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Cost of Living Breakdown In Frankfurt, Germany: Updated 2024

Having lived in Frankfurt, Germany for a few months, I’ve absolutely loved it. The city has way to offer than most people say and for anyone thinking of moving to Frankfurt, forget the haters and give it a chance. This post talks about the cost of living with living in Hesse’s biggest city and what to expect from a monthly budget. For starters, Frankfurt is not a cheap place. It is the second most expensive city in Germany after Munich and definitely one of the most expensive places to live in the EU after London and northern Europe. Of course, this all depends on how much you earn so it can feel cheap or feel very expensive accordingly.euro cash I moved from New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the world. After spending six months in Frankfurt, it is clear that it comes nowhere close to the costs associated with living in the Big Apple. Similarly, anyone moving from London will also find Frankfurt to be quite a bargain in comparison. Note that I will update this post from time to time as I become more familiar with living in Germany! If you’re moving to Germany, make sure to read my other posts detailing my ex-pat life in the country. For those planning or thinking of moving to Frankfurt, make sure to also read why I absolutely love living in the financial capital of Germany! This post is also a part of my guide to living in Frankfurt, Germany where I list out all the things you need to know as an expat in Frankfurt and Germany. Update 2022/2023: With the post pandemic economy and the war in Ukraine, Germany and the rest of the EU are experiencing inflation that hasn’t been seen for 40+ years. Inflation in Germany is at an astronomical, emerging market style 10%. Therefore, the costs of the categories on this post have all increased by at least 15-20%.

Cost of living will increase faster in Frankfurt


As Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany, it has enjoyed quite a robust economy over the years. After the UK announced it wanted to leave the European Union, many banks and other companies announced they were moving their post Brexit operations to Frankfurt. This means the cost of living has increased and will likely increase faster than the rest of Germany going forward. Keep this in mind when planning a move to this city long term. Salaries are generally lower in Frankfurt and Germany as a whole in comparison to the other Financial hubs of the world. However, Germany enjoys a fantastic healthcare system, free education, and an array of other social benefits that offset the costs you’d have to bear in other countries (like America).  Nevertheless, as you’ll read in this post, the costs in Frankfurt are generally quite low in comparison to other financial hubs. That’s why I will say this straight up: Frankfurt has the best income to expense ratio in the entire European Union. Yes I said it. Feel free to debate me  on this matter!

Taxation in Germany

Taxes in Germany are one of the highest in the world. The first €9,169 (or €18,338 for married couples submitting a combined return) earned each year is tax free. Any amount after that is subject to income tax. Income tax in Germany is progressive: first, income tax rates start at 14%, then they rise incrementally to 42%; last, very high income levels are taxed at 45%. The top tax rate of 42% applies to taxable income above €55,961. Finally, for taxable income above €265,327, a 45% tax is applicable. These rates go down significantly if you’re married and a single earner. You would move from Tax Class I to Tax class III which significantly reduces your tax obligations.
income tax calculation germany pre tax and post tax
How much you can expect to take home after taxes if you’re earning €100,000 a year
However, in this tax rate is income tax and social contributions. This means contributions to your state pension, health insurance, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance. I’m only familiar with South African and the United States and most of these things are paid as separate items in addition to the income taxes paid. In reality, the pure income tax portion of the German tax code is not as high as it appears. For example, if you’re earning €100,000 a year (which is an incredible salary in Germany), you are only really paying 30% in pure taxes. If you’re an expat and don’t plan on staying in Germany for longer than 5 years, the pension insurance line item can be refunded back to you when you leave Germany. So if you’re making €100,000 a year, that €7,477 paid into your pension will be refunded to you per year. So for me, I don’t even consider this as a tax but rather a forced savings account.

Inflation in Germany

Compared to living in South Africa, the inflation rate in Germany is much lower than most of the world. Inflation is somewhere between 1% and 2% over the past decade and will likely not increase more than this. Of course, living in the big cities like Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne etc. you can expect inflation to be higher just because the cost of rent always increases. I don’t worry about inflation in Germany like I would living in a developed country. Also, interest rates are 0% so don’t expect to receive any money from your bank accounts here.
German inflation chart
A little trend of German inflation
And now, onto the actual costs of living in Frankfurt! Keep in mind that the following figures for cost of living is for one person. If you are a couple, it should be just shy of double the price. I am living with a significant other in my apartment but for simplicity sake, I am focusing on describing costs for one person as I am fully aware of how much I spend. Also, this post largely focuses on my fixed costs per month. Of course if I’m taking a trip to Malta for the weekend, these are variable costs that I do not include in this analysis.

