Tools & Calculators
Free, no-sign-up tools that let you work directly with plaincost's data.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis's latest Regional Price Parity data, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA carries an RPP of 115.6, the highest of any metro on record, against Monroe, LA's 83.6, the lowest — a 1.38× gap in purchasing power. Both calculators below apply this same BEA index to whichever pair of metros you enter; see our methodology for the exact formula.
- Relocate Estimate what salary you need when relocating between US metro areas, calculated from live BEA Regional Price Parity data. Open Relocate →
- Remote Salary Calculate what your salary is worth working remotely from a different metro than your employer, using the same purchasing-power math as our metro pages. Open Remote Salary →
Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Both calculators run the same purchasing-power formula used throughout the site, applied live to whichever metros you choose. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.