What does living in Medellín cost?

There are two ways to answer the question "what does it cost there" and both are useless.

The first is an internet average: Medellín for eleven hundred dollars a month. The second is an anecdote: a friend was there and had lunch for four dollars. The first number applies to nobody in particular, the second applies to one lunch.

This page tries something else. First the anchors, the numbers the whole country leans on and which change once a year. Then ranges by category from research, so you know what a normal price looks like and what a foreigner's price looks like. And finally my own receipts, which carry their own dates and sit below the text, because they are the only numbers I can vouch for.

The anchors everything is counted from

The minimum wage for 2026: 1,750,905 pesos a month. On top of it a transport allowance of 249,095 pesos, so somebody on the minimum ends up with exactly two million. Remember this, because in Colombia almost everything is counted in minimum wages: the income required for a visa, health contributions, the threshold for the transport allowance, fines.

A practical conversion: two million pesos is roughly five hundred dollars. Not as what most people earn, but as the floor an employer cannot go below.

The exchange rate. In the summer of 2026 it is around four thousand pesos to the dollar. The converter on this site uses the current rate, so you do not have to do the arithmetic on the numbers in the price records.

Metro fares from 10 January 2026: 3,820 pesos for an ordinary ride with a Cívica card, 4,400 without one, 3,330 for seniors, 1,600 for students. Transfers between metro, tram and cable car are included; the tourist cable car to Arví is charged separately.

How prices are written and spoken here

Before you start comparing, you need to know what is on the label.

A dot separates thousands, a comma is decimal. 1.750.905 is one million seven hundred fifty thousand, not one point seven. Miss that and you are out by three orders of magnitude.

People speak in thousands. "Veinte mil" means twenty thousand pesos, and in ordinary speech it gets shortened to "veinte". If somebody tells you it costs twenty, they mean twenty thousand.

Tax is included. The standard rate is nineteen per cent and the shelf price already contains it. Restaurants charge an eight per cent consumption tax instead, so what is on the menu is what you pay, not a fifth more.

Coins under fifty pesos are not used and prices are routinely rounded to fifty or a hundred. Nobody owes you twenty pesos and nobody asks you for them.

Housing, the item that decides

Rent is the only thing where the difference between neighbourhoods is measured in multiples rather than percentages. Ranges as of summer 2026, per month, unfurnished against furnished:

• El Poblado: an unfurnished one bedroom roughly 3.5 to 5 million pesos, furnished 4.5 to 7 million and up.
• Laureles: unfurnished 2.2 to 3 million, furnished 3.5 to 5.5 million.
• Envigado, Sabaneta, Belén: usually below the Laureles line, with two bedroom flats commonly at 2 to 3 million.

In dollars: a furnished studio in Laureles runs around nine hundred to fourteen hundred a month, the same thing in El Poblado easily half as much again.

And now what the listing does not say.

Administración, the building fee. In an ordinary building a few hundred thousand pesos, in a tower in El Poblado with a pool, a reception desk and security easily 600,000 to 800,000 a month. It is a separate item on top of the rent.

Utilities. An ordinary flat 150,000 to 300,000 pesos a month, and with internet and gas together more like 350,000 to 600,000. And mind the estrato: for the same consumption an address in estrato 6 pays a surcharge that subsidises estratos 1 to 3. The details are in the Medellín guide.

The first months cost more than the rest of the year will. A long term contract normally wants a local co-signer or rent insurance, which a foreigner does not have on arrival, so you start in a short term rental at twice the price. It is not a scam, it is the normal state of things and worth planning for.

Deposits are illegal, and you will still pay something

This surprises everyone arriving from Europe: a cash deposit on a residential lease is prohibited in Colombia. The urban housing tenancy act, Ley 820 of 2003, forbids it, and it is not a formality you can agree your way around.

What the law does allow instead:

• rent insurance, a póliza paid by the tenant, covering the landlord against non-payment,
• a co-signer (codeudor or fiador), usually a Colombian with property and income,
• a guarantee for utility bills, but only up to the value of those utilities, no more.

That is why nobody asks you for three months up front and everybody asks for a co-signer, which a foreigner does not have on arrival. Hence the short term rental for the first months and its higher price.

One more thing from the same law: rent may be raised at most once every twelve months, and by no more than the previous year's inflation. If a letter arrives mid year announcing twenty per cent, you are entitled to ask on what basis.

Food: two economies side by side

Medellín has two price levels and both of them are real.

The menú del día is a three course lunch: soup, a main with meat, rice, plantain, salad and a juice. In a local place it costs roughly 15,000 to 25,000 pesos, and in cheaper neighbourhoods you will find it under fifteen. For four to six dollars you eat well enough not to be hungry until the evening.

A place aimed at foreigners is another league. A main course in a café in El Poblado is commonly 30,000 to 45,000 pesos, a coffee 8,000 to 15,000, a beer 8,000 to 18,000, a glass of wine over 25,000, because wine is imported.

Groceries: fruit and vegetables at the market are absurdly cheap, imported goods are dearer than at home. Cheese, cured meat, olive oil, cereal and anything with a foreign label costs more than you expect. Cook what grows here and you save; cook the way you cooked at home and you pay.

