Sao Paulo vs Shenzhen - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 02, 2025

	Sao Paulo	Shenzhen
🚶 Cost of living one person	$976	$916
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$2532	$2694
🏠 One person rent	$462	$478
🏘️ Family rent	$837	$1142
🍽️ Food expenses	$279	$261
🚐 Transport expenses	$134	$85.2
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$581	$1771
😷 Air quality	Moderate	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	5 km	11 km
🎓 Higher education	95	96
😀 Quality of life	65	80
🏙️ Population	11.5M	17.7M

The cost of living in Sao Paulo is 7% more expensive than in Shenzhen. Cities ranked 5654th and 5950th ($976 vs $916) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 1st and 12th in Brazil and China, respectively. Check Brazil vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 0.6 months in Sao Paulo compared to 1.9 months in Shenzhen. Sao Paulo ranked 1st best city to live in Brazil vs Shenzhen ranked 3rd in China, while ranked 4281st and 545th among best cities to live in the world.

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the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in Sao Paulo vs Shenzhen infographic

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

Prices in Sao Paulo vs Shenzhen

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

	Sao Paulo	Shenzhen
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$6.51	$3.06
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$36.4	$27.6
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$6.68	$5.23
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.12	$1.11
☕ Cappuccino	$2.27	$3.03
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$1.15	$0.46
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$557	$667
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$360	$360
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1051	$1650
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$677	$917
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$43.1	$43.2
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$65.8	$65.5
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$18.9	$13.1
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.38%	4.36%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$2420	$12583
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1633	$6551
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$0.87	$0.41
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$44.7	$23.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$7.37	$4.51
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.02	$1.13
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1	$1.87
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.43	$1.89
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.14	$1.18
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.32	$1.89
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.78	$13
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.18	$4.43
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$7.95	$13.7
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.54	$1.9
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.75	$1.4
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.5	$1.73
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.7	$1.5
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.47	$1.08
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.29	$1.28
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.45	$0.4
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.84	$1.05
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$8.53	$12.1
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.22	$0.9
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.1	$3.79
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$4.69	$5.27
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$3.85	$6
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$1.44	$1.63
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.32	$1.91
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$25.5	$48.5
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$7.36	$6.86
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$62.6	$33.3
💇 Haircut, simple	$11.3	$9.6
👖 Brand Jeans	$51.9	$60.7
👟 Brand Sneakers	$78.9	$78
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$527	$502
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$14254	$22267

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

$349

$907

$6.64K

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Sao Paulo

Distance	City	Cost of living
12 km or 7.3 mi	Sao Caetano do Sul	$687
13 km or 8.3 mi	Taboao da Serra	$645
14 km or 8.6 mi	Guarulhos	$662
15 km or 9.4 mi	Diadema	$647
16 km or 9.7 mi	Santo Andre	$618
16 km or 10 mi	Osasco	$661
17 km or 11 mi	Sao Bernardo do Campo	$618
21 km or 13 mi	Carapicuiba	$563
22 km or 14 mi	Maua	$636
23 km or 15 mi	Caieiras	$628
25 km or 15 mi	Embu das Artes	$624
25 km or 16 mi	Barueri	$703
26 km or 16 mi	Mairipora	$622
26 km or 16 mi	Franco da Rocha	$635
27 km or 17 mi	Ferraz de Vasconcelos	$612
28 km or 17 mi	Jandira	$621
29 km or 18 mi	Ribeirao Pires	$613
29 km or 18 mi	Itapecerica da Serra	$626
30 km or 18 mi	Poa	$605
30 km or 18 mi	Cotia	$612
30 km or 19 mi	Itaquaquecetuba	$627
31 km or 19 mi	Itapevi	$600
31 km or 19 mi	Santana de Parnaiba	$624
32 km or 20 mi	Francisco Morato	$641
33 km or 20 mi	Itanhaem	$614
33 km or 20 mi	Cajamar	$628
36 km or 22 mi	Embu-Guacu	$619
36 km or 22 mi	Aruja	$615
41 km or 26 mi	Campo Limpo Paulista	$644
43 km or 26 mi	Varzea Paulista	$656
44 km or 27 mi	Cubatao	$603
45 km or 28 mi	Mogi das Cruzes	$663
48 km or 30 mi	Jundiai	$722
49 km or 30 mi	Atibaia	$568
51 km or 32 mi	Sao Roque	$615
52 km or 32 mi	Sao Vicente	$569
55 km or 34 mi	Santos	$732
56 km or 35 mi	Praia Grande	$607
61 km or 38 mi	Bertioga	$609
61 km or 38 mi	Ibiuna	$611

Cities near Shenzhen

Distance	City	Cost of living
28 km or 17 mi	Kowloon	$2432
30 km or 19 mi	Hong Kong	$2737
58 km or 36 mi	Zhuhai	$653
65 km or 40 mi	Dongguan	$656
66 km or 41 mi	Macau	$1588
72 km or 45 mi	Zhongshan	$461
74 km or 46 mi	Huizhou	$601
100 km or 62 mi	Jiangmen	$804
105 km or 65 mi	Guangzhou	$774
112 km or 69 mi	Foshan	$611
134 km or 83 mi	Shanwei	$936
142 km or 88 mi	Kaiping	$812
150 km or 93 mi	Heyuan	$764
164 km or 102 mi	Qingyuan	$794
174 km or 108 mi	Zhaoqing	$793
212 km or 131 mi	Yunfu	$823
228 km or 142 mi	Yangjiang	$877
233 km or 145 mi	Puning	$569
256 km or 159 mi	Shaoguan	$818
262 km or 163 mi	Jieyang	$443
286 km or 178 mi	Shantou	$581
288 km or 179 mi	Meizhou	$655
292 km or 182 mi	Chaozhou	$451
299 km or 186 mi	Wuzhou	$803
303 km or 188 mi	Lianzhou	$755
330 km or 205 mi	Hezhou	$758
337 km or 209 mi	Gaozhou	$761
337 km or 210 mi	Maoming	$756
377 km or 234 mi	Ganzhou	$761
378 km or 235 mi	Chenzhou	$724
401 km or 249 mi	Yulin	$771
405 km or 252 mi	Zhanjiang	$764
415 km or 258 mi	Longyan	$649
428 km or 266 mi	Zhangzhou	$664
460 km or 286 mi	Guigang	$702
464 km or 288 mi	Xiamen	$688
477 km or 297 mi	Haikou	$650
485 km or 301 mi	Kinmen	$823
489 km or 304 mi	Guilin	$522
502 km or 312 mi	Yongzhou	$609