Buenos Aires vs Sao Paulo - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: July 09, 2025

	Buenos Aires	Sao Paulo
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1227	$1044
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$3001	$2655
🏠 One person rent	$529	$498
🏘️ Family rent	$901	$864
🍽️ Food expenses	$485	$296
🚐 Transport expenses	$90.7	$142
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$736	$708
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	5 km	5 km
🎓 Higher education	79	95
😀 Quality of life	76	68
🏙️ Population	3.12M	11.5M

The cost of living in Buenos Aires is 18% more expensive than in Sao Paulo. Cities ranked 4692nd and 5549th ($1227 vs $1044) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 1st and 1st in Argentina and Brazil, respectively. Check Argentina vs Brazil comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 0.6 months in Buenos Aires compared to 0.7 months in Sao Paulo. Buenos Aires ranked 1st best city to live in Argentina vs Sao Paulo ranked 1st in Brazil, while ranked 1080th and 4052nd among best cities to live in the world.

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Cost of living in Buenos Aires vs Sao Paulo infographic

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<img src="https://livingcost.org/assets/photo/cost/buenos-aires/sao-paulo.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Buenos Aires vs Sao Paulo infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/buenos-aires/sao-paulo" target="_blank">Buenos Aires vs Sao Paulo - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Buenos Aires vs Sao Paulo

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

	Buenos Aires	Sao Paulo
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$15	$6.97
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$60.1	$35.7
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$12.1	$7.15
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$3.63	$2.25
☕ Cappuccino	$3.99	$2.49
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$2.19	$1.24
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$585	$628
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$391	$382
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1058	$1161
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$694	$674
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$69.7	$47.4
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$106	$73
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$28.9	$19.2
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	36.36%	11.73%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$2664	$2604
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1963	$1855
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$0.69	$0.91
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$16.1	$48.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$9.26	$7.47
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.14	$1.11
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.54	$1.06
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$2.64	$1.53
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.25	$1.19
🥚 Eggs, x12	$3.33	$2.54
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$12.1	$11.5
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$7.99	$4.46
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.58	$9.08
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.42	$2.67
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.03	$1.88
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.23	$1.65
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.68	$1.81
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.4	$1.4
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.42	$1.28
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.97	$0.48
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$3.08	$1.92
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$5.97	$8.45
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.14	$1.3
🚬 Cigarette pack	$3.5	$2.49
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$15.1	$5.53
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$6.01	$4.17
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$3.48	$1.37
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$3.04	$1.37
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$42.5	$27.5
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$8.98	$7.75
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$30	$70.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$10.4	$10.3
👖 Brand Jeans	$113	$52.8
👟 Brand Sneakers	$123	$86.8
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$334	$499
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$5511	$15571

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Buenos Aires

Distance	City	Cost of living
11 km or 6.9 mi	Villa Dominico	$783
11 km or 7 mi	Lanus	$850
13 km or 7.9 mi	Wilde	$733
13 km or 8.1 mi	Remedios de Escalada	$842
14 km or 8.7 mi	Caseros	$961
14 km or 8.8 mi	Florida Este	$881
14 km or 8.9 mi	Ciudad Madero	$955
14 km or 8.9 mi	Bernal	$661
15 km or 9.4 mi	Monte Chingolo	$816
15 km or 9.6 mi	Lomas del Mirador	$986
17 km or 10 mi	La Tablada	$992
17 km or 10 mi	Quilmes	$609
18 km or 11 mi	Ramos Mejia	$986
18 km or 11 mi	San Justo	$1029
19 km or 12 mi	El Palomar	$975
19 km or 12 mi	Temperley	$876
19 km or 12 mi	Lomas de Zamora	$905
19 km or 12 mi	San Isidro	$858
19 km or 12 mi	Ciudad Evita	$949
19 km or 12 mi	San Francisco Solano	$777
20 km or 12 mi	Villa Luzuriaga	$985
20 km or 13 mi	Rafael Calzada	$866
22 km or 13 mi	Isidro Casanova	$981
22 km or 13 mi	Ezpeleta	$680
22 km or 14 mi	Moron	$1025
24 km or 15 mi	San Fernando de la Buena Vista	$832
24 km or 15 mi	Florencio Varela	$864
24 km or 15 mi	Burzaco	$853
24 km or 15 mi	Berazategui	$729
25 km or 15 mi	Gregorio de Laferrere	$950
25 km or 16 mi	Rafael Castillo	$958
25 km or 16 mi	Monte Grande	$880
29 km or 18 mi	Ezeiza	$889
29 km or 18 mi	Longchamps	$851
29 km or 18 mi	Libertad	$953
31 km or 19 mi	Gonzalez Catan	$935
32 km or 20 mi	Glew	$844
32 km or 20 mi	Merlo	$950
36 km or 23 mi	Jose C. Paz	$915
37 km or 23 mi	Virrey del Pino	$902

Cities near Sao Paulo

Distance	City	Cost of living
12 km or 7.3 mi	Sao Caetano do Sul	$730
13 km or 8.3 mi	Taboao da Serra	$688
14 km or 8.6 mi	Guarulhos	$696
15 km or 9.4 mi	Diadema	$708
16 km or 9.7 mi	Santo Andre	$649
16 km or 10 mi	Osasco	$703
17 km or 11 mi	Sao Bernardo do Campo	$715
21 km or 13 mi	Carapicuiba	$595
22 km or 14 mi	Maua	$681
23 km or 15 mi	Caieiras	$678
25 km or 15 mi	Embu das Artes	$668
25 km or 16 mi	Barueri	$748
26 km or 16 mi	Mairipora	$665
26 km or 16 mi	Franco da Rocha	$686
27 km or 17 mi	Ferraz de Vasconcelos	$647
28 km or 17 mi	Jandira	$665
29 km or 18 mi	Ribeirao Pires	$661
29 km or 18 mi	Itapecerica da Serra	$672
30 km or 18 mi	Poa	$642
30 km or 18 mi	Cotia	$656
30 km or 19 mi	Itaquaquecetuba	$672
31 km or 19 mi	Itapevi	$641
31 km or 19 mi	Santana de Parnaiba	$672
32 km or 20 mi	Francisco Morato	$688
33 km or 20 mi	Itanhaem	$664
33 km or 20 mi	Cajamar	$718
36 km or 22 mi	Embu-Guacu	$667
36 km or 22 mi	Aruja	$661
41 km or 26 mi	Campo Limpo Paulista	$690
43 km or 26 mi	Varzea Paulista	$698
44 km or 27 mi	Cubatao	$648
45 km or 28 mi	Mogi das Cruzes	$742
48 km or 30 mi	Jundiai	$761
49 km or 30 mi	Atibaia	$621
51 km or 32 mi	Sao Roque	$660
52 km or 32 mi	Sao Vicente	$645
55 km or 34 mi	Santos	$805
56 km or 35 mi	Praia Grande	$641
61 km or 38 mi	Bertioga	$655
61 km or 38 mi	Ibiuna	$655