San Jose, Costa Rica vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: October 10, 2024

	San Jose	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1239	$1136
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$3174	$3654
🏠 One person rent	$555	$602
🏘️ Family rent	$1038	$1527
🍽️ Food expenses	$479	$293
🚐 Transport expenses	$75	$116
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$923	$1905
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	7 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	60	100
😀 Quality of life	65	79
🏙️ Population	342K	24.9M

The cost of living in San Jose, Costa Rica is 9% more expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 4497th and 4780th ($1239 vs $1136) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 5th and 6th in Costa Rica and China, respectively. Check Costa Rica vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 0.7 months in San Jose, Costa Rica compared to 1.7 months in Shanghai. San Jose, Costa Rica ranked 1st best city to live in Costa Rica vs Shanghai ranked 4th in China, while ranked 4226th and 571st among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in San Jose, Costa Rica vs Shanghai 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/san-jose-cr/shanghai.jpg" alt="Cost of living in San Jose, Costa Rica vs Shanghai infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/san-jose-cr/shanghai" target="_blank">San Jose, Costa Rica vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in San Jose, Costa Rica vs Shanghai

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

	San Jose	Shanghai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$10.6	$3.99
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$49.2	$42.8
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$9.49	$5.51
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$3.03	$1.43
☕ Cappuccino	$4.75	$3.61
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$1.91	$0.53
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$645	$897
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$417	$461
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1229	$2549
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$842	$1181
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$47.5	$36.3
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$73.6	$56.1
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$44.7	$16.9
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.24%	4.28%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1929	$16156
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1540	$8893
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$0.94	$0.57
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$40.8	$36.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$15.2	$6.13
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.41	$1.19
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.93	$2.41
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$2.27	$1.99
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.93	$1.41
🥚 Eggs, x12	$3.34	$2.11
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$10.2	$15.8
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.11	$3.46
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$14	$11.4
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.89	$2.33
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.37	$1.64
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.47	$2.05
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.75	$1.7
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.6	$0.98
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.6	$1.07
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.68	$0.37
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$3.05	$1.32
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$16.5	$11.2
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.28	$0.86
🚬 Cigarette pack	$4.96	$3.51
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$8.1	$6.62
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$6.99	$7.04
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.75	$1.72
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$3.91	$2.03
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$55.9	$55
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$8.01	$8.47
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$66.7	$90.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$12.8	$11.9
👖 Brand Jeans	$70.6	$58.2
👟 Brand Sneakers	$119	$78.6
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$501	$1263
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$12846	$31401

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near San Jose, Costa Rica

Distance	City	Cost of living
7.9 km or 4.9 mi	Heredia	$1246
17 km or 11 mi	Alajuela	$1233
20 km or 12 mi	Cartago	$961
82 km or 51 mi	Puntarenas	$1277
115 km or 72 mi	Limon	$1201
124 km or 77 mi	Santa Teresa	$1310
167 km or 104 mi	Liberia	$898
197 km or 122 mi	Tamarindo	$1687
244 km or 151 mi	San Juan del Sur	$890
246 km or 153 mi	David	$833
279 km or 173 mi	Juigalpa	$664
302 km or 188 mi	Granada	$697
316 km or 196 mi	Masaya	$712
343 km or 213 mi	Managua	$774
387 km or 241 mi	Matagalpa	$550
398 km or 247 mi	Santiago de Veraguas	$1056
408 km or 253 mi	Jinotega	$457
413 km or 257 mi	Leon	$639
429 km or 266 mi	Esteli	$593
438 km or 272 mi	Penonome	$1098
447 km or 278 mi	Chinandega	$638
457 km or 284 mi	Chitre	$1091
463 km or 288 mi	Colon	$1182
486 km or 302 mi	La Chorrera	$953
508 km or 316 mi	Balboa	$1249
513 km or 319 mi	Panama City	$1384
524 km or 326 mi	Tocumen	$1231
535 km or 333 mi	Pacora	$1249
574 km or 357 mi	Tegucigalpa	$829
596 km or 370 mi	San Miguel	$1081
609 km or 378 mi	Usulutan	$1088
635 km or 395 mi	Comayagua	$715
666 km or 414 mi	Yoro	$734
696 km or 432 mi	San Salvador	$1192
697 km or 433 mi	Soyapango	$1173
701 km or 435 mi	Mejicanos	$1161
702 km or 436 mi	Apopa	$1145
703 km or 437 mi	Santa Tecla	$1202
713 km or 443 mi	La Ceiba	$650
729 km or 453 mi	El Progreso	$883

Cities near Shanghai

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.8 mi	Pudong	$1028
47 km or 29 mi	Taicang	$706
53 km or 33 mi	Kunshan	$749
74 km or 46 mi	Qidong	$738
82 km or 51 mi	Suzhou	$1020
82 km or 51 mi	Jiaxing	$585
85 km or 53 mi	Haimen	$661
88 km or 55 mi	Changshu	$718
106 km or 66 mi	Nantong	$620
117 km or 73 mi	Zhangjiagang	$676
121 km or 75 mi	Wuxi	$686
135 km or 84 mi	Huzhou	$706
141 km or 87 mi	Jiangyin	$685
142 km or 88 mi	Zhoushan	$612
144 km or 89 mi	Ningbo	$733
148 km or 92 mi	Jingjiang	$674
155 km or 96 mi	Shaoxing	$742
158 km or 98 mi	Yixing	$702
159 km or 99 mi	Changzhou	$729
160 km or 100 mi	Rugao	$674
161 km or 100 mi	Hangzhou	$843
177 km or 110 mi	Taixing	$665
179 km or 111 mi	Hai'an	$676
191 km or 119 mi	Liyang	$690
197 km or 122 mi	Yangzhong	$629
198 km or 123 mi	Guangde	$698
201 km or 125 mi	Danyang	$630
208 km or 129 mi	Taizhou	$673
217 km or 135 mi	Dongtai	$698
223 km or 139 mi	Zhenjiang	$538
235 km or 146 mi	Yangzhou	$650
236 km or 146 mi	Jurong	$651
244 km or 152 mi	Ningguo	$703
246 km or 153 mi	Yiwu	$708
250 km or 155 mi	Xinghua	$699
250 km or 156 mi	Yizheng	$617
259 km or 161 mi	Linhai	$702
260 km or 161 mi	Xuancheng	$771
262 km or 163 mi	Gaoyou	$648
274 km or 170 mi	Nanjing	$774