Table of Contents
Quick Answer: What a Month in Lithuania Costs
Three worked budgets for one person in Vilnius, priced from the calculator below rather than asserted. Vilnius is the most expensive of the three cities; Kaunas and Klaipėda run roughly 15–20% below it.
Lean
Comfortable
Generous
Why every figure here is labelled
Lithuania publishes no current cost-of-living statistics. The State Data Agency's household budget survey last reported 2021 figures and the next is due in September 2027. So instead of blending everything into one authoritative-looking number, each row below is tagged with the grade of source behind it: Official for a regulator, municipality or statute, Provider for a company's own price list, and Numbeo for Numbeo, which is crowd-sourced and unaudited. Rent, heating, water, electricity, transport, kindergarten fees and child benefit are all official. Restaurant and leisure prices are not, and the label says so where they appear.
The Calculator
Set your household, city and lifestyle. Every option shows what it costs before you pick it, so the total is something you can take apart rather than something you have to trust.
Monthly cost estimate
Single person in Vilnius, city centre
Where these numbers come from. Rent, heating, water, electricity, transport passes, kindergarten fees, child benefit and PSD are all from a regulator, a municipality or a statute. Internet, mobile and gym are the providers’ own published prices. Restaurant, café and cinema prices are Numbeo, which is crowd-sourced — for Vilnius that is 997 entries from 145 contributors in the past 12 months, last updated 12 August 2026. The grocery base, the number of meals out, the centre premium, electricity use and the driving profile are the calculator’s own assumptions, shown in each option so you can see what you picked.
Budget against the winter figure. Heating runs roughly October to April, and January is when it bites. On the same 45 m² flat, a non-renovated block costs €88 a month more to heat in January than a new build — which is why the building type is worth asking about before you sign a lease rather than after.
Once the total looks survivable, the move becomes a sequencing problem rather than a budgeting one — permit, declared address, asmens kodas, bank.
Planning your move to Lithuania?
The order you do things in matters more than any single step — permit, address registration, asmens kodas, bank, Sodra. Get matched with someone who sequences it for you.
How This Calculator Works
Rent is priced from Ober-Haus's quarterly asking-rent figure for your city — €16.40/m² in Vilnius, €12.80 in Kaunas, €11.70 in Klaipėda for Q2 2026 — multiplied by the floor area you pick. Those are advertised prices from Aruodas.lt listings, not signed contracts, and Ober-Haus publishes one city-wide average with no split by district. The centre-versus-outskirts adjustment is therefore the calculator's band, not Ober-Haus's, and it is deliberately modest at ±15%.
Heating is the number that separates a good Lithuanian budget from a bad one. It comes from VERT's published worked examples for January 2026 on a 60 m² flat: €70 in a new build, €113 in a renovated block, €187 in a non-renovated one. The calculator scales those by floor area. It reports a winter month and a 12-month average separately rather than blending them, because a single averaged figure would understate exactly the month that catches people out.
Water uses each city's own supplier tariff against that city's published municipal consumption norm — Vilnius 2.5 m³ per resident per month, Kaunas 2.65. Klaipėda publishes no norm, so the Vilnius one stands in; its tariff, at €3.00/m³ including VAT, is the highest of the three and about 23% above Vilnius.
Electricity is VERT's single-zone public supply tariff of 24 ct/kWh for the second half of 2026. Consumption by household size is the calculator's assumption — Lithuania publishes no per-household figure.
Transport uses the actual published pass price: €38 in Vilnius, €28 in Kaunas and Klaipėda. The car option prices fuel only, at the Lithuanian Energy Agency's reading of €1.756/l for 95 petrol on 10 August 2026, over an assumed 800 km a month at 7 l/100 km. Insurance and servicing are excluded: no Lithuanian average premium is published, and every “average premium” figure online traces back to a broker's marketing page. Get a real quote before you budget for a car here.
Food, leisure and dining are the softest numbers here. The price of a restaurant meal, a cinema seat and a gym month comes from Numbeo. The quantity — how many meals "eats out weekly" means — is the calculator's own assumption, written into the dropdown so you can see it.
Monthly Budget Breakdown by Lifestyle
The same three budgets from the top of the page, itemised. All Vilnius, all winter months.
Lean
Comfortable
Generous
Heating is shown at its January level. Averaged across the year it is roughly 36% of that, which is why the totals here sit above the annual averages quoted at the top.
