-bed homes use commuter suburbs for New York, Boston, DC, Chicago and San Francisco and houses in Austin, Miami and Los Angeles; some figures, mostly above $5,000, are our estimates. Prices in shops are shown before sales tax, which is added at the till. Childcare isn’t included: full-time care for a baby or toddler in New York is typically about $2,130 a month (see Childcare in the USA). For the cash you need up front, use the moving fund calculator.
Read: What it costs to live in the USASign in to keep your answers and pick them up again on any device.
Estimates to help you plan, not financial advice. Nothing you enter is sent to us unless you ask for an email or sign in to save your answers.
How this calculator works
- Choose adults, children, city, area, health insurance, public or private school and cars
- It estimates rent, bills, groceries, transport, health insurance and school fees each month, in dollars and pounds
- Figures come from the sources listed in our cost of living guide, with the date we last checked them
It runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to us unless you ask us to email you the results, and we don’t keep it. Results are estimates, not a quote or financial advice: check the official sources linked in each guide before you rely on them.