Cost of Living Guide

City comparison

Cost of living in Lisbon vs Porto

One person needs about €1,874 a month in Lisbon and €1,526 in Porto, rent included — Porto is 19% cheaper overall.

🇵🇹
Lisbon
Portugal · 545K pop
vs
🇵🇹
Porto
Portugal · 230K pop
Monthly rent (1BR)
€1,300€1,000
23% cheaper
Groceries / mo
€290€270
7% cheaper
Eating out (meal)
€13€11
15% cheaper
Internet (100mbps)
€35€33
6% cheaper
Avg salary (tech)
€2,400€2,100
13% lower
Coworking / mo
€180€150
17% cheaper
LisbonPorto
Rent€1,300€1,000
Groceries€290€270
Transport€40€40
Utilities€105€95

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

€2,443/ month net

19% less than today (-€557)

Lisbon today
Basket €1,874 · left over €1,126 (38%)
Porto at the matched salary
Basket €1,526 · left over €917 (38%)

Local pay context: average tech net pay covers the basket 138% over in Porto (adequate) vs 128% in Lisbon. Purchasing power index · How we calculate this

🇵🇹 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

🇵🇹 Porto

Lisbon's cheaper twin: same coast, same fibre, noticeably lower rent.

Monthly budget: €1,526

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

Should you move to Lisbon or Porto?

On salary, Lisbon pays more for tech roles (€2,400 versus €2,100 a month), so the money left over after costs is €574 in Porto at the top end.

Rent drives most of the gap: €1,300 in Lisbon against €1,000 in Porto. Groceries, transport and utilities move far less between the two.

For remote workers, the nomad index scores Lisbon at 83 and Porto at 82 — see the full nomad index and our data methodology.

More Lisbon comparisons

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