Transport

• Metro and cable cars: 3,820 pesos a ride, about a dollar, transfers included.
• Uber or DiDi across town: commonly 10,000 to 30,000 pesos depending on distance and time of day.
• Intercity bus: Medellín to the towns within two hours usually 15,000 to 30,000 pesos.
• A domestic flight: booked ahead it can be cheaper than a taxi to the airport; booked the day before it costs a multiple.

You do not need a car in the city, and not having one saves you parking, petrol and temper.

Phone, internet and work

A Claro plan with unlimited data cost me 53,900 pesos a month, about thirteen dollars, but I only got it because a local signed for me. Without that you are on prepaid, which for my use, a hotspot for the laptop, comes out noticeably more expensive.

Home internet is usually part of the utility bill and in an ordinary flat it is not an item worth arguing about.

A coworking space is either a monthly fee or nothing at all, because half the cafés in Laureles and El Poblado do the job for the price of a coffee.

Health

Here you choose between three things and the difference shows up when something goes wrong.

• EPS, the public system. Self employed people contribute 12.5 per cent of a declared base, and the base cannot be lower than the minimum wage. In practice that means about 219,000 pesos a month in 2026 as the floor.
• Prepagada, private cover on top of EPS. Younger people pay roughly 200,000 to 400,000 pesos a month, rising steeply past fifty. You buy it so you do not wait months for a specialist.
• Travel insurance from home. Simplest for stays of a few months and often required for a visa. It does not cover long term care, it covers an accident.

A private doctor's appointment without insurance is commonly around 150,000 pesos. Medicines are cheap compared to Europe and more things are available over the counter, which is convenient right up to the point where you start treating something a doctor should see.

The services nobody counts and everybody pays for

A barber, laundry, cleaning, repairs, Spanish lessons, the gym. Small amounts that together make the difference between a budget that works and one that does not.

This is exactly the part I keep adding to the price records, with the date and the place. The numbers below the text come from receipts, not from estimates, and they age more slowly than a sentence in an article, because they are corrected in one place.

What the one off purchases cost

This is where Colombia and Europe diverge most.

Electronics are expensive. Phones, laptops, headphones: almost all of it is imported and the duty and tax show up in the price. If you are coming for a long stay, bring your kit with you.

Furniture and household goods are the opposite, cheap if you buy local. Furnishing an empty flat comes out considerably better than paying the furnished premium, though it only makes sense from about six months of staying.

Things made here cost little. Tailoring, repairs, alterations, the cobbler. Medellín was a textile city and it still shows in what a repair costs.

Glasses, accessories, brands. I logged a pair of sunglasses from a local brand at 199,000 pesos, about fifty dollars. Not the cheapest option, and exactly the kind of expense that disappears in an average and does not disappear from a budget.

Three monthly budgets

These are models, not my own spending. One person in Medellín, flights and visa excluded:

Frugal: a flat in Belén or Envigado, cooking at home, the metro. Rent with utilities around 2.5 million, food 900,000, transport 150,000, phone 55,000, health 220,000, other 300,000. Roughly 4.1 million pesos, about a thousand dollars a month.

Normal: a furnished flat in Laureles, lunch out, the occasional Uber. Rent with utilities and the building fee around 4.5 million, food 1.5 million, transport 400,000, phone 55,000, health 500,000, other 800,000. Roughly 7.8 million pesos, about two thousand dollars.

Comfortable: El Poblado, restaurants, taxis, prepagada. Rent with everything around 7 million, food 2.5 million, transport 700,000, phone 100,000, health 700,000, other 1.5 million. Roughly 12.5 million pesos, about three thousand dollars.

The gap between the first column and the third is threefold, and it is the same city.

Four ways to lose money

Paying by card in your own currency. When the terminal or the cash machine asks whether you want to pay in euros or dollars, say no. The rate is set at that moment by the party asking, and it is not set in your favour. Always pay in pesos.

Withdrawing from a cash machine in the street. Fees differ by bank and you only see them on the screen. Withdraw inside a bank or in a shopping centre, take larger amounts at once, and check what the machine charges before you confirm.

The foreigner's price. Not a rule, but it exists: at markets, in taxis without a meter, and for services with no price on display. The best defence is knowing the normal price and asking before, not after.

Tipping. Restaurants commonly add a voluntary ten per cent propina. It is voluntary and they are supposed to ask, not to add it silently. If it is on the bill and you do not want to pay it, say so; it is normal and nobody takes offence.

How to work out your own budget rather than somebody else's

Averages lie, because the average person does not live here. What works:

1. Write down everything for thirty days, including the eight thousand peso coffee. Without it you are estimating, and an estimate always comes out lower than reality.
2. Split it into three piles: housing, food, everything else. For most people housing is half of it and the rest is the part you can actually influence.
3. Multiply the rent by 1.3. The building fee, electricity, water and internet come to roughly that much on top.
4. Add a reserve for one flight home. Not because you will take it, but because if something happens you do not want to be doing this arithmetic.

How to read the numbers in this guide

The anchors at the top come from public sources and carry a year. The ranges for rent and food come from research and mean "this is what it looks like", not "this is what it is". The numbers below the text come from my receipts, carry a date and a place, and keep coming.

If you want to know what it really costs, look at those. The rest is orientation.