Brisbane vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 11, 2026

	Brisbane	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$2269	$1126
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$5424	$3097
🏠 One person rent	$1398	$600
🏘️ Family rent	$2462	$1068
🍽️ Food expenses	$574	$293
🚐 Transport expenses	$151	$108
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$4258	$879
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	13 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	66	99
😀 Quality of life	98	75
🏙️ Population	2.71M	24.9M

The cost of living in Brisbane is 101% more expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 1349th and 4971st ($2269 vs $1126) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 11th and 5th in Australia and China, respectively. Check Australia vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.9 months in Brisbane compared to 0.8 months in Shanghai. Brisbane ranked 3rd best city to live in Australia vs Shanghai ranked 4th in China, while ranked 3rd and 1655th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Share this infographic!

Use the link below to embed the infographic from our site and automatically keep the data layer up to date.

If you prefer to download the image, please credit us as a source.

<img src="https://livingcost.org/assets/photo/cost/brisbane/shanghai.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Brisbane vs Shanghai infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/brisbane/shanghai" target="_blank">Brisbane vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Brisbane vs Shanghai

Prices for goods and services in Brisbane and Shanghai are partly crowdsourced by our visitors, just like yourself. Please consider telling us about your city.

	Brisbane	Shanghai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$15.5	$5.01
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$68.3	$36.1
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$11.8	$5.51
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$8.04	$1.69
☕ Cappuccino	$4.09	$3.77
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$2.89	$0.54
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1660	$803
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1147	$486
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$3002	$1462
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$2079	$880
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$94.2	$37.5
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$144	$58.6
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$54.2	$13
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	5.78%	3.34%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$7935	$14215
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$5145	$7113
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$0.36	$0.47
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$27.8	$30.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$19	$6.45
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.37	$1.15
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.56	$1.94
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$2.28	$1.8
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.94	$1.3
🥚 Eggs, x12	$4.95	$1.79
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.35	$16.2
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.06	$3.91
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$15.2	$11.6
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.73	$2.35
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.1	$1.74
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.11	$1.78
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.91	$1.76
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.66	$0.89
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.56	$1.04
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.99	$0.45
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$2.83	$1.27
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$14	$12.5
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$4.89	$0.92
🚬 Cigarette pack	$24.1	$3.46
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$7.94	$6.19
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.16	$6.91
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$3.47	$2.07
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$3.57	$2.21
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$48	$61.9
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$14	$7.84
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$61.1	$94.1
💇 Haircut, simple	$20.8	$12
👖 Brand Jeans	$81.5	$50.6
👟 Brand Sneakers	$112	$78.8
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$1949	$1114
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$12459	$27781

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Brisbane

Distance	City	Cost of living
31 km or 19 mi	Ipswich	$1813
45 km or 28 mi	Caboolture	$1988
66 km or 41 mi	Southport	$2352
71 km or 44 mi	Gold Coast	$2528
75 km or 47 mi	Caloundra	$1864
91 km or 57 mi	Sunshine Coast	$1835
107 km or 66 mi	Toowoomba	$1766
143 km or 89 mi	Byron Bay	$2703
243 km or 151 mi	Hervey Bay	$1864
299 km or 186 mi	Bundaberg	$1727
315 km or 196 mi	Coffs Harbour	$2172
362 km or 225 mi	Armidale	$1288
441 km or 274 mi	Gladstone	$1640
441 km or 274 mi	Port Macquarie	$1796
520 km or 323 mi	Rockhampton	$1635
618 km or 384 mi	Newcastle	$1997
682 km or 424 mi	Dubbo	$1867
719 km or 447 mi	Dee Why	$2379
722 km or 449 mi	Kellyville	$2050
730 km or 453 mi	Blacktown	$1710
732 km or 455 mi	Parramatta	$2482
733 km or 455 mi	Sydney	$2844
740 km or 460 mi	Bathurst	$1699
748 km or 465 mi	Orange	$1477
801 km or 498 mi	Wollongong	$1695
869 km or 540 mi	Goulburn	$1821
945 km or 587 mi	Canberra	$2223
1006 km or 625 mi	Wagga Wagga	$1583
1009 km or 627 mi	Griffith	$1824
1111 km or 690 mi	Townsville	$1839
1224 km or 761 mi	Shepparton	$1815
1278 km or 794 mi	Mildura	$1904
1320 km or 820 mi	Bendigo	$1487
1337 km or 831 mi	Traralgon	$1979
1367 km or 849 mi	Sunbury	$1928
1372 km or 853 mi	Pakenham	$1896
1375 km or 855 mi	Melbourne	$2496
1376 km or 855 mi	Berwick	$1860
1376 km or 855 mi	South Yarra	$1829
1377 km or 856 mi	Dandenong	$1894

Cities near Shanghai

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.8 mi	Pudong	$1002
47 km or 29 mi	Taicang	$669
53 km or 33 mi	Kunshan	$696
74 km or 46 mi	Qidong	$701
82 km or 51 mi	Suzhou	$782
82 km or 51 mi	Jiaxing	$594
85 km or 53 mi	Haimen	$620
88 km or 55 mi	Changshu	$644
106 km or 66 mi	Nantong	$557
117 km or 73 mi	Zhangjiagang	$667
121 km or 75 mi	Wuxi	$683
135 km or 84 mi	Huzhou	$643
141 km or 87 mi	Jiangyin	$650
142 km or 88 mi	Zhoushan	$584
144 km or 89 mi	Ningbo	$671
148 km or 92 mi	Jingjiang	$636
155 km or 96 mi	Shaoxing	$680
158 km or 98 mi	Yixing	$684
159 km or 99 mi	Changzhou	$623
160 km or 100 mi	Rugao	$646
161 km or 100 mi	Hangzhou	$860
177 km or 110 mi	Taixing	$636
179 km or 111 mi	Hai'an	$647
191 km or 119 mi	Liyang	$652
197 km or 122 mi	Yangzhong	$611
198 km or 123 mi	Guangde	$652
201 km or 125 mi	Danyang	$604
208 km or 129 mi	Taizhou	$675
217 km or 135 mi	Dongtai	$678
223 km or 139 mi	Zhenjiang	$525
235 km or 146 mi	Yangzhou	$618
236 km or 146 mi	Jurong	$626
244 km or 152 mi	Ningguo	$644
246 km or 153 mi	Yiwu	$667
250 km or 155 mi	Xinghua	$677
250 km or 156 mi	Yizheng	$601
259 km or 161 mi	Linhai	$661
260 km or 161 mi	Xuancheng	$665
262 km or 163 mi	Gaoyou	$632
274 km or 170 mi	Nanjing	$765