Cost of Living Guide

City comparison

Cost of living in Kraków vs Athens

One person needs about €1,260 a month in Kraków and €1,236 in Athens, rent included — Athens is 2% cheaper overall.

🇵🇱
Kraków
Poland · 800K pop
vs
🇬🇷
Athens
Greece · 3.1M pop
Monthly rent (1BR)
€780€700
10% cheaper
Groceries / mo
€250€250
0% pricier
Eating out (meal)
€9€12
33% pricier
Internet (100mbps)
€16€30
87% pricier
Avg salary (tech)
€2,800€1,700
39% lower
Coworking / mo
€120€120
0% pricier
KrakówAthens
Rent€780€700
Groceries€250€250
Transport€22€30
Utilities€120€130

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 Athens the way you live in Kraków on €3,000, you need

€2,943/ month net

2% less than today (-€57)

Kraków today
Basket €1,260 · left over €1,740 (58%)
Athens at the matched salary
Basket €1,236 · left over €1,707 (58%)

Local pay context: average tech net pay covers the basket 138% over in Athens (adequate) vs 222% in Kraków. Purchasing power index · How we calculate this

🇵🇱 Kraków

Warsaw salaries in a smaller, cheaper, prettier city.

Monthly budget: €1,260

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

🇬🇷 Athens

Cheapest euro-zone big city here, with the widest gap between local pay and expat pay.

Monthly budget: €1,236

Sources: ELSTAT + Eurostat, HICP & household budget survey (2025) · 164 community reports

Should you move to Kraków or Athens?

On salary, Kraków pays more for tech roles (€2,800 versus €1,700 a month), so the money left over after costs is €1,540 in Kraków at the top end.

Rent drives most of the gap: €780 in Kraków against €700 in Athens. Groceries, transport and utilities move far less between the two.

For remote workers, the nomad index scores Kraków at 81 and Athens at 71 — see the full nomad index and our data methodology.

More Kraków comparisons

More Athens comparisons