City-by-City Cost Breakdown (Q2 2026)
The same person, the same flat, the same habits, priced in each of the three cities.
| Category | Vilnius | Kaunas | Klaipėda |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom rent, centralOfficial | €849 | €662 | €605 |
| Heating, winter monthOfficial | €85 | €85 | €85 |
| ElectricityOfficial | €29 | €29 | €29 |
| Water and wastewaterOfficial | €7 | €7 | €8 |
| Home internetProvider | €13 | €13 | €13 |
| Mobile planProvider | €20 | €20 | €20 |
| Public transport passOfficial | €38 | €28 | €28 |
| Groceries and eating outNumbeo | €319 | €303 | €303 |
| Gym membershipNumbeo | €38 | €29 | €35 |
| Two cinema ticketsNumbeo | €18 | €21 | €16 |
| Total, winter month | €1,465 | €1,247 | €1,192 |
| Averaged over the year | €1,411 | €1,193 | €1,138 |
One person, a renovated 45 m² one-bedroom flat near the centre, cooking most days and eating out weekly, public transport, gym, employed so PSD comes out of payroll. Rows marked Official come from a regulator, municipality or statute; Provider from the company’s own price list; Numbeo from Numbeo, which is crowd-sourced and unaudited. Numbeo’s Lithuanian sample is thin outside the capital — Vilnius 145 contributors, Kaunas 42 contributors and Klaipėda 20 contributors. Klaipėda’s in particular rests on 87 entries, so read its dining and leisure rows as indicative rather than measured.
Where to Live for Your Budget
Most expensive
Better value
The gap is narrower than the rent difference suggests. Vilnius rent is 40% above Klaipėda's, but rent is only about half a single person's budget, and Klaipėda charges the highest water tariff in the country. On the standard profile Kaunas comes out about 15% below Vilnius and Klaipėda about 19%, so the gap between the most and least expensive of the three is roughly 19%.
Salaries do not stretch as far in Vilnius as the headline suggests. The State Data Agency puts the average gross wage at €2,891 in Vilnius, €2,647 in Kaunas and €2,493 in Klaipėda for Q1 2026. Vilnius pays 9% more than Kaunas while charging 28% more in rent, so a 50 m² flat takes 28.4% of the average Vilnius salary against 24.2% in Kaunas and 23.5% in Klaipėda. On the published averages the capital is the least affordable of the three relative to what it pays — and the gap is widening, with Vilnius rents up 11.0% on the year against roughly 5.7% elsewhere.
The exception is which sector you work in. Vilnius carries almost all of Lithuania's fintech and IT hiring, and those sectors sit well above the city average — national figures put information and communication at around €3,600 gross. Land one of those jobs and the arithmetic flips decisively. Earn abroad and spend here, and Kaunas or Klaipėda wins on every line. See the full city comparison.
Is Lithuania Expensive in 2026?
What is genuinely cheap. Public transport — a monthly pass is €28–38, and students in Vilnius pay €7.60. Mobile and internet are among the cheapest in the EU: €19.90 for a 20 GB plan from Tele2, €12.70 a month for 100 Mbps fibre from Init at the standing rate, and closer to €7 on an introductory deal. Gym membership runs €26.90–26.99 at the mainstream chains, and under €16 on an introductory rate. A coffee is €2.80–3.31.
What costs about what it does elsewhere in the EU. Electronics, branded clothing and international subscriptions price uniformly across the single market. Fuel is not especially cheap: €1.756/l for 95 petrol and €1.996/l for diesel as of 10 August 2026.
What has become expensive. Rent, and quickly. Vilnius asking rents rose 11.0% in the year to Q2 2026, more than twice the pace of Kaunas at 5.7% or Klaipėda at 5.8%. And heating, which is the cost foreigners consistently fail to plan for: a non-renovated block costs roughly 2.7 times as much to heat in January as a new build of the same size.
The one number that changes everything
Building energy class does more to your annual budget than city choice does. Between a new build and a non-renovated block of the same size, the January heating difference on a 45 m² flat is around €88 a month — larger than the entire gap in transport, internet and mobile costs combined. Check any Lithuanian address free on renomap.apva.lt before you view it.
Cost of Living for Couples and Families
Housing is the biggest line and it does not double when a second person moves in, so two people living together cost meaningfully less than two people living apart.
Couple, no children
Family, one child
Family, two children
Child benefit — and the catch for foreigners
Lithuania pays vaiko pinigai, a universal monthly benefit, from birth to 18 — or to 23 if the child is still in general education.
| Payment | Amount | Who gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Vaiko pinigai, standard | €129.50/month per child | Every qualifying resident child |
| Vaiko pinigai, supplemented | €205.72/month per child | Families with 3+ children, low income, or a child with a disability |
| One-off birth grant | €1,036 | Raised from €814 on 1 June 2026 — but see the restriction below |
The standard rate is set by statute as 1.75 × the basic social benefit, which rose to €74 for 2026.
