Cost of living in Chile

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The cost of living in Chile is significantly higher than neighboring countries such as Peru or Bolivia, making it one of the more expensive countries in South America. However, for North Americans and Europeans, Chile remains quite affordable while offering excellent quality of life.

If you plan to move to Chile, make sure you have a sufficient budget because the cost of living approaches that of some Western countries, especially in Santiago. The average salary in Chile is approximately 950 USD (2025), but expats typically need higher budgets for comfortable living.

We provide below a comprehensive overview of the cost of living in Chile, using Santiago as a reference. If you live in a provincial city, you can reduce your budget by 20-30%, especially on housing costs.

Housing in Chile

Purchase price in Santiago de Chile

The average price per sqm in Chile's capital, Santiago, is 2,650 USD (2025). Prices range from 1,800 USD to 3,500+ USD depending on the neighborhood, property condition, and market timing. Prime areas like Las Condes and Vitacura command premium prices.

To simplify the calculation of real estate prices, Chileans use a unit of account, the UF (see here for more information). The prices of houses and apartments for sale are often expressed in UF. It is likewise for some properties to rent, especially the most upscale ones.

Rental prices in Santiago de Chile (2025)

Budget Options:

• Furnished room in shared apartment: $280,000 - $400,000 CLP, utilities included
• Studio apartment in residential areas: $350,000 - $500,000 CLP

Mid-range Options:

• 1-bedroom apartment in Providencia/Ñuñoa: $500,000 - $750,000 CLP
• 2-bedroom apartment in good neighborhoods: $700,000 - $1,200,000 CLP

Premium Options:

• Furnished 2-bedroom apartment in Vitacura/Las Condes: $1,300,000 - $2,200,000 CLP
• Unfurnished house in premium areas: $1,800,000 - $4,000,000 CLP

For more information on rental price, we recommend you to read our articles about each area).

Transport

If you want to buy a car in Chile or rent a car in Chile, you can check our dedicated articles, where prices and procedures are indicated. In Chile, the price of gasoline is approximately 1.55 USD per liter (2025).

If you use public transport in Santiago, you must first  buy a metro pass, which is called tarjeta BIP and costs about 2.25 USD. Then, you can reload it with the amount you want. A round-trip by metro costs around 2.25 USD, depending on the time of day. For more information, you can have a look at our article about public transports.

Food

Supermarkets offer both local and imported products. The Jumbo chain has the widest range of choices but also the highest prices. In other supermarkets (Lider, Unimarc...), prices are a little lower, except for imported products. On the other hand, if you buy fresh products in the market place, prices will be much lower: you can buy cheap fruits and vegetables at La Vega, Santiago's most important market.

Below is a table which lists some products and their prices, to get a better idea of ​​the prices of some basic products in Chile:

Bars / restaurants

The price of a pint in a bar in Santiago is about USD 3.4. A coffee on a terrace costs around USD 3. As far as restaurants are concerned, the price range is very large: from the affordable traditional Tip y Tap restaurant, with no less than 10 locals in Santiago, and whose specialty is the crudo, a sort of beef tartare on bread, accompanied by lemon juice, herbs and mayonnaise; to Karai, the first Chilean restaurant of Mitsuharu 'Micha' Tsumura, the Maido's chef in Peru, 8th best restaurant in the world in 2017 and 1st in Latin America.

Health in Chile

In Chile, the health system is usually private. If you work in Chile with a local contract, you must subscribe to a health system: about 7% of your gross monthly income will be allocated to your health system.

A home medical check-up costs about $ 50,000 (USD 75).

For more information, see this article about health in Chile.

Sport

Santiago offers many ways to do sports, whether for free or not. As for free sport, the Chilean government has launched the CicloRecreoVía: every Sunday from 9am to 2pm in Santiago, several roads are closed to traffic and reserved for sports and recreational activities. Cars give way to walkers, runners and cyclists. As for the paid sports clubs, Santiago has many private sports clubs whose membership fees and annual fees are very variable. For instance, Los Leones Golf Club is the most select and expensive private club in Santiago (tens of thousands of dollars just for the entrance fee).

If you are budget-wise, you should know that most municipalities in Santiago offer workshops, for both adults and children, at discounted rates. Among the activities available are craft (pottery, mosaic...), dance, sports (volleyball, pilates, taekwondo...), personal development activities (memory stimulation, cognitive exercises...), game workshops, cooking, languages, gardening, music, drawing classes... To give you an idea of all the activities, you can discover the workshops offered by the Municipality of Las Condes here.

Hobbies

The price of cinema ticket is is about USD 7.50 in Santiago. In addition, cinema chains have discount agreements with many companies. For example, readers of the newspapers Mercurio and La Tercera, or subscribers of the telephone operator Entel, have discounts at CineMark.

Many museums in the capital are free or very cheap.

Travel / vacation

As far as the holidays are concerned, make sure you have a fairly large budget if you are traveling with an agency in very touristy places such as Patagonia or the Atacama desert.

In terms of accommodation, you will have the choice in Chile! But you can easily find local hotels for less than USD 30 a night, breakfast included, and also high-end options above USD 300 a night.

Given the country's geography, the most convenient ways to get around are bus and plane. The bus network is very developed and it is the most used means of transport by Chileans. The average cost of the bus is USD 30 for 1000km so it is rather advantageous!

As for planes, you can buy tickets at reduced prices during Black Friday.

Renting a car costs around USD 56 per day (USD 34 for a city car, USD 80 for a 4x4), to which you add USD 15 of gasoline for 100km.

For more information on how to get around Chile, you can read this article.

Example of a monthly budget in Santiago, Chile

To get a better idea of ​​the standard monthly budget in Santiago, here is a summary table:

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