Cost of living in the US for an Indian family and a student (2026): monthly budgets by city, groceries, health, take-home pay

"Is the USA expensive for Indians?" has a number for an answer, and the number depends on three things more than anything else: which metro, whether a child is in daycare, and how many cars. Everything on this page is priced in October 2026 and converted at ₹95 to the dollar (Wise mid-market, 17 October 2026). The budgets are our own arithmetic on sourced inputs — rents from Zumper, premiums from KFF, childcare from Child Care Aware, food from the USDA plans and an Indian grocer’s price list — and they are estimates for a typical family, not a floor. All three assume a vegetarian household that cooks at home, no debt beyond one car, and nothing put into savings or a 401(k).

Three readings of that table. First, both children in public school instead of one in daycare takes the Bay Area to about $8,600 and Dallas to about $7,300 — the single biggest swing a family controls, and why so many families time the move to a child’s fifth birthday. Second, the salary line is a floor: it is the gross pay whose net equals the budget using the 2026 federal brackets, FICA and the state tax (the take-home chapter shows the working); a family that wants to save 15%, fund a 401(k) to the match and fly home every year is comfortable at about $200,000 in the Bay Area and $150,000 in Dallas. Third, the ratio between the two metros is 1.27 on the total but 1.75 on rent and 1.9 on daycare, which is the whole reason the Indian population of Frisco and Alpharetta has grown the way it has.

For comparison, the average American household spent $78,535 in 2024 ($6,545 a month) on a pre-tax income of $104,207, with housing at $26,266 and food at $10,169 (BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024). The Indian family above spends more than that household, not less: not because of extravagance but because it is younger, renting in a good school district, and paying for daycare that the median American household, older on average, no longer does. The data hub for Indians in the US gathers the events, groups and businesses for each of these cities; this page is the spreadsheet.

Rents below are October 2026: the city medians are from Zumper’s September 2026 National Rent Report and the suburb figures are Zumper’s city-page apartment averages read on 17 October 2026. Property tax is the Tax Foundation’s county table (2024 ACS data), which matters to renters too because the landlord passes it through. Car insurance is Insurify’s state average for full coverage (data through August 2026; Texas and Washington from its June 2026 release). The monthly total at the end of each metro is the family-of-four budget from the first chapter re-priced with that metro’s rent, childcare, insurance and transit, and is an estimate.

New Jersey: the Edison–Jersey City–Princeton corridor

The oldest Indian geography in the country. Edison and Iselin (Oak Tree Road is the shopping street), Woodbridge, Piscataway, South Brunswick, Monroe and the West Windsor–Plainsboro district around Princeton Junction hold families with children; Jersey City (Newport, Journal Square) holds the two-income couples who work in Manhattan and want a 12-minute PATH ride. Rents: Jersey City $2,750 (1-bed) / $2,910 (2-bed) median; Edison apartments $2,225 / $2,400; Princeton apartments $2,812 / $3,679; Newark $1,680 / $1,960. New Jersey has the highest effective property tax in the country, 1.88% statewide — Middlesex County 1.99%, Mercer 2.15%, Hudson 1.56% — on a median Middlesex house of $462,900 that is $9,712 a year, and it is inside every rent. Car insurance $256 a month for full coverage, among the dearest states. The commute is the extra line: Edison to New York Penn was $15.65 one way and about $440 a month in the August 2025 timetable, Metropark $12.70 / $366, New Brunswick $16.55 / $464, and NJ Transit raises fares 3% every July, so budget about $455 a month from July 2026 (estimate). Infant daycare averaged $20,213 a year in 2024. Monthly total for the family of four with one commuter and one car: about $9,300 (₹8.8 lakh); gross needed in New Jersey about $140,000.

