Cost-of-Living Salary Calculator — How Much to Earn After Relocating

Free cost-of-living offset calculator: see the salary or retainer you need after moving to keep the same savings — real tax gross-up, FX risk, multiple cities.

What it does

Moving to a cheaper city, or a pricier one, changes what your pay is worth. This calculator works out the gross salary or retainer you need in the new place to keep the same real savings — using your own costs, your own tax rules and your own exchange rate.

Compare up to four destinations side by side, see exactly where the difference comes from, and get a ready-to-use summary if you’re negotiating remote pay or a relocation package.

How it works

Most cost-of-living calculators multiply your salary by a city index. This one works upward from what you actually spend and what you actually keep.

Step by step

1. It taxes your current gross income to get your current take-home pay and your current monthly savings (take-home minus your monthly costs).
2. It totals your costs in the new place, converted into your currency at the exchange rate you enter, plus any one-time move cost spread over the months you choose.
3. It sets the net pay you would need to cover those costs and still meet your goal.
4. It then solves backwards through the tax schedule to find the gross income that produces that net pay.

Real tax, not a guessed percentage

Choose a flat effective rate, or paste your own progressive brackets (“up to, rate %” per line) with a tax-free allowance and social or payroll contributions. The gross-up is solved numerically, so the top slice of your income is taxed at the top rate rather than averaged out.

Choose what stays the same

• Same savings amount per month (then see what that saving grows into with the Compound Interest Calculator)
• Same savings rate (this keeps your real purchasing power)
• Same savings and same leisure money, with essentials free to change
• A new savings target
• Just cover your costs

No bundled city data

Prices go stale and averages don’t describe your life, so the tool includes no built-in city figures. If you only know how much dearer or cheaper the new place is, switch to ratio mode: enter an overall percentage change, or two cost-of-living index values (current city, new city) from a source you trust, and override individual categories such as housing.

How to use it

1. Enter your current gross income and tax rules.
2. Enter your monthly costs by category: housing, food, transport, utilities, healthcare, education or childcare, leisure and other.
3. Pick the goal that should stay the same.
4. Add a destination: its currency and exchange rate, whether you’ll be paid in your current currency or locally, its monthly costs (or a % difference), and its tax rules.
5. Read the required gross income and the change against today, then check the breakdown of where it comes from.
6. Add up to three more destinations with + Destination and compare them in one table.
7. Copy the summary or download the comparison as a CSV.

What you get beyond the headline number

• Breakdown of the change: each cost category, the relocation cost, the savings adjustment and the tax effect, so you can see what actually drives the difference.
• Currency risk table: if you’re paid in your current currency but spend in another, see the required income if your currency moves 10% or 20% either way.
• Freelancer and retainer mode: convert the needed income into a monthly retainer, day rate and hourly rate, based on your unpaid weeks off, working days, hours and billable share of time.
• Employer geo-pay check: enter the percentage adjustment an employer proposes and see what you would save on it, the gap to what you need, and editable talking points.

Privacy

Your income, costs and tax details stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded, and no exchange rates or city prices are fetched — you enter the figures yourself, and they are saved only in your own browser.

FAQ

How do I calculate the salary I need after moving?

Work out your savings today, add up what you’d spend in the new place, add the savings you want to keep, and then gross that figure back up for tax. The calculator does all four steps and shows the result as a gross annual figure and a percentage change against today.

Why not just apply a cost-of-living index to my salary?

An index describes an average household. Yours might spend 45% of its income on rent and almost nothing on a car. Working from your own categories, and taxing the result properly, avoids both mistakes. If you’d still like to use an index, ratio mode accepts one.

Where do I get costs for the new city?

Rental listings for housing, supermarket websites for groceries, and cost-of-living sites such as Numbeo or Expatistan for a sanity check on the rest. Your current costs are best taken from a few months of your own statements.

What if I’m paid in one currency and spend in another?

Choose “in my current currency (remote)”, enter the exchange rate, and use the currency risk table to see how required income changes if that rate moves. If instead you’ll be paid locally, choose “in the local currency” and the tax and pay are worked out in the local currency.

Does it work for freelancers and contractors?

Yes. Tick freelancer mode, treat your income as billed revenue, put self-employment contributions into the payroll percentage, and it returns a monthly retainer, day rate and hourly rate. To build a rate from scratch, the Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator starts from a target income and billable hours.

How do I check the take-home figure it assumes?

Enter your gross income and tax rules and compare the resulting net pay with your payslip. To compare job offers or convert between pay periods, the Salary / Paycheck Calculator is a good companion.

How accurate is the result?

As accurate as the figures you enter. It doesn’t know local tax credits, treaty rules or benefits, so use a bracket table that reflects your actual situation, and treat the output as a negotiation and planning figure rather than tax advice.