Home / Cost of living: Portugal vs the US
Cost of living: Portugal vs the US
Day to day, living in Portugal costs roughly a third less than living in the US. Numbeo's crowdsourced index puts Portugal's consumer prices including rent 33.1 percent below the US, with rent alone 37.4 percent lower. Lisbon and Porto narrow that gap: compared with Austin, Texas, Porto runs about 30 percent lower including rent and Lisbon about 20 percent lower. These are averages built from user reports, so treat them as estimates and price your own household line by line.
Reviewed and current as of 2026-10-04.
The national picture
From Numbeo's United States vs Portugal comparison (prices in US dollars):
| United States | Portugal | |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer prices excluding rent | baseline | 31.3% lower |
| Consumer prices including rent | baseline | 33.1% lower |
| Rent | baseline | 37.4% lower |
| One-bedroom, city centre, monthly | $1,644.76 | $1,030.31 |
| One-bedroom, outside centre, monthly | $1,337.43 | $812.30 |
| Meal at an inexpensive restaurant | $20.00 | $13.51 |
| Basic utilities, 85 square metres, monthly | $217.44 | $136.23 |
Source: Numbeo, "Cost of living comparison between United States and Portugal", crowdsourced.
The two cities most Americans actually move to
Compared with Austin, Texas (Numbeo):
| Porto | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer prices excluding rent | 27.4% lower | 21.3% lower |
| Consumer prices including rent | 29.8% lower | 20.4% lower |
| Rent | 34.3% lower | 18.7% lower |
| One-bedroom, city centre, monthly | $1,298.31 (1,153 euros) | $1,604.12 (1,425 euros) |
Austin's city-centre one-bedroom on the same pages: $1,924.00.
Numbeo's equivalence figure for Porto: about $4,702 a month in Porto matches the standard of living $6,700 buys in Austin.
Sources: Numbeo, Austin vs Porto; Numbeo, Austin vs Lisbon.
What the averages leave out
Lisbon is not Portugal. The capital's rent gap against a US city is much smaller than the national average suggests. Price the city you will actually live in.
Your tax picture moves your real cost more than groceries do. Once you are Portuguese tax resident, Portugal taxes worldwide income at progressive rates from 12.5 to 48 percent for 2026, and the old NHR break is closed to new arrivals. The US keeps taxing you as a citizen too, with credits and exclusions to prevent paying twice. See "US taxes when you live abroad."
Source: Portal das Financas, IRS Code article 68, "Taxas gerais".
Health insurance is a line item before it is a saving. Portugal's visa process asks for health insurance, and public SNS access follows residency. Budget private cover for the bridge.
Source: Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa portal, residence visa documents.
The exchange rate is part of your cost of living. Every euro figure above is a dollar figure on a given day. When and how you convert changes what the move costs you, which is why staged conversion belongs in your plan.
One-off costs are not in any index. Visa fees, apostilles, translations, deposits, furnishing and shipping sit outside a monthly comparison. Plan them separately.
The honest part
A cost-of-living index answers "is it cheaper on average." The question that matters for a move is "what will my household spend, in my city, with my tax position, at the rate I convert at." The averages are a starting point, not a budget.
Take Root Abroad builds that all-in budget for your actual move, with every figure sourced and dated and a clear flag where we are estimating rather than confirming. Compare Portugal with the other countries at takerootabroad.com/compare, or read the full Portugal picture at takerootabroad.com/move-to-portugal-from-usa.
Compare the countries that fit how you live
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