Chisinau vs San Jose, United States - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 02, 2025

	Chisinau	San Jose
🚶 Cost of living one person	$892	$3810
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$2204	$8485
🏠 One person rent	$505	$2688
🏘️ Family rent	$980	$4744
🍽️ Food expenses	$270	$759
🚐 Transport expenses	$36	$175
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$625	$6191
😷 Air quality	Moderate	Excellent
✈️ Airport proximity	10 km	8 km
🎓 Higher education	51	87
😀 Quality of life	57	92
🏙️ Population	639K	1.01M

The cost of living in Chisinau is 77% less expensive than in San Jose, United States. Cities ranked 6080th and 8th ($892 vs $3810) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 2nd and 6th in Moldova and the United States, respectively. Check Moldova vs the United States comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 0.7 months in Chisinau compared to 1.6 months in San Jose, United States. Chisinau ranked 1st best city to live in Moldova vs San Jose, United States ranked 11th in the United States, while ranked 5665th and 82nd among best cities to live in the world.

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Cost of living in Chisinau vs San Jose, United States infographic

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<img src="https://livingcost.org/assets/photo/cost/chisinau/san-jose-us.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Chisinau vs San Jose, United States infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/chisinau/san-jose-us" target="_blank">Chisinau vs San Jose, United States - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Chisinau vs San Jose, United States

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

	Chisinau	San Jose
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$8.05	$21
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$32.2	$100
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$6.98	$10.8
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.61	$8.92
☕ Cappuccino	$1.76	$5.89
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.92	$3.1
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$520	$2643
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$361	$2388
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1075	$5083
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$744	$4230
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$102	$179
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$159	$274
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$9.95	$69.8
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	9.4%	6.54%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1974	$9512
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1449	$9578
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$0.32	$2.48
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$12.5	$90.5
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$3.9	$18.5
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.26	$1.28
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.13	$1.33
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$0.51	$4.73
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.35	$3.45
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.4	$5.03
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.64	$19.1
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.97	$16.4
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$8.07	$19.9
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.76	$6.55
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.62	$2.32
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.55	$3.75
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.85	$6.42
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.69	$3.84
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.6	$3.44
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.53	$1.93
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.62	$2.38
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$5.2	$14.9
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.13	$2.24
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.96	$11.2
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$5.48	$10.5
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.74	$6.98
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$1.25	$7.05
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.87	$2.51
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$36.9	$129
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$7.04	$14.9
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$18	$149
💇 Haircut, simple	$3.91	$20.9
👖 Brand Jeans	$61.7	$48.6
👟 Brand Sneakers	$94.3	$77.6
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$356	$1805
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$6466	$25839

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

$349

$907

$6.64K

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Chisinau

Distance	City	Cost of living
37 km or 23 mi	Dubasari	$780
42 km or 26 mi	Orhei	$829
51 km or 32 mi	Bender	$502
61 km or 38 mi	Tiraspol	$517
80 km or 50 mi	Comrat	$782
83 km or 52 mi	Ungheni	$1062
95 km or 59 mi	Vaslui	$825
98 km or 61 mi	Iasi	$840
109 km or 68 mi	Balti	$876
126 km or 79 mi	Barlad	$725
132 km or 82 mi	Cahul	$812
135 km or 84 mi	Soroca	$863
146 km or 91 mi	Roman	$637
154 km or 96 mi	Odesa	$555
155 km or 96 mi	Bacau	$650
184 km or 115 mi	Botosani	$727
187 km or 116 mi	Galati	$786
189 km or 117 mi	Piatra Neamt	$676
194 km or 121 mi	Focsani	$752
202 km or 125 mi	Tulcea	$837
205 km or 127 mi	Braila	$741
209 km or 130 mi	Suceava	$709
238 km or 148 mi	Mykolaiv	$400
250 km or 155 mi	Vinnytsia	$562
259 km or 161 mi	Buzau	$729
261 km or 162 mi	Chernivtsi	$533
267 km or 166 mi	Sfantu Gheorghe	$680
288 km or 179 mi	Kherson	$433
292 km or 181 mi	Brasov	$938
295 km or 183 mi	Slobozia	$722
302 km or 187 mi	Khmelnytskyi	$483
305 km or 189 mi	Kropyvnytskyi	$513
307 km or 191 mi	Mamaia	$929
315 km or 196 mi	Constanta	$1002
317 km or 197 mi	Ploiesti	$796
324 km or 201 mi	Bila Tserkva	$454
331 km or 206 mi	Targu Mures	$758
332 km or 206 mi	Bistrita	$663
334 km or 207 mi	Calarasi	$696
348 km or 216 mi	Voluntari	$867

Cities near San Jose, United States

Distance	City	Cost of living
7.6 km or 4.7 mi	Campbell	$3362
9.7 km or 6.1 mi	Santa Clara	$3419
11 km or 6.8 mi	Los Gatos	$4167
13 km or 8.4 mi	Saratoga	$3287
15 km or 9.1 mi	Milpitas	$3131
15 km or 9.3 mi	Cupertino	$2828
16 km or 10 mi	Sunnyvale	$3448
18 km or 11 mi	Mountain View	$3295
21 km or 13 mi	Los Altos	$3159
27 km or 17 mi	Palo Alto	$3752
27 km or 17 mi	Morgan Hill	$3090
28 km or 18 mi	Fremont	$3187
29 km or 18 mi	Newark	$3060
29 km or 18 mi	East Palo Alto	$3286
32 km or 20 mi	Menlo Park	$3326
36 km or 22 mi	Union	$3002
38 km or 23 mi	Redwood	$3649
39 km or 24 mi	Santa Cruz	$3412
41 km or 25 mi	San Carlos	$3344
41 km or 25 mi	Pleasanton	$3448
42 km or 26 mi	Gilroy	$3006
43 km or 27 mi	Livermore	$3096
44 km or 27 mi	Watsonville	$3437
44 km or 27 mi	Belmont	$3657
44 km or 28 mi	Foster	$3466
45 km or 28 mi	Hayward	$2811
46 km or 28 mi	Dublin	$3059
47 km or 29 mi	San Lorenzo	$2747
48 km or 30 mi	San Mateo	$3678
48 km or 30 mi	Castro Valley	$3041
53 km or 33 mi	San Leandro	$2963
53 km or 33 mi	Burlingame	$3269
54 km or 33 mi	San Ramon	$3045
57 km or 36 mi	Millbrae	$3226
59 km or 36 mi	Danville	$3785
60 km or 38 mi	San Bruno	$3195
61 km or 38 mi	Alameda	$3364
62 km or 38 mi	Tracy	$2135
63 km or 39 mi	South San Francisco	$3185
64 km or 40 mi	Oakland	$2968