Cape Town vs Chennai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 01, 2024

	Cape Town	Chennai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$881	$434
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$2144	$1151
🏠 One person rent	$484	$161
🏘️ Family rent	$966	$376
🍽️ Food expenses	$259	$167
🚐 Transport expenses	$56.2	$67.9
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$1518	$864
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	7 km	16 km
🎓 Higher education	55	78
😀 Quality of life	60	68
🏙️ Population	434K	10.3M

The cost of living in Cape Town is 103% more expensive than in Chennai. Cities ranked 6078th and 8842nd ($881 vs $434) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 3rd and 19th in South Africa and India, respectively. Check South Africa vs India comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.7 months in Cape Town compared to 2 months in Chennai. Cape Town ranked 3rd best city to live in South Africa vs Chennai ranked 2nd in India, while ranked 5406th and 3676th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in Cape Town vs Chennai infographic

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/cape-town/chennai.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Cape Town vs Chennai infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/cape-town/chennai" target="_blank">Cape Town vs Chennai - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Cape Town vs Chennai

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

	Cape Town	Chennai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$7.47	$2.09
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$31.2	$9.54
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$4.87	$4.21
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.04	$2.14
☕ Cappuccino	$1.94	$1.8
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.86	$0.47
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$536	$183
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$353	$106
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1202	$505
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$749	$274
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$56.2	$30.2
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$87	$45.9
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$39.2	$9.3
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.61%	9.38%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1890	$1913
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1307	$882
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.04	$0.48
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$34.8	$12.6
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$7.17	$3.54
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.22	$1.26
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1	$0.67
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$0.92	$0.55
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.38	$0.73
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.39	$0.92
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$7.96	$7.88
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.26	$3.28
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.2	$5.66
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.4	$2.56
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.46	$0.9
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.39	$1.5
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.39	$0.57
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.36	$0.48
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.31	$0.47
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.58	$0.23
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.3	$1.09
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$4.51	$6.16
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.14	$2.08
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.62	$4.08
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$4.8	$2.31
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$2.76	$2.91
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.22	$2.46
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.36	$0.72
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$31.3	$15.8
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$5.42	$3.02
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$32.9	$12.1
💇 Haircut, simple	$10.3	$2.58
👖 Brand Jeans	$42.7	$25.5
👟 Brand Sneakers	$81.4	$42.5
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$172	$85.5
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$4013	$1681

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Cape Town

Distance	City	Cost of living
54 km or 33 mi	Paarl	$773
99 km or 62 mi	Worcester	$632
371 km or 231 mi	George	$684
644 km or 400 mi	Uitenhage	$805
662 km or 411 mi	Port Elizabeth	$866
664 km or 413 mi	Upington	$643
754 km or 468 mi	Makhanda	$704
821 km or 510 mi	Komani	$703
833 km or 518 mi	Kimberley	$753
845 km or 525 mi	Bhisho	$710
882 km or 548 mi	East London	$683
912 km or 567 mi	Bloemfontein	$601
950 km or 590 mi	Mafeteng	$511
999 km or 621 mi	Maseru	$535
1002 km or 622 mi	Mthatha	$689
1029 km or 639 mi	Teyateyaneng	$511
1030 km or 640 mi	Welkom	$682
1034 km or 643 mi	Mariental	$765
1092 km or 679 mi	Butha-Buthe	$511
1092 km or 679 mi	Kroonstad	$701
1113 km or 692 mi	Klerksdorp	$621
1135 km or 705 mi	Mmabatho	$719
1155 km or 718 mi	Potchefstroom	$625
1187 km or 737 mi	Rehoboth	$738
1194 km or 742 mi	Lobatse	$631
1198 km or 745 mi	Kanye	$633
1208 km or 751 mi	Vanderbijlpark	$698
1217 km or 756 mi	Vereeniging	$637
1231 km or 765 mi	Pietermaritzburg	$609
1244 km or 773 mi	Soweto	$875
1250 km or 777 mi	Rustenburg	$845
1260 km or 783 mi	Gaborone	$656
1261 km or 783 mi	Molepolole	$603
1261 km or 784 mi	Johannesburg	$908
1267 km or 788 mi	Randburg	$776
1269 km or 789 mi	Windhoek	$807
1270 km or 789 mi	Sandton	$889
1271 km or 790 mi	Durban	$780
1277 km or 794 mi	Gobabis	$751
1279 km or 795 mi	Walvis Bay	$718

Cities near Chennai

Distance	City	Cost of living
111 km or 69 mi	Tirupati	$337
124 km or 77 mi	Vellore	$269
125 km or 78 mi	Chittoor	$415
138 km or 85 mi	Pondicherry	$339
153 km or 95 mi	Nellore	$343
159 km or 99 mi	Cuddalore	$326
198 km or 123 mi	Madanapalle	$367
219 km or 136 mi	Kadapa	$356
260 km or 162 mi	Proddatur	$350
269 km or 167 mi	Ongole	$326
279 km or 173 mi	Salem	$328
282 km or 175 mi	Thanjavur	$357
290 km or 180 mi	Bangalore	$585
304 km or 189 mi	Chirala	$316
305 km or 189 mi	Tiruchirappalli	$320
312 km or 194 mi	Hindupur	$359
328 km or 204 mi	Nandyal	$337
338 km or 210 mi	Anantapur	$383
339 km or 211 mi	Erode	$319
344 km or 214 mi	Tumkur	$399
353 km or 219 mi	Tenali	$312
354 km or 220 mi	Machilipatnam	$317
357 km or 222 mi	Guntur	$287
361 km or 224 mi	Tiruppur	$327
383 km or 238 mi	Vijayawada	$345
388 km or 241 mi	Kurnool	$350
396 km or 246 mi	Dindigul	$341
402 km or 250 mi	Mysore	$321
411 km or 256 mi	Eluru	$334
423 km or 263 mi	Madurai	$309
428 km or 266 mi	Coimbatore	$358
428 km or 266 mi	Adoni	$350
453 km or 282 mi	Nalgonda	$309
462 km or 287 mi	Rajahmundry	$384
463 km or 288 mi	Khammam	$310
474 km or 294 mi	Mahbubnagar	$375
476 km or 296 mi	Kakinada	$353
482 km or 300 mi	Hospet	$358
494 km or 307 mi	Davanagere	$369
509 km or 317 mi	Malappuram	$325