Instant cost-of-living & salary comparison for 44 cities — with state tax delta
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Save My Results →Most job offers list a salary number. Few people do the math that actually matters: how far does that number go in the new city? A $130,000 offer in San Francisco and a $90,000 offer in Austin are not as different as they appear. The San Francisco equivalent of an $80,000 Austin lifestyle costs roughly $109,000 before state taxes — and California adds another $7,800–$10,500 in state income tax on top of that. Texas has zero state income tax. The true gap between these two offers, once you factor in purchasing power and tax burden, can be $30,000 or more annually. This tool does that math in seconds using cost-of-living indices, grocery and housing sub-indices, and 2026 state income tax effective rates so you can make a genuinely informed decision.
Remote workers in particular are in a unique position: your employer's salary is set, but you get to choose which city's cost structure you live within. A software engineer earning $140,000 in Austin (COL index 71.1) has substantially more purchasing power than the same salary in San Francisco (COL index 97.0). The math: $140,000 buys you what $191,000 would need to cover in San Francisco. That $51,000 gap represents money that stays in your pocket — or can be invested, saved, or spent on experiences rather than rent.
Cost-of-living indices, like those published by Numbeo and used in this calculator, measure the relative price of a standard basket of goods and services compared to a reference city — here, New York City equals 100. A city with an index of 65 is about 35% less expensive than New York for that basket, meaning your dollar buys approximately 54% more (100 ÷ 65 ≈ 1.54). The basket includes groceries, restaurants, utilities, transportation, and local services. Housing (rent) is tracked as a separate sub-index because it varies far more dramatically between cities than other categories.
A city can have cheap groceries but expensive rent (San Diego), or cheap rent but mid-range everything else (Milwaukee). By showing sub-indices separately, this tool lets you see where the real difference lies for your specific spending pattern — heavy renters weight housing; families with kids weight groceries. The purchasing power index adds another layer: it reflects local wages relative to local prices. If you're a remote worker bringing an outside salary, you can largely ignore the purchasing power index and focus purely on the cost index.
The salary equivalence formula used here is straightforward: Equivalent Salary in City B = Your Salary × (COL Index B ÷ COL Index A). If you earn $80,000 in Austin (index 71.1) and want to maintain the same lifestyle in San Francisco (index 97.0), you need $80,000 × (97.0 ÷ 71.1) = approximately $109,100. State taxes add another layer: California's effective state income tax at that bracket is approximately 6–7%, while Texas has no state income tax, making the real break-even salary in San Francisco closer to $116,000–$117,000.
The 44 cities in this tool cover every major US metro and a handful of international comparison cities. All indices are Numbeo mid-2026 estimates, labeled as such. Tax rates are Tax Foundation 2026 data. Neither this tool nor its publishers provide tax, financial, or legal advice — always consult a qualified professional before making major relocation or compensation decisions.