Cost of Living & Equivalent Salary Calculator

A ₹15 LPA offer in Mumbai and a ₹15 LPA offer in Bangalore are not the same offer. Rent alone can easily differ by ₹15,000–25,000/month between comparable neighbourhoods in different metros, and that gap compounds with higher grocery, transport, and general living costs in more expensive cities. Comparing headline CTC numbers without adjusting for this is one of the most common mistakes when evaluating a relocation offer.

The right comparison isn't salary vs salary — it's disposable income vs disposable income: what's actually left over each month after rent and essential expenses, in each city. A higher salary that's fully absorbed by higher rent isn't actually a raise in real terms.

This calculator asks for your own numbers rather than using citywide averages, because averages hide enormous variation — a 1BHK in a Bangalore tech corridor can cost 2-3x the same size flat in an outer suburb, and the same is true in every Indian metro. Use numbers specific to the neighbourhood you'd actually consider living in for an accurate comparison.

Once you know the equivalent salary you'd need, use it as your anchor number when negotiating a relocation offer — not the number your current employer pays you, and not a naive city-average adjustment.

A quick sanity check for your rent budget: a widely used rule of thumb is to keep rent around 30% of take-home pay, stretching to 40% for a prime location or larger home. In practice this tends to land around 30-40% of take-home in a metro city, and 15-25% in a tier-2 city, since rent is lower there relative to typical salaries. If your rent estimate for the new city is pushing well past 40% of the salary you're being offered, that's a signal to negotiate harder or reconsider the location.