Cost of Living Guide

City comparison

Cost of living in Kraków vs Lisbon

One person needs about €1,260 a month in Kraków and €1,874 in Lisbon, rent included — Kraków is 49% cheaper overall.

🇵🇱
Kraków
Poland · 800K pop
vs
🇵🇹
Lisbon
Portugal · 545K pop
Monthly rent (1BR)
€780€1,300
67% pricier
Groceries / mo
€250€290
16% pricier
Eating out (meal)
€9€13
44% pricier
Internet (100mbps)
€16€35
119% pricier
Avg salary (tech)
€2,800€2,400
14% lower
Coworking / mo
€120€180
50% pricier
KrakówLisbon
Rent€780€1,300
Groceries€250€290
Transport€22€40
Utilities€120€105

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

€4,462/ month net

49% more than today (+€1,462)

Kraków today
Basket €1,260 · left over €1,740 (58%)
Lisbon at the matched salary
Basket €1,874 · left over €2,588 (58%)

Local pay context: average tech net pay covers the basket 128% over in Lisbon (tight) 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

🇵🇹 Lisbon

Visa-friendly and well connected, but local salaries lag far behind expat-driven rents.

Monthly budget: €1,874

Sources: Statistics Portugal (INE) + Eurostat, HICP & house-rent statistics (2025) · 331 community reports

Should you move to Kraków or Lisbon?

On salary, Kraków pays more for tech roles (€2,800 versus €2,400 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 €1,300 in Lisbon. Groceries, transport and utilities move far less between the two.

For remote workers, the nomad index scores Kraków at 81 and Lisbon at 83 — see the full nomad index and our data methodology.

More Kraków comparisons

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