Cost of Living Guide

City comparison

Cost of living in Kraków vs Barcelona

One person needs about €1,260 a month in Kraków and €2,105 in Barcelona, rent included — Kraków is 67% cheaper overall.

🇵🇱
Kraków
Poland · 800K pop
vs
🇪🇸
Barcelona
Spain · 1.6M pop
Monthly rent (1BR)
€780€1,450
86% pricier
Groceries / mo
€250€320
28% pricier
Eating out (meal)
€9€14
56% pricier
Internet (100mbps)
€16€38
137% pricier
Avg salary (tech)
€2,800€2,800
0% higher
Coworking / mo
€120€200
67% pricier
KrakówBarcelona
Rent€780€1,450
Groceries€250€320
Transport€22€75
Utilities€120€110

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

€5,012/ month net

67% more than today (+€2,012)

Kraków today
Basket €1,260 · left over €1,740 (58%)
Barcelona at the matched salary
Basket €2,105 · left over €2,907 (58%)

Local pay context: average tech net pay covers the basket 133% over in Barcelona (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

🇪🇸 Barcelona

Beach-and-metro city with the deepest startup scene in southern Europe — and rents that now reflect it.

Monthly budget: €2,105

Sources: INE Spain + Eurostat, HICP & Encuesta de arrendamientos (2025) · 412 community reports

Should you move to Kraków or Barcelona?

On salary, Kraków pays more for tech roles (€2,800 versus €2,800 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 €1,450 in Barcelona. Groceries, transport and utilities move far less between the two.

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

More Kraków comparisons

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