This is where a foreign family's position differs from a Lithuanian one, and it is not obvious.
- On a permanent residence permit or EU long-term resident status, you qualify exactly as a citizen does.
- On a temporary residence permit, you qualify only if you are working — the rule is that you are employed in Lithuania on the permit, or have worked here at least six months.
- A non-EU parent here on a student permit does not qualify at all.
- EU and EEA citizens qualify after three months' residence.
- In every case the child's residence must be declared in Lithuania, which bites for families who move mid-year or keep a child registered abroad. Declaring an address runs through the same registration as your asmens kodas.
The birth grant is more restrictive still. A temporary-permit holder qualifies only if they hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, the UK, the USA, Canada, New Zealand or South Korea, after three months' residence. So a working parent from, say, India holds vaiko pinigai but not automatically the €1,036 grant.
Kindergarten
Municipal kindergarten is cheap by Western European standards, and the fee is residence-based, not citizenship-based — a declared address gets the same rate whatever passport you hold.
| City | What you pay | Roughly per month |
|---|---|---|
| Vilnius | €26/month educational fee, plus €3.40/day meals | ≈ €94 |
| Kaunas | €3.70/day all in (€1.00 educational + €2.70 meals) | ≈ €74 |
| Klaipėda | €4.80/day (€3.60 food + €1.20 service charge) | ≈ €96 |
At 20 attended days. Vilnius and Kaunas now bill only for days attended. Klaipėda's rates come from Council decision T2-354 of 21 December 2023 — the newest published; Klaipėda has issued no 2025 or 2026 revision.
Pre-primary (priešmokyklinis) is effectively free. The teaching is state-funded, and lunch is free under the national school-meals scheme in both Vilnius and Kaunas. You still pay for breakfast and an afternoon snack if the child takes them.
Vilnius subsidises private kindergartens by up to €120 per child per month, paid to the school and passed through as a fee reduction, conditional on the child and at least one parent having a declared Vilnius address. A private Lithuanian-language darželis runs around €510–580 a month before that subsidy.
International schools
| School | Preschool | School age |
|---|---|---|
| Vilnius International School | €9,630/year | €10,755–11,880/year |
| American International School of Vilnius | €9,292/year | €20,164–24,349/year |
| Lithuanian-language private (e.g. Valdorfo) | — | ≈ €2,900/year |
2026–2027 published fees. AISV additionally charges a €2,707 one-off admission fee and a €2,498 annual capital fee; VIS includes lunch in the tuition. The gap between the two English-medium schools at secondary level is roughly double, so it is worth reading both fee schedules rather than assuming international school pricing is uniform.
Parental leave
Any legally employed foreigner paying Lithuanian social insurance accrues the same rights as a citizen. The barrier for a recent arrival is the contribution record, not nationality. The health slice of the same contribution is what gets the family into public healthcare.
- Maternity — 77.58% of your reference salary, for 126 calendar days (140 for a complicated or multiple birth). Needs 12 months of cover in the previous 24.
- Paternity — 77.58%, for 30 calendar days, usable any time before the child turns one.
- Parental leave — either 60% until the child is 18 months, or 45% in year one and 30% in year two until 24 months. Each parent also gets two non-transferable months at 78%.
- Floor and ceiling — the minimum is €592/month; the 18-month option is capped at €3,051.36/month for Q3 2026.
EU coordination rules let insurance periods completed in another member state count toward the qualifying record. For non-EU arrivals they generally do not.
How to Save Money Living in Lithuania
Housing
Everything else
FAQ
How much money do you need to live in Lithuania?
For one person in Vilnius in 2026, around €906 a month covers a lean setup — a studio outside the centre, cooking at home, public transport. About €1,465 buys a comfortable one-bedroom near the centre with eating out weekly and a gym. Kaunas runs about 15% below that and Klaipėda about 19%. All of these are winter months; averaged across the year they come down by €45–60 because heating stops.
Can I live in Lithuania on €1,000 a month?
In Kaunas or Klaipėda, yes, with care — a small flat outside the centre, cooking at home and public transport. In Vilnius it is tight and would mean a flatshare rather than your own place. The binding constraint is rent, which at €16.40/m² asking in Vilnius takes most of that budget for even a modest one-bedroom.
Is Lithuania cheaper than Poland?
