Cost of Living Comparison (Canadian Cities)

What the cost of living calculator does

The calculator tells you the gross salary you would need in another Canadian city to end the year with the same money left over as today. Pick your current city and your destination, enter your salary and what you pay for housing in each place, and the tool rebuilds your budget on the other side of the move.

Moving between Canadian cities changes four things at once. Housing is the obvious one. Provincial income tax can also differ by thousands of dollars a year, combined sales tax ranges from 5% to 15%, and municipal property tax rates differ by a factor of about five between the cheapest and most expensive cities on this list.

How the comparison is built

The tool first computes your after-tax income today: federal and provincial tax with the basic personal amounts and payroll credits, CPP or QPP up to both earnings ceilings, EI up to maximum insurable earnings, QPIP in Quebec, and the Ontario Health Premium and Ontario surtax in Ontario. Quebec residents also get the abatement that reduces basic federal tax.

From that it subtracts your annual housing cost, everyday spending and property tax, if you entered a home value. What remains is your discretionary income, the money for savings, travel and everything that is not a fixed bill. The calculator holds that number constant.

It then rebuilds the same budget in the destination city. Housing uses the figure you entered for the new place. Everyday spending is converted to its pre-tax value at your current combined sales tax rate and repriced at the destination rate. Property tax uses the destination city’s own rate on the same home value.

Finally it solves for the gross salary in the new province whose after-tax value covers the new budget plus your unchanged discretionary income.

A worked example

With the default inputs, someone earning $95,000 in Toronto who pays $2,600 a month for housing and $1,800 a month on other spending, moving to Calgary where housing would cost $1,900, needs about $80,071 to keep the same discretionary income, about $14,929 (15.7%) less. Housing saves $8,400 a year and lower sales tax about $1,529. Income tax on the same $95,000 changes by only about $293 a year, so almost all of the difference comes from housing and sales tax.

What the outputs tell you

The required salary is the headline, and the change from your current salary is the number to take into a negotiation. If the tool says you need $80,000 where you earn $95,000, an offer only has to beat $80,000 for you to come out ahead in cash terms.

The tax change on the same income isolates the effect of income tax alone: how much more or less you would take home in the new province at the same salary. As the example shows, that is often smaller than people expect between some provinces, while moves into or out of Quebec can change it by thousands.

The money left over on the same salary does the same for the whole budget, showing whether a move at identical pay leaves you better or worse off.

If you plan to buy, read the property tax lines separately. On an $800,000 home, the gap between Vancouver’s rate and Fredericton’s is larger than many people’s annual holiday budget, and it repeats every year you own.

What it cannot do

The model holds your lifestyle fixed in money terms. It does not know that a car becomes necessary in one city and pointless in another, that child care costs much less in Quebec than in Ontario, or that a shorter commute is worth real money. Those belong in the housing and spending fields, so research the destination and enter realistic figures rather than your current ones.

It uses one home value for both cities so the property tax line isolates the difference in rates. If you would buy a much cheaper or more expensive home after the move, adjust the housing input and treat the property tax comparison as indicative.

Provincial premiums outside the income tax system, land transfer tax on a purchase and employer payroll levies are not included, and neither is the one-off cost of the move, which for an interprovincial relocation is rarely small and is sometimes deductible.

Using it well

Run the comparison with the housing cost you hope to find and again with the cost you would accept if the search went badly. The gap between those two required salaries is the real risk in the move, and it is usually wider than the tax difference.

Then check the destination’s job market for your role. A cheaper city only helps if jobs there actually pay the salary the calculator asks for.

If you are moving for two jobs, run the comparison once for each salary and add the required figures. Because the tax system is progressive, two mid-sized salaries are taxed very differently from one large one.

Timing matters too. Your province of residence on December 31 taxes your whole year’s income, not the province where you earned it, so a move in November can change the tax on the entire year.

Treat the first year in the new city as a test of the budget. Utilities, insurance, transit passes and vehicle costs all change with the destination, and a year of real receipts tells you more than any comparison.

All figures are estimates based on published federal, provincial and municipal rates for the current year and the details you enter. They are not tax or financial advice. Confirm local rates and your own tax position before committing to a move.

About This Tool: Cost of Living Canada

Cost of living Canada: use this tool to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official CRA guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.