Counter 09 · Cost of Living
Verified 06 Aug 2026
CityCost
CIA nomad-oriented cost app covering coworking and lifestyle categories
CityCost breaks down pricing across 8,000-plus cities with categories tuned to nomad life specifically, including coworking spaces and fitness alongside the usual rent and groceries, plus curated city lists for things like surfing or nightlife. It is newer and less established than Numbeo, so treat individual numbers as a rough guide rather than gospel. Worth checking as a second source, particularly for its coworking price data.
What is CityCost?
CityCost is a free cost of living app and website (citycost.org) that breaks down everyday prices across more than 8,000 cities. It skips the usual expat-relocation checklist and builds its categories around what nomads actually spend on: coworking passes, gym memberships, coffee shop prices, plus curated city lists for things like surfing towns or nightlife hubs. It's on iOS, Android, and the web, and it scores every city against a Prague baseline of 100, so a city at 70 is roughly 30 percent cheaper and a city at 130 is roughly 30 percent pricier.
How it works for planning a move
Search a city and you get a category breakdown, or run two cities side by side and share the result as a link. It also shows salary context, net pay after tax, and purchasing power, which matters if you're weighing a remote job offer against a new base rather than just estimating rent and food. CityCost says it processes over two million price checks a month. Those come from a mix of crowd-sourced submissions and automated data pulls.
The honest caveat
CityCost is much newer and less established than Numbeo, which has published cost of living data since 2009 and covers a far bigger set of cities from a much larger public data pool. CityCost doesn't publish sample-size or methodology detail, so smaller or less-visited cities can carry thin or stale numbers that swing more than reality. Treat any single figure as a planning input, not a guaranteed budget, and check a lease or a long visa-run decision against a second source.
Pricing
CityCost is free on the App Store, Google Play, and the web. We found no premium tier at the time of writing. We'd use it as a second opinion next to Numbeo, not a first one, especially for the coworking and lifestyle categories that most cost of living sites skip.
What works
- Covers 8,000-plus cities with categories built for nomad life, including coworking passes and gym memberships that most cost of living tools ignore
- Free on iOS, Android, and web with no paywalled tier
- Side-by-side city comparison with a shareable link makes it fast to weigh two potential bases
- Adds salary, net pay after tax, and purchasing power context, useful when comparing a remote job offer against a new city
What to watch
- Much newer and less established than Numbeo, with no published sample size or methodology to judge data reliability city by city
- Smaller or less-visited cities are more likely to have thin or stale crowd-submitted numbers
- No stated premium tier or API, so it's a browsing tool rather than something to build a budget spreadsheet workflow around
Questions at the counter
Is CityCost free?
Yes. CityCost is free on the App Store, Google Play, and citycost.org, with no premium subscription found. There's no cost to search cities, compare two locations side by side, or check the salary and purchasing power figures.
Is CityCost accurate for digital nomads?
It's a reasonable starting estimate, not gospel, especially outside major hubs. CityCost is newer than Numbeo and doesn't publish detailed methodology or sample sizes, so treat its numbers as directional and verify anything that affects a real budget or lease with a second source or local Facebook groups.
How is CityCost different from Numbeo?
CityCost's categories lean nomad-specific: coworking passes, gym memberships, and lifestyle city lists for things like surfing or nightlife, on top of the standard rent, groceries, and transport that Numbeo also covers. Numbeo has a much longer track record (since 2009) and a larger stated data set, so it's the better primary source with CityCost as a supplementary check.
What is CityCost's cost of living index based on?
CityCost indexes every city against Prague, scored at 100, factoring in groceries, dining out, transport, utilities, and rent. A city scoring 70 is roughly 30 percent cheaper than Prague across those categories, and a city scoring 130 is roughly 30 percent more expensive.