Not straightforwardly, and anyone claiming a single percentage is guessing. Neither country publishes a current official cost-of-living level, so any comparison rests on crowd-sourced data on at least one side. Rent in Vilnius is broadly comparable to Warsaw's; Lithuanian mobile and internet are cheaper than most of the EU; Lithuanian heating in an unrenovated block is a bigger line than Polish readers expect.
Why does this calculator ask about building type?
Because it is the largest single variable in a Lithuanian budget and almost no English-language guide mentions it. VERT's published January 2026 examples put heating on a 60 m² flat at €70 in a new build, €113 in a renovated block and €187 in a non-renovated one. That €117 spread is larger than the difference between the cheapest and most expensive city on every other line combined.
What is PSD and do I have to pay it?
PSD is compulsory health insurance. If you are employed, it comes out of payroll and you never see it. If you are not employed and not otherwise covered, you pay it yourself at €80.48 a month in 2026 — 6.98% of the minimum monthly wage of €1,153. Students, pensioners and registered unemployed people are covered by the state.
How accurate are these figures?
It depends on the line, which is why each is labelled. Rent, heating, water, electricity, transport passes, kindergarten fees, child benefit and PSD come from a regulator, municipality or statute and are as accurate as the source. Restaurant, café, cinema and gym prices come from Numbeo, which is crowd-sourced — Vilnius rests on 997 entries from 145 contributors, Kaunas on 42 contributors and Klaipėda on just 20. Treat the leisure lines for the two smaller cities as indicative. Quantities — how many meals a month, how far you drive — are the calculator's own assumptions and are shown in each dropdown.
Why is there no official Lithuanian cost-of-living figure?
The State Data Agency runs its household budget survey every five years. The most recent published reference year is 2021, which put average consumption at €438 per person per month, and the next release is due in September 2027. There is no official rent index and no official euro rent level at all. That gap is why every row here is labelled with the grade of source behind it rather than blended into one confident total.
We are a foreign family. Do we actually get the child benefit in these figures?
It depends on your permit, and this is where a foreign family's position differs from a Lithuanian one in a way that is not obvious. On a permanent residence permit or EU long-term resident status you qualify exactly as a citizen does. On a temporary residence permit you qualify only if you are working — employed in Lithuania on that permit, or having worked here at least six months. A non-EU parent here on a student permit does not qualify at all. EU and EEA citizens qualify after three months' residence. In every case the child's residence must be declared in Lithuania, which bites for families who move mid-year or keep a child registered abroad. The one-off birth grant of €1,036 is more restrictive still: a temporary-permit holder qualifies only if they hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, the UK, the USA, Canada, New Zealand or South Korea, after three months' residence. So a working parent from, say, India receives vaiko pinigai at €129.50 a month but not automatically the birth grant.
Can I claim maternity or parental leave if I only arrived recently?
Nationality is not the barrier — the contribution record is. Any legally employed foreigner paying Lithuanian social insurance accrues the same rights as a citizen. What a recent arrival often lacks is the qualifying history: maternity benefit, paid at 77.58% of your reference salary for 126 calendar days and 140 for a complicated or multiple birth, requires 12 months of cover in the previous 24. Paternity is 77.58% for 30 calendar days, usable any time before the child turns one. Parental leave is either 60% until the child is 18 months, or 45% in year one and 30% in year two until 24 months, with each parent also getting two non-transferable months at 78%. The floor is €592 a month and the 18-month option is capped at €3,051.36 a month for Q3 2026. EU coordination rules let insurance periods completed in another member state count toward the qualifying record; for non-EU arrivals they generally do not, which is the difference that decides most cases.
Which lines here are the calculator's own assumptions rather than someone else's figures?
Four, and they are all deliberately visible rather than buried. First, quantities: the price of a restaurant meal or a gym month comes from Numbeo, but how many meals "eats out weekly" means is the calculator's, and it is written into the dropdown so you can see it. Second, the centre-versus-outskirts adjustment: Ober-Haus publishes one city-wide average with no district split, so the ±15% band is the calculator's, not Ober-Haus's, and it is deliberately modest. Third, electricity consumption by household size — the 24 ct/kWh tariff is VERT's, but Lithuania publishes no per-household consumption figure, so the usage is the calculator's assumption. Fourth, the car option prices fuel only, at an assumed 800 km a month at 7 l/100 km, because no Lithuanian average insurance premium is published: the Motor Insurers' Bureau gives only the market aggregate of €351m written in 2024 with no contract count to divide it by, and the Bank of Lithuania declines to publish a benchmark at all. Everything else — rent, heating, water, transport passes, kindergarten fees, child benefit — is a regulator's, a supplier's or a municipality's own number.