Cost of living in Singapore in 2026: what everyday things cost

Singapore’s high cost of living is real, but it is concentrated. Among everyday prices, petrol is the standout at S$3.16 a litre ($2.47), more than all but 11 of the 170 countries we track. Other things are ordinary for a rich city: a Big Mac is S$7.45, the iPhone 18 Pro S$1,899, Netflix Premium S$29.98 a month and household power about S$0.302 per kWh. With average income near $81,760 a year, most of these weigh lightly on a Singaporean wage.

The two costs that give Singapore its reputation, housing and car ownership, are outside what we measure. We don’t collect rents, grocery baskets or transport fares, so read this as a check on the everyday prices we do track, taken from Apple’s and Netflix’s own storefronts, GlobalPetrolPrices and The Economist’s Big Mac Index, retrieved 2026-10-13.

Reputation check, item by item

The fairest test of “expensive” is against similar places. Here Singapore is ranked in US dollars against Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom: four wealthy economies, two of them direct rivals for regional headquarters.

Singapore lands in the pricier half on 3 of 6 items. That is a more modest result than its reputation suggests, and part of the reason is how the city taxes things. Goods and services tax is 9%, lower than VAT in Britain or Japan’s consumption tax, and it is already inside every Singapore price above. Visitors can reclaim it on larger purchases through the electronic tourist refund scheme.

Where the reputation holds: anything with a car attached

Petrol at $2.47 a litre ranks 159th of 170 countries from cheapest, near the very top of the world table. A 50-litre fill costs around S$158. Since our 2026-07-03 snapshot the price has risen 4.9% in dollar terms. Yet fuel is the smaller part of the cost of driving here. Singapore caps the number of cars by making buyers bid for a Certificate of Entitlement, a ten-year right to own a vehicle, and adds heavy registration taxes on top. Those charges are not in our data, but they explain why many residents never buy a car at all and why the city’s fuel price matters less to household budgets than it would in Australia. Oddly, Hong Kong is pricier still at the pump, at $4.41 a litre. See the Singapore petrol price page for the latest figure.

Where it doesn’t: power, phones and food against a high income

Household electricity at $0.236 per kWh ranks 104th of 134 countries, from cheapest. Singapore generates almost all of its power from imported natural gas, and tariffs are revised every quarter, so this figure tracks global gas markets more closely than most. Businesses pay $0.261, slightly more than households. Compare every country on the electricity page.

Measured against income rather than in dollars, Singapore looks cheap. The iPhone 18 Pro costs 6.6 days of average earnings, the least among the five, and a Big Mac takes about 9 min of work. Netflix Premium is 0.3% of a month’s income, and Spotify 0.1%. For a resident on a typical wage, the everyday basket is affordable; it is the fixed costs of a home and a car that strain the budget. Every model is listed on the iPhone 18 Pro Singapore page.

• Singapore: iPhone 18 Pro = 6.6 days of average income
• Hong Kong: iPhone 18 Pro = 7.8 days of average income
• Australia: iPhone 18 Pro = 8.3 days of average income
• United Kingdom: iPhone 18 Pro = 10.6 days of average income
• Japan: iPhone 18 Pro = 13.2 days of average income

Singapore or Hong Kong?

The comparison expats ask about most. Singapore has the higher average income ($81,760 against $62,500). Hong Kong, with no sales tax at all, sells the iPhone 18 Pro for $1,338 against $1,483 in Singapore. A Big Mac is $3.25 there versus $5.77 here. Petrol runs the other way, favouring Singapore. Hong Kong has no Netflix or Spotify prices in our data, so streaming can’t be compared. The full breakdown is on Hong Kong vs Singapore, and Singapore vs UK covers the move many British professionals weigh. For the whole country profile, see prices in Singapore.