The Bay Area: Fremont, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Cupertino and the Tri-Valley

The most expensive Indian geography and the biggest. Fremont (Mission San Jose and Ardenwood for the schools), Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Milpitas and San Jose’s Evergreen and North San Jose are where engineers rent; Cupertino, Saratoga and Palo Alto are where they buy for the school district; Dublin, Pleasanton and San Ramon in the Tri-Valley trade a 45-minute BART ride for a house with a garden. Rents: San Jose $2,890 / $3,710 median; Fremont apartments $2,796 / $3,279; Sunnyvale apartments $3,432 / $4,185; San Francisco $4,400 / $6,340; Oakland $2,100 / $2,700. Property tax is low in rate — Santa Clara County 0.68% — but on million-dollar houses, so a buyer pays $8,000–12,000 a year anyway. Car insurance $202 a month; petrol is the dearest in the country (the US average was $4.48 a gallon in September 2026 per BLS, California well above it). Infant daycare averaged $22,628 a year in 2024, the highest of our six states. Monthly total: about $10,000 (₹9.5 lakh); gross needed in California about $155,000.

Dallas–Fort Worth: Frisco, Plano, Irving, Coppell, McKinney

The fastest-growing Indian metro of the decade, because the sums work. Frisco and Plano for schools (Frisco ISD and Plano ISD), Irving’s Las Colinas for apartments close to the offices, Coppell, McKinney, Prosper and Allen for new-build houses. Rents: Dallas $1,320 / $1,800 median; Plano $1,390 / $1,950; Irving $1,270 / $1,620; Frisco apartments $1,536 / $2,150; Fort Worth $1,230 / $1,510. Texas has no income tax and makes it up on property: Collin County 1.48%, Dallas County 1.45%, Denton County 1.46% — $7,521 a year on Collin’s median $475,600 house — and a renter pays it through the rent. Car insurance $206 a month, and two cars are the norm: DART’s local pass is $3 for three hours, $6 a day, $126 a month (2025 restructure) but the network does not reach Frisco. Infant daycare $11,349 a year in 2024, half of California. Monthly total: about $7,900 (₹7.5 lakh); gross needed about $112,000.

Seattle and the Eastside: Bellevue, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah, Bothell

Microsoft, Amazon and no state income tax. Bellevue and Redmond for the offices and the Lake Washington and Bellevue school districts, Sammamish and Issaquah for houses, Bothell and Kirkland for the middle. Rents: Seattle $1,900 / $2,710 median; Bellevue apartments $2,569 / $3,196. Property tax is gentle — King County 0.76%, Snohomish 0.72% — but house prices are not (King’s median $859,900). Car insurance $183 a month; Link light rail is a flat $3 and an ORCA monthly pass $108, and since the 2 Line reached Redmond many Eastside households manage with one car. Washington takes 0.58% of wages for WA Cares plus a paid-leave premium, about 1.2% together (estimate). Infant daycare $21,348 a year in 2024. Monthly total: about $9,500 (₹9 lakh); gross needed about $138,000, less than California for the same net because there is no state income tax.

Atlanta: Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Cumming, Duluth

Georgia cut its flat income tax to 4.99% from 1 January 2026 (HB 463) and raised the married standard deduction to $30,000, and the Indian suburbs run north along GA-400. Alpharetta and Johns Creek (Fulton County schools), Cumming and Suwanee (Forsyth County, the newest houses), Duluth (Gwinnett, the older Indian high street). Rents: Atlanta $1,630 / $2,060 median; Alpharetta $1,583 / $2,160. Property tax: Fulton 0.89%, Forsyth 0.69%. Car insurance is the catch — $259 a month, the highest of our six states — and MARTA ($2.50 a ride, $95 for 30 days) does not go north of North Springs, so it is a two-car metro. Infant daycare $11,066 a year in 2024, the cheapest here. Monthly total: about $8,200 (₹7.8 lakh); gross needed about $118,000.

Chicago: Naperville, Schaumburg, Aurora, and Devon Avenue

Naperville (District 203 and Indian Prairie 204) and Aurora to the west, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and Buffalo Grove to the north-west, and Devon Avenue in the city for the shopping. Rents: Chicago $2,200 / $2,530 median; Naperville apartments $1,735 / $2,254; Schaumburg apartments $1,708 / $2,069. Illinois taxes income at a flat 4.95% and property heavily — DuPage County 1.89% — and the winter heating bill is real. Car insurance $162 a month, the cheapest of the six. Metra from Naperville (Zone 4) was $6.75 one way and $135 a month in 2025, with $7.75 and $155 proposed for 2026 — check Ventra. Infant daycare $19,807 a year in 2024. Monthly total: about $8,700 (₹8.3 lakh); gross needed about $128,000.