Rent Costs In Frankfurt – €950


Without a doubt, rent will make up the majority of your monthly expenses. Just like every major city in the world. everyone in Frankfurt complains about the rising costs of rent. It’s not super cheap to live here. If you are looking for a 1 bedroom apartment in the city center, you’re looking at €1,000 a month or more (this does not include electricity either). Competition for these types of units are extremely high as there’s a housing shortage. If you’re looking for 2 bedrooms, then you’ll need to spend roughly €1,500-2,000. In general, I think apartments in the Frankfurt city center neighborhoods average about €15-€20 per square meter and progressively cheaper as you get further away from the Innenstadt. To better understand Frankfurt’s neighborhoods, make sure to read my Frankfurt neighborhood guide.
My new beautiful Altbau apartment building in Frankfurt!
My new beautiful Altbau apartment building in Frankfurt!
We are paying about €1900 a month for an amazing two  bedroom Altbau and this is the “warm” rent which is inclusive of utilities including electricity in our case. Normally, I’ve found that the warm rent does not include electricity but for us, it does. I am living with my significant other so we were able to get a very nice apartment and split the costs down the middle. Coming from New York, rent in Frankfurt is actually quite a bargain. The apartments are actually much nicer too for what you get and the price is half or even one third the price of living in Manhattan. For me, the rent is not as big of a burden in relation to your salary as in other major cities.
A street of all Altbau's in Sachsenhausen
A street of all Altbau’s in Sachsenhausen
If you’re looking for furnished apartments, the choices are slimmer in Frankfurt than other big financial cities as most apartments are rented unfurnished. However, the apartments do exist and you can expect to pay 10-20% more on average. Note that many apartments in Germany don’t include a furnished kitchen, washer/dryer units, or built in closets. Yes, you’ll need to bring your own fridge, sink, dishwasher etc! This means depending on the apartment you get, you’ll be looking at more upfront costs to buy appliances you’d normally expect to be included in the apartment. Alternatively, if you’re one person, you can elect to live in a WG or a flat share with roommates and you can find some very nice apartments for €600 or less. I’ve come to learn that while Germany is a capitalist country through and through, the degree of capitalism compared to the United States is mild at best. As far as rent goes, landlords here do not try and milk every last Euro from their tenants. Rent increases are generally quite mild and landlords can’t just raise it to whatever they want. As of 2023, I would assume that the cost of an Altbau like this would be closer to €3,000 on the open market. Nevertheless, you can still find great apartments that are not as regal and large as my apartment for under €2,000.

Car and Car Insurance – €0


A lot of people wonder if a car is necessary in Germany. I will say it here loud and clear. If you’re living and working in Frankfurt City, and do not have family you need to visit regularly in Germany, there is no reason to own a car in Frankfurt. The public transportation is absolutely fantastic and will get you anywhere reliably and fast. Frankfurt is also a tiny city and a bike is really all you’ll need to get where you want to go. Any Germans reading this and disagree with me, please move to New York City for a few years and get back to me!
Cochem castle germany rhine mosel region
The only reason to get a car is if you regularly plan on taking road trips out of the city to beautiful places like Cochem in this picture. But then again, the trains in Germany are fantastic.
Cars in any country are a black hole for saving money and if you don’t need it, then don’t get one. The only reason to own a car in Frankfurt is if you’re getting a car allowance from your company (which is very common in Germany), and they don’t let you use that allowance for anything besides a car. I will vehemently argue that there is no need for a car in this city because where would you even take the car within the city? Parking is a nightmare and people like to drink here so you’ll just be driving while intoxicated half the time. Save yourself the €500/mo on a car in Frankfurt. If you really need one for a weekend trip? Just rent one from the Hauptbahnhof Avis/Budget/Enterprise etc. However, if you are adamant about getting a car in Frankfurt, make sure to read my guide about car insurance and converting your drivers license.

Transportation in Frankfurt – €40


Public transportation is absolutely fantastic in Frankfurt. I’ve really enjoyed taking the U-Bahn, S-Bahn, and Trams in this city. It is reliable, clean, and comfortable. The S-Bahn to the airport is especially a treat and perhaps one of my favorite things about Frankfurt (the airport is 15 minutes away). However, my current apartment is only about 25 minutes walking to my work so while I could take the U-Bahn 3 stops, I choose to bike or walk to work.
ubahn frankfurt germany trains
The U-Bahn Trains
I currently pay €15 a month for bike-sharing with Wind Byke. It is not always the most reliable but gets me largely where I want to go. Then I will add another €25 or so for my S-Bahn costs when I go to the airport for about €40 a month. If you are living somewhere where you’ll need to take the U-Bahn or tram regularly, it is roughly €90 a month for an unlimited pass.
Wind Bikes in Frankfurt
Wind Bikes in Frankfurt
Update 08/2019: I’ve since switched out my Windbyke membership for a bike with Swapfiets. They are a monthly bike subscription service where you get your own personal bike to use as you please. The bikes are much better than Wind or DB Call-a-bike in my opinion and the price is about the same as wind (€17.50 a month). Therefore, my transportation costs still stay the same as before.
swapfiets deluxe 7 germany bikes
Two deluxe 7 swapfiets bikes with our own baskets.

