Cost of Living Guide

City comparison

Cost of living in Buenos Aires vs Istanbul

One person needs about €936 a month in Buenos Aires and €963 in Istanbul, rent included — Buenos Aires is 3% cheaper overall.

🇦🇷
Buenos Aires
Argentina · 3.1M pop
vs
🇹🇷
Istanbul
Türkiye · 15.5M pop
Monthly rent (1BR)
€550€550
0% pricier
Groceries / mo
€240€230
4% cheaper
Eating out (meal)
€7€7
0% pricier
Internet (100mbps)
€25€12
52% cheaper
Avg salary (tech)
€1,400€1,600
14% higher
Coworking / mo
€110€110
0% pricier
Buenos AiresIstanbul
Rent€550€550
Groceries€240€230
Transport€15€25
Utilities€50€90

Salary you'd need to keep the same lifestyle

Enter your current net monthly pay. We scale it by the full cost basket — rent, groceries, transport, utilities, eating out and internet.

To live in Istanbul the way you live in Buenos Aires on €3,000, you need

€3,087/ month net

3% more than today (+€87)

Buenos Aires today
Basket €936 · left over €2,064 (69%)
Istanbul at the matched salary
Basket €963 · left over €2,124 (69%)

Local pay context: average tech net pay covers the basket 166% over in Istanbul (comfortable) vs 150% in Buenos Aires. Purchasing power index · How we calculate this

🇦🇷 Buenos Aires

Very cheap in hard currency, with prices that move week to week.

Monthly budget: €936

Sources: Eurostat, Harmonised price indices (2025) · 0 community reports

🇹🇷 Istanbul

Enormous, cheap in euro terms, but inflation reprices everything every few months.

Monthly budget: €963

Sources: Eurostat, Harmonised price indices (2025) · 0 community reports

Should you move to Buenos Aires or Istanbul?

On salary, Istanbul pays more for tech roles (€1,600 versus €1,400 a month), so the money left over after costs is €637 in Istanbul at the top end.

Rent drives most of the gap: €550 in Buenos Aires against €550 in Istanbul. Groceries, transport and utilities move far less between the two.

For remote workers, the nomad index scores Buenos Aires at 72 and Istanbul at 70 — see the full nomad index and our data methodology.

More Buenos Aires comparisons

More Istanbul comparisons