Austin: Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville

The Texas arithmetic with a smaller Indian community and a tech payroll. Round Rock and Pflugerville for Round Rock ISD, Cedar Park and Leander for Leander ISD, Avery Ranch as the Indian cul-de-sac of choice. Rents: Austin $1,250 / $1,600 median, down from the 2022 peak, with the suburbs within $150 of it. Property tax: Travis County 1.31%, Williamson 1.50%. Car insurance about $206 a month (the Texas figure). CapMetro is $1.25 a ride and $41.25 a month until a rise on 10 January 2027, and useful only inside the city. Infant daycare uses the Texas average, $11,349. Monthly total: about $7,600 (₹7.2 lakh); gross needed about $108,000.

Groceries are the line where an Indian family beats every American average, because dal, rice, atta and vegetables cooked at home are cheap even in the US, and the Indian store is where the staples are priced by the 20-pound bag. The prices below are October 2026: the Indian-store column is an online Indian grocer’s San Francisco price list on 17 October 2026 (Weee, which stocks the same Laxmi, Deep, Sujata, Aashirvaad and Nanak lines as Patel Brothers, Apna Bazar and Subzi Mandi; store shelves run within a dollar or two of these), the mainstream column is BLS average prices for September 2026 where a national figure exists and otherwise a listed price marked (est.). Costco needs a $65-a-year membership.

The monthly total

Add it up for a vegetarian family of four cooking two meals a day at home — rice $28, atta $19, dals $14, ghee $15, paneer $40, milk $33, curd $30, onions and tomatoes $33, other vegetables and fruit $200, oil $15, spices $15, tea, sugar, snacks, biscuits and namkeen $60, eggs, bread and cereal $40, cleaning and household $60 — and it comes to about $600 a month in staples, and $800–950 once the Costco run, the odd frozen parathas and the children’s American food are counted. That is why the first chapter uses $850–900. For calibration, the USDA food plans in mid-2026 priced a family of four with two school-age children at $1,018 a month (Thrifty), $1,122 (Low-cost), $1,387 (Moderate) and $1,675 (Liberal); a vegetarian Indian kitchen lands at the Thrifty-to-Low-cost line while eating better than the plan assumes. Two habits move the number: buying rice, atta, dal and ghee in the big bags once a month at the Indian store or Costco rather than in 2-lb packs at the supermarket, and buying vegetables at an Indian or Mexican grocer, where onions, tomatoes, coriander, green chillies and bhindi are routinely half the supermarket price. Eating out is the leak: a thali or a biryani for four with tax and a 20% tip is $70–90 in 2026, and twice a week is $600 a month. The Indian businesses directory for the US lists the grocers, restaurants and tiffin services by city.

Renting with no US credit history

An American landlord decides on a credit score, and a newcomer has none. The workarounds, in the order landlords accept them: an offer letter and the first pay slips (large apartment complexes in Irving, Fremont and Jersey City see H-1B arrivals every week and have a policy for it); a larger deposit — typically one extra month, where state law allows (New Jersey caps the deposit at one and a half months’ rent; California capped it at one month from July 2024 for most landlords; Texas, Washington, Georgia and Illinois have no statutory cap); a co-signer or guarantor service (TheGuarantors, Leap and the like charge 50–100% of one month’s rent as a fee); or a few months paid in advance, which a private landlord will often take and a corporate complex will not. You do not need a Social Security Number to sign a lease — the application accepts a passport and visa, and the SSN arrives two to four weeks after you apply at the local office once you are in the country — but you do need it for the credit file that makes the second lease easy, so apply in week one. An ITIN is for the spouse who will not have an SSN; it is a tax number, not a credit number, and some landlords accept it on a joint application. Expect an application fee of $50–75 per adult, a deposit, and first month’s rent on signing: on a $2,400 Edison two-bed that is about $5,000 before the furniture. Most leases are 12 months; a 6-month lease costs $100–200 a month more; breaking one costs one to two months’ rent.