Gym – €60 per month


I need to have a good gym wherever I am living. Frankfurt thankfully has a plethora of high quality and affordable gym options. I’ve written in detail about the gyms/fitness club options in Frankfurt and in the end, I ended up choosing Fit Seven Eleven. I pay €50 a month and another €60 a year for maintenance fees (which is questionable but it is common in Germany). The €50 is my corporate discount and it is €80 normally.
White Label Fit Seven Eleven Frankfurt
White Label Fit Seven Eleven Frankfurt
There are many other gym options in Frankfurt including Fitness First, Primetime, and Elements that are even nicer but costs a tad more.

Mobile Service – €25 per month


In addition to home internet, cell phones are very affordable in Germany. The four main providers are Telekom, Vodafone, O2, and 1und1 and each offer plans in different price ranges. Telekom is the most comprehensive and most expensive with O2 normally being the cheapest. There are also lots of contractors that advertise service under their name but they just subcontract spectrum on one of the main providers.
Cellular plans from Vodafone Germany
Cellular plans from Vodafone
There are countless choices but generally, you can expect to pay about €20-30 a month for unlimited or near unlimited data. If you are able to live your life on largely wifi without using much data, I’ve seen 3GB data packages with unlimited calling/texts for under €10. However, in this day and age, I can hardly keep my usage below 10gb a month! Note that there is are MANY different options for cellular service plans in Germany. The amount of vendors can be overwhelming actually. Depending on what your data habits are, I’d look to spend no more than €50 a month if you’re going for unlimited data plans.

Electricity – €80


Electricity is normally not included as part of the warm rent (Gesamtmiete) in Germany from my experience. You need to register with a provider yourself and pay the monthly bill. However, the apartment I’m renting just happens to have everything included in the Nebenkosten (extra costs, or the difference between the warm rent and cold rent). Electricity of course varies wildly depending on your usage but I think something like €0.5-€1 is a reasonable amount to budget for costs per month.

Wifi/TV – €50


I have not had a cable subscription since 2012 because I find it pointless in today’s age of HBO, Netflix, Amazon Video etc. Also, living in Germany what the hell would I even watch on German cable television? I couldn’t understand anything. So knowing that, I only subscribe to an internet plan. Internet is quite cheap in Germany. You can get unlimited 100 mbps plans from 1und1, Vodafone, Telekom etc. for about €30 or so.
1 Und 1 home internet offering
1 Und 1 home internet offering (without contract option).
There is also a separate fee that every household in Germany must pay if you are planning on having any sort of cable TV or internet subscription called the Rundfunkbeitrag. I’m not sure what or why it exists but it is the rule. This is €18 per household every month. There is no getting around it. If you want internet, you need to pay this on top of whatever the internet costs.

Food/Entertainment – €1,000


This is definitely the largest expense after rent. I’m not a fan of cooking because there’s just not enough time in the day and grocery stores are completely closed on Sundays in Germany! I largely pick food up and enjoy eating out. Eating out in Frankfurt is quite affordable given what the salaries are. There are loads of restaurants serving all different types of food at all price ranges.
Having an amazing drink at Oosten with views of Frankfurt
Having an amazing drink at Oosten with views of Frankfurt
I will admit this number is quite high, especially for German standards. People would be shocked if I told them how much I spend on eating out but I guess it is just something I’m okay with because I just can’t be bothered cooking every day. Food and alcohol prices are very reasonable in Frankfurt with respect to salaries and other costs. Alcohol especially is affordable at restaurants. A glass of beer is €3-4 and a glass of house wine is €4-5. Food prices are also quite reasonable and you can expect to pay €10-20 for a main dish at a solid restaurant. More casual places without waiter service like one of the hundred Thai/Vietnamese restaurants in the city, you can expect to pay under €10 for delicious food. There are many grocery stores in Frankfurt with the biggest being Rewe and Aldi. Prices are pretty normal I think although I’ve not done much grocery shopping. Most German’s probably spend considerably less than the €1,000-1,250 that I spend on food and entertainment by buying groceries so you could probably half my number if necessary.

