Cost of living in Shanghai 2026
Typical rent, prices and the overall cost index for Shanghai, with quick comparisons to other cities.
Cost index (base New York = 100)
60.1
40% cheaper than New York
ShanghaiUSD
1-bed apartment, centre 6,400 CNY $883
1-bed apartment, outside centre 3,950 CNY $545
3-bed apartment, centre 16,400 CNY $2,263
Room in shared flat 3,000 CNY $414
Buy price per m2 95,950 CNY $13,241
Living cost excl. rent 4,200 CNY $580
Typical net salary 11,400 CNY $1,573
Compare Shanghai with
- Shanghai vs Amsterdam
- Shanghai vs Austin
- Shanghai vs Basel
- Shanghai vs Beijing
- Shanghai vs Bengaluru
- Shanghai vs Berlin
- Shanghai vs Birmingham
- Shanghai vs Chattogram
- Shanghai vs Copenhagen
- Shanghai vs Delhi
- Shanghai vs Dhaka
- Shanghai vs Dubai
- Shanghai vs Dublin
- Shanghai vs Edinburgh
- Shanghai vs Geneva
- Shanghai vs Hong Kong
- Shanghai vs Islamabad
- Shanghai vs Karachi
- Shanghai vs Krakow
- Shanghai vs Lahore
- Shanghai vs Lisbon
- Shanghai vs London
- Shanghai vs Lyon
- Shanghai vs Madrid
- Shanghai vs Manchester
- Shanghai vs Mumbai
- Shanghai vs Munich
- Shanghai vs New York
- Shanghai vs Nice
- Shanghai vs Oslo
- Shanghai vs Paris
- Shanghai vs Prague
- Shanghai vs San Francisco
- Shanghai vs Shenzhen
- Shanghai vs Singapore
- Shanghai vs Stockholm
- Shanghai vs Vienna
- Shanghai vs Warsaw
- Shanghai vs Zurich
How we calculate and where the data comes from
Educational model, not financial, tax or relocation advice. Figures are estimates for 2026 and are rounded to ranges, never exact values. Our cost index is built from open data and adapted by CrawlJobs (aggregated and reweighted); it is not endorsed by the sources.
Sources: Eurostat (free reuse, Commission Decision 2011/833/EU), World Bank Open Data ICP (CC-BY-4.0), US BEA / HUD / Census (public domain), GeoNames (CC-BY-4.0). Source and product names are used for attribution only; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.