Utilities

Apartment complexes usually include water, sewer and bins in the rent or bill them as a fixed $40–80; houses pay them separately. Electricity is the big one and it depends on the state and the weather: EIA’s 2024 average monthly residential bill was $142 nationally, $161 in California (at 32 cents a kWh, double the national rate, on low use), $164 in Texas (14.9 cents, but the air-conditioning), $151 in Georgia, $128 in New Jersey, $114 in Washington and $110 in Illinois. A two-bed apartment runs below those averages, a house with a pool above; a Texas July or an Illinois January can double the month. Gas for heating and cooking adds $30–120 in the cold states. Budget $180–260 a month for a family apartment, as the first chapter does.

Internet and phones

Home internet from Xfinity, Spectrum, AT&T Fiber, Frontier or Verizon Fios is $50–80 a month for a plan that handles video calls to India; the promotional price lasts 12 months and then rises, so diarise it. Phones are the place newcomers overpay: the big three (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) charge $50–90 a line, and the MVNOs that ride on their networks — Mint, Visible, US Mobile, Google Fi — charge $15–30 a line for the same towers with a prepaid plan that needs no credit check. Bring an unlocked phone (US carrier phones are often eSIM-only, as the what to take to India guide explains) and keep the Indian SIM alive on the cheapest validity plan for OTPs. Two lines plus home internet is the $130 in the budgets.

Do you need a car?

• New Jersey: one car for the family, the train for the commuter. Jersey City couples without children often have none.
• Bay Area: one car; a second only if both commute to offices without a shuttle. BART, Caltrain and VTA cover the office corridors; a Fremont–Embarcadero BART return is about $15 (estimate).
• Dallas–Fort Worth, Atlanta, Austin: two cars once there are two working adults or two children in different schools. The transit passes above are for the few who live on the line.
• Seattle Eastside: one car is normal since Link reached Redmond; two for Sammamish and Issaquah.
• Chicago suburbs: one car plus Metra for a Loop commuter; two in Schaumburg.

A new car averaged $50,562 in September 2026 (Kelley Blue Book), a 3–5-year-old Corolla, Camry or CR-V is $18,000–26,000 (estimate from October 2026 listings), and a $25,000 car over 60 months at 7–8% with a modest deposit is about $450 a month. Insurance for a driver with no US history is quoted above the state averages for the first year — $250–350 a month is common — and falls once a US licence and a clean year exist; the state averages are national full-coverage figures from Insurify (through August 2026): Illinois $162, Washington $183, California $202, Texas $206, New Jersey $256, Georgia $259. Fuel at $4.48 a gallon (BLS, September 2026) is $150–250 a month per commuting car. Convert the Indian licence early: most states allow 30–90 days on it, and insurance premiums quote off the US one.

Public schools, and why they are inside the rent

American public schools are free and assigned by address, which is why an Indian family’s first question about a suburb is its GreatSchools rating and why the rent in Cupertino, Mission San Jose (Fremont), West Windsor–Plainsboro, Frisco, Plano, Bellevue, Johns Creek, Forsyth County and Naperville 203 carries a premium of $300–800 a month over the next district along. The premium is rational: the alternative is private school at $15,000–45,000 a year per child. Check the district’s enrolment proof rules before signing a lease (a lease plus a utility bill in the parent’s name, usually), and the cut-off date for kindergarten (age 5 by 1 September in Texas and most of the Northeast, by 1 September in California for transitional kindergarten, by 1 October in Georgia) — a child born in October starts a year later than in India. Schools do not teach Hindi or a regional language, and there is no CBSE-affiliated full-time school in the United States that we could find in October 2026; families who want continuity use the online CBSE programmes, and almost everyone else lets the children switch to the American curriculum, which they do within a term.

