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What this tool does
Cost-of-living sites love false precision: the price of a cappuccino in a city you have never named. This tool answers the question that actually matters first: how much further does your money go there than at home? It compares overall price levels and seven everyday categories (housing, food, restaurants, transport, health, clothing, recreation) between your home country and the destination, using the World Bank’s internationally comparable price data.
What the comparisons look like
Against United States prices, Spain currently runs at about three quarters of home; Portugal at about two thirds; Thailand at roughly a third, meaning a US budget stretches about three times as far. Enter your own monthly figure and the tool translates it into home purchasing power. Where the data is missing or unreliable for a destination, it says so instead of guessing.
These are country-level averages: capitals and expat hotspots usually cost more, and your own basket will differ. Real expat rents and living costs, gathered from expats themselves, are on the way from our own Expat Focus cost survey. General information, not financial advice.