Adding It All Up – Frankfurt Cost of living


Rent and Electricity: €950 Car: €0 Gym: €60 Internet: €50 / 2 = €25 Cellphone: €25 Transportation” €40 Food/Entertainment: €1,000 – €1,250
= €2,100 – €2,350 per month for all regular expenses Obviously there are just random things every month you end up paying for but this about sums up the must pay expenses of my life in Germany so far. So what happens to the rest of the money? Life in Germany is pretty good. Costs are reasonable and all the social benefits you need in life are provided as part of your taxes. I have lots of plans to travel the country which is where all my savings will go. The only thing I could ask for is better weather!

What do things cost?


What do most things cost here? Well it’s entirely dependent on where you are and which type of establishments you frequent in Frankfurt. However, here is a very rough idea of what costs you can expect to have in the city. This list is updated as of 2023/2024 to account for the rise in global inflation!
    • Local German Beer: €4-6
    • Glass of Wine: €5-7
    • Shot of non top shelf liquor: €5-6
    • 300g Fillet at steakhouse: €35
    • Pad Thai at a non upscale Thai restaurant: €10-12
    • Schnitzel at a German restaurant: €15-20
    • Cinema Ticket: €14
    • Taxi ride from Airport to the city center: €25

8 Comments

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  1. I’ve been reading this article and I can say it is totally wrong, almost all of it. As someone who live in Frankfurt for 9 years already, it is becoming unaffordable to live here.

    The numbers presented: Rent and Electricity: €950 Car: €0 Gym: €60 Internet: €50 / 2 = €25 Cellphone: €25 Transportation” €40 Food/Entertainment: €1,000 – €1,250 are shown lower up to 50% in some cases. Rent for me is 2 000 EUR for 3 room apartment in Bockenheim, electricity is 100 EUR per month, 180 EUR (Danke Mainova) as of 1.1.2023 and so on.

    From the text: Frankfurt has the best income to expense ratio in the entire European Union. Yes I said it. Feel free to debate me on this matter! – I’ll debate yo on this one, no issue whatsoever.

    • If you read the section on rent, I specifically said my rent was 2k a month but split it with my partner so it’s 1k per person. 2 bedroom apartments (3 rooms) are between 1,500 to 2,000 is exactly what I wrote. Yes electricity has increased a lot but that’s due to idiosyncratic issues that this post doesn’t cover since it was written in 2019. I still think Frankfurt has the best salary to expense ratio. Propose some other cities in the EU?

      I was in Paris and my friends made less for a mid level professional services role but had higher rents and going out costs. Amsterdam is the same with lower salaries and higher expenses. Madrid has way lower salaries and rent isn’t that cheap either. Zurich is the only better value for money imo but that is not EU.

  2. Hello
    I have job offer from frankfurt, in hand salary will be around 2600-2800 euro/month. i dont go to gym, club pub,on wine, i want to live a comfortable life with my wife (without kid). is that possible to to survive in 2021?

  3. I have been reading your blog about Frankfurt.
    I am living now in Bangkok, and have 2 job offers: one in Shenzen and another in Frankfurt. Of course, Shenzen the salary is HIGHER, but Frankfurt (I think) has more quality of life. (Maybe I am wrong…)

    Which do you think would be a good salary to live comfortable (not with luxuries, but also saving a little ) in Frankfurt. I usually don\’t go to pubs or restaurants, but I would like an apartment around 50 m2 in an acceptable part of the city…
    Now they are offering me 2800 euros net a month.

    What would you reccomend?

    Thanks a lot in advance!

    Daniel

    • Hi Daniel, how many people are you? If it’s just 1, then i think 2800 euros a month will be sufficient for Frankfurt! You can find a decent apartment in Bockenheim or a little further out for under 1000 euros easily. If you look hard enough, can probbaly find something that is 700 or so. I don’t know anything aobut life in Shenzhen but it is probably more expensive than Frankfurt, and I’m quite a fan of the lifestyle here! Hope that helps!

  4. Thank you for this detailed information, I am willing to move to Germany and I found this is really helpful.

    However, I didn’t expect the costs to be that high, especially If you’re planning to move with your family which is my case ( wife and two years old son)
    Giving that the average net salary is roughly €2,500/month.
    And being the only working member of the family ( at least the first year in my case )… It’s not that great of a deal.

    • Hi Noory, yes this post is only for Frankfurt city center. This is also the 2nd most expensive area of Germany so of course you can’t compare it to the average net salary because Frankfurt’s average net salary is probably at least 25-30% higher than average. Also, if I was the sole earner and had kids, i’d probably not be living in Frankfurt city center even with my salary. It’s all relative!