Daycare, pre-school and after-school

Public school starts at five (four in states with transitional kindergarten). Before that, full-time centre-based infant care cost, on Child Care Aware of America’s 2024 state table (its 2025 national average was $13,184): California $22,628, Washington $21,348, New Jersey $20,213, Illinois $19,807, Texas $11,349, Georgia $11,066 a year; four-year-olds cost $16,665, $16,908, $17,503, $17,238, $10,225 and $9,573 respectively; and school-age (after-school) centre care ran from $4,538 (Illinois) to $10,627 (California), with Texas at $6,782, New Jersey $5,990, Washington $5,196 and Georgia $6,568. Those are state averages; the Indian suburbs sit above them, and a Montessori in Fremont or Plainsboro quotes $2,200–2,800 a month in 2026. In-home (family) daycare is 20–40% cheaper and, in the Indian suburbs, often run by an Indian grandmother with Indian food — ask in the local group. Before- and after-school care at the school itself (6.30 to 8 and 3 to 6) is $350–600 a month. A visiting grandparent on a B-2 visa is the Indian solution and the reason the health chapter has a section on visitor insurance.

Three things soften the bill: the Dependent Care FSA through the employer ($7,500 a year pre-tax from 2026 for a married couple), the federal child and dependent care credit, and — once a child has an SSN — the $2,200 child tax credit (the credit needs the child’s SSN, so an H-4 child with only an ITIN gets the $500 other-dependant credit instead; this is the single most common surprise on an H-1B family’s first return).

Weekend language schools, Bala Vihar and the rest

Every Indian suburb runs a Saturday-morning economy of language and culture classes, usually volunteer-taught, $200–500 a year. HindiUSA teaches Hindi at 29 locations — 15 of them in New Jersey (Edison, Jersey City, Plainsboro, South Brunswick, Monroe and others), plus Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ashburn, Charlotte, Cumming/Alpharetta, St. Louis and Temecula — to more than 4,000 students. SiliconAndhra ManaBadi (Milpitas-based) is the Telugu network, with graded courses and World Language Credit levels that count for high-school language requirements. The California Tamil Academy, now the International Tamil Academy, runs Cupertino, Evergreen, Fremont, Milpitas and online branches. Chinmaya Mission’s Bala Vihar, the temples’ Sunday schools, Gujarati and Marathi samaj classes, Carnatic and Bollywood dance schools, cricket academies and the IIT-coaching-style maths centres (Kumon, RSM, AoPS) fill the rest of the weekend; budget $150–400 a month per child for two or three of them, which is the "children’s activities" line in the budgets.

Employer insurance: the premium and the deductible

Almost every H-1B and green-card family is insured through an employer, and the numbers to know are KFF’s 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey: the average annual premium was $26,993 for family coverage (up 6% on 2024) and $9,325 for single coverage, of which the worker paid on average $6,850 a year for family cover ($571 a month) and $1,440 for single. Then the deductible — what you pay before the plan pays — averaged $1,886 for single cover; in the high-deductible plans that a third of workers are in, the aggregate family deductible averaged $4,932 (HSA plans) and $6,912 (HRA plans), with single out-of-pocket maximums around $4,500–4,900. So a family of four in a typical plan spends $571 a month in premiums plus $1,500–3,000 a year in deductibles, co-pays and the children’s dental and vision, which is the $720 a month in the budgets. Big tech and finance employers pay more of the premium (some all of it); small firms pay less, and 53% of their workers have a single deductible above $2,000. Ask the recruiter for the benefits summary, not just the base pay: a $150,000 offer with a $0 premium plan is worth $7,000 more than one with the average plan.

H-4 dependants

A spouse and children on H-4 are dependants on the employer plan like any others; enrol them within 30 days of arrival or the next open enrolment. The plan covers maternity (an uncomplicated delivery bills $15,000–30,000 before insurance in 2026; the family out-of-pocket maximum is what you actually pay). Between arrival and the first payroll there is a gap: ask HR for the effective date — often the first of the month after you start — and buy a short-term or visitor policy for the gap if it is more than a fortnight. An H-4 spouse with an EAD who works gets their own employer plan and the family can split the cheaper way.

What an emergency room visit costs

The ER is the single most expensive door in American healthcare and the one a newcomer walks through first. Peterson-KFF’s analysis of large-employer claims put the average ER visit at $2,453 in total, with $646 out of the patient’s pocket, a quarter of visits over $907 out of pocket, and an appendicitis visit at $9,535; UnitedHealthcare’s 2025 member data puts the median ER visit at about $2,750 against $195 for urgent care. Uninsured, the bill is the whole figure, discounted 40–60% if you ask for the self-pay rate. The practical rules: a primary-care doctor (choose one from the plan’s list in week two), telehealth through the plan ($0–50) for fevers and rashes, urgent care ($100–250 with insurance) for cuts, sprains and ear infections, and the ER only for chest pain, breathing, head injuries and anything an urgent care refuses. Pharmacy generics are cheap with the plan or GoodRx; Indian prescriptions are not honoured, so get US scripts for anything long-term.

Parents visiting on a B-2

Visitors are not eligible for the ACA marketplace or Medicare, and the employer plan will not add them, so visitor medical insurance is the only cover. Broker price lists in 2026 (Visitor Guard) put a 30-day comprehensive policy for a 70-year-old at $203 (Visit USA, $75,000–250,000 maximum), $293 (Patriot America Plus), $344 (Atlas America), and a fixed-benefit policy at $63–99 — the one to avoid above 60, because a fixed plan paid $7,000 of a $15,000 hospital stay in the broker’s own example. Buy comprehensive, with acute onset of pre-existing conditions (blood pressure, diabetes, heart) — the limits drop sharply over 70 — a $250,000 maximum or more, and a deductible you can afford ($250–500). A six-month visit for two parents in their late sixties is therefore $1,800–4,000 of insurance (estimate), and the one thing never to skip: a three-night cardiac admission without it is a $50,000–100,000 bill. Routine check-ups and dental are not covered; do those in India before the flight.

What an H-1B offer letter says and what lands in the account are different numbers, and the gap depends on the state. The table is our own calculation for tax year 2026, married filing jointly with two dependants, one earner, no 401(k) contribution, using the IRS’s 2026 brackets and the $32,200 standard deduction; Social Security at 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base and Medicare at 1.45%; the Tax Foundation’s 2026 state tables for California (standard deduction $11,080, exemption credits) and New Jersey (exemptions $2,000 plus $1,500 per dependant, no standard deduction); Washington’s WA Cares and paid-leave premiums at about 1.2% of wages (estimate); California’s state disability insurance at about 1.2% (estimate); and New Jersey’s unemployment, disability and family-leave deductions. It assumes the children have ITINs, not SSNs, so the $500 other-dependant credit applies rather than the child tax credit; if both children hold SSNs add about $280 a month to every cell. It is an estimate: your employer’s payroll, pre-tax benefits and local taxes will move it by a few percent.

Georgia (4.99% flat from 2026, $30,000 married deduction) and Illinois (4.95% flat) land between Washington and New Jersey at every level: about $9,880 and $9,780 a month on $150,000.

Reading it

• The state gap is smaller than people think at $90,000 and real at $250,000. Texas against California is $190 a month on $90,000 and $1,460 a month on $250,000. California’s 9.3% bracket starts at $145,448 of taxable income for a couple; New Jersey’s 6.37% at $150,000.
• FICA is the tax nobody budgets for. 7.65% of the first $184,500 is $14,114 a year, and it is the same in Austin as in San Jose.
• The 24% federal bracket starts at $211,400 of taxable income for a couple, so a single earner on $250,000 has most of the last $50,000 taxed at 24% plus state.
• A 401(k) to the match is not optional. Six percent of $150,000 into a 401(k) with a 50% match is $9,000 saved and $13,500 banked for $7,000 of net pay forgone in the 22% bracket; the table ignores it, so subtract it yourself.

What is left to send home

Put the budgets against the nets. On $150,000 in Dallas, net $10,350 against a $7,900 budget leaves about $2,400 a month (₹2.3 lakh) before savings; the same salary in the Bay Area nets $9,760 against $10,000 and leaves nothing — which is the plain arithmetic behind the H-1B families that moved to Texas between 2021 and 2026. On $250,000 in Fremont the surplus is about $5,000 a month; on $90,000 anywhere with a child in daycare there is no surplus, and the family lives on one income only if the other adult looks after the children. Remittances are not deductible in the US and are taxed nowhere on the way out, but the OBBBA’s 1% federal excise on cash remittances from 1 January 2026 applies to cash, money orders and cashier’s cheques, not to bank or card transfers; the send money to India guide covers the rates and the paperwork. The salary itself is the subject of the Jobs in the US for Indians guide; this page only tells you what it buys.

The I-20 number and what it is for

The university prints a cost of attendance on the I-20 and the visa officer wants to see funds for the first year of it. For 2026–27 the living part of that figure runs from $9,330 (University of South Alabama) through $20,406 (Portland State, nine months) to $20,969 room and board plus $4,992 incidentals (Boston University, nine months, where tuition alone is $73,364 and the total is $105,566). University health insurance is mandatory for F-1 students and appears on the same sheet: $3,715 at BU, $3,567 at Portland State ($1,189 a quarter), $3,439 at South Alabama — so $290–310 a month. Dependants are extra and priced per month: Portland State asks $1,189 a month for an F-2 spouse and $916 per child. The I-20 figure is a budgeting floor for a nine-month year in university housing, not what frugal students spend; it is also the number most Indian families have to show in a bank statement, education loan sanction or a sponsor’s affidavit, so take it seriously as paperwork and lightly as a forecast.

The realistic month

A graduate student in a shared two- or three-bed apartment a bus ride from campus in a mid-cost town (Arlington or Denton in Texas, Tempe, Tampa, Raleigh, Columbus, Lawrence, Lubbock, Stillwater, Dayton, Kent, Fayetteville, Morgantown): rent share $500–800, utilities and internet share $60–100, phone $15–25 on an MVNO, groceries $250–350 cooking Indian food with three flatmates (the 20-lb bags divide well), eating out $50–100, transport $0–60 (most universities fold a bus pass into fees), insurance $290–310, books and supplies $50–150, personal $100–150. That is the $1,750 a month (₹1.66 lakh) in the first chapter, or $16,000–21,000 for twelve months in a cheap town; $2,600–3,000 in Boston, New York, Seattle or the Bay Area, where a room alone is $1,300–1,800. Two Indian habits halve the first-year shock: arriving in a temporary room arranged through the university’s Indian students’ association rather than a lease signed from India, and sharing with students a year ahead who already own the pressure cooker and the sofa.

Working: the 20-hour rule

An F-1 student may work on campus up to 20 hours a week while school is in session (Study in the States, DHS), and full time in the breaks; a graduate assistantship or a dining-hall job at $14–20 an hour yields $800–1,400 a month, which is most of the living budget outside the big metros. Off-campus work without authorisation is the fastest way to lose the visa. CPT (curricular practical training) is paid work that is part of the course — the summer internship — authorised by the university’s international office. OPT (optional practical training) is 12 months of work authorisation after graduation, with a 24-month extension for STEM degrees; it is where the H-1B lottery entry comes from, and the jobs guide handles it. Neither needs explaining to a budget beyond this: a first OPT salary in 2026 is $70,000–130,000, and the student budget ends the month it starts.

The cheapest university towns

By rent, the cheapest places with large Indian graduate populations in 2026 are the Texas state campuses outside Austin (UT Arlington, UT Dallas in Richardson, UNT in Denton, Texas Tech in Lubbock), the Midwest (Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri S&T, Wright State, Kent State, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), the South (Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Arkansas in Fayetteville, Alabama, Mississippi State) and upstate New York (Buffalo, Binghamton, Syracuse); a room is $450–700 in all of them (estimate from 2026 listings). The dear ones are the obvious ones: anything in Boston, New York, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington DC. Tuition, not rent, decides the loan — out-of-state public tuition is $25,000–40,000 a year and private $45,000–75,000 — so the cheapest town is the one whose university gives the assistantship.

The cost side

Numbeo’s crowd-sourced estimates, updated 15–17 October 2026 from a few thousand entries each, put a family of four’s monthly costs excluding rent at ₹1,23,113 in Bangalore and ₹1,20,685 in Hyderabad (about $1,300 and $1,270); a three-bedroom flat outside the centre at ₹45,808 in Bangalore (Whitefield, Sarjapur) and ₹30,381 in Hyderabad (Gachibowli, Kondapur), and ₹75,870 and ₹57,501 in the centre; an international primary school at ₹2,79,118 a year per child in Bangalore and ₹2,68,399 in Hyderabad; and full-day pre-school at ₹9,882 and ₹10,545 a month. Add a car, a maid and a cook, two children in a good private school and one in pre-school, and the comparable family spends ₹2.2–2.8 lakh a month in Bangalore and ₹1.9–2.5 lakh in Hyderabad (estimate), against ₹7.5 lakh in Dallas and ₹9.5 lakh in Fremont at ₹95. Dallas costs about three times Bangalore for the same household and the Bay Area about four. Rupee for rupee the US is dearer in rent (a Frisco two-bed is 4.5 times a Whitefield 3BHK), childcare (a Texas daycare is 9 times a Bangalore pre-school) and anything with a person attached — a plumber, a haircut, a restaurant tip — and cheaper or equal in petrol per litre, cars, electronics, clothes, milk per litre and private schooling (an American public school is free where a Bangalore international school is ₹2.8 lakh).

The salary side

The "usa salary vs india salary" comparison only works net of both tax systems and both budgets. A senior software engineer’s ₹45 lakh in Bangalore nets about ₹33 lakh under the new regime, and after a ₹2.5-lakh-a-month household leaves about ₹3 lakh a year — a thin surplus in an expensive year. The same engineer’s $150,000 in Dallas nets $124,000 (₹1.18 crore); after the $7,900 budget it leaves $29,000 a year (₹27.5 lakh), nine times the Bangalore surplus, with a 401(k) and a cheaper car thrown in. At $150,000 in the Bay Area the surplus is near zero and the decision is about the next job, not this one; at $250,000 in Fremont it is $60,000 a year (₹57 lakh). On $90,000 with one earner and a child in daycare the US surplus is negative in every metro, and that is the honest answer for a family deciding on a single mid-level offer: the move pays on the second salary, the promotion or the child starting school, not on day one. And a family that returns after a decade finds that a US dollar saved is a rupee asset that has roughly doubled every ten years against the dollar’s slide from ₹45 in 2011 to ₹95 in 2026 — the quiet, uncomfortable arithmetic behind "is USA expensive for Indians".

What the spreadsheet does not price

In the US column: clean air most days, public schools that are good without a donation, parks and libraries, a 40-hour week in most jobs, the safety of a contract, and a passport queue that ends in citizenship for those who stay the course. Against it: parents ageing eleven and a half hours away, a visa that is tied to an employer and a lottery, the H-4 spouse’s career on hold until an EAD, a 17-hour flight at $1,200–2,000 a seat in the Diwali and December rush, winter in Chicago, and the knowledge that the daycare bill is paying a stranger to do what a grandmother would do for love. In the India column: family within an hour, help at home, a social life that does not need a calendar invite, festivals on the right day, and a career in a market growing faster than America’s — against traffic, air, schools that cost, and a ceiling on savings that no amount of frugality lifts. Families who do the sums honestly tend to choose the US for the children’s decade and India for their own old age, and the groups on this site are full of people at both ends of that arc.

A family of four landing in October 2026 with two suitcases each spends between $12,000 and $25,000 in the first six weeks before the first full month of the budget begins (estimate; the employer’s relocation allowance, if any, covers part of it). In order:

1. Temporary housing, week 1–3: an extended-stay hotel or an Airbnb at $120–220 a night, or a room with a friend. $2,500–4,500 for three weeks if the employer does not provide it.
2. Phone, day 1: a prepaid MVNO SIM or eSIM, $15–30, with a US number for every form that follows. Keep the Indian number alive for bank OTPs.
3. Bank account, day 2–5: Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and the credit unions open an account on a passport, visa, I-94 and a local address (the hotel will do) without an SSN. Deposit the dollars you brought; wire the rest from India under the LRS once the account exists.
4. Social Security Number, week 1: apply in person at the local office with passport, I-94 and the employer letter (the H-4 spouse applies for an ITIN with the first tax return instead). The card arrives in two to four weeks; payroll can start without it.
5. The lease, week 2–3: application fees ($50–75 an adult), the deposit (one month; one and a half in New Jersey), first month’s rent, and sometimes last month’s. $5,000–8,000 on a $2,400 two-bed, more in Fremont.
6. Utilities and internet, lease week: electricity and gas accounts open online on an SSN or a $100–300 deposit without one; internet installation $0–100 plus the first month.
7. Furniture, week 3–4: a bed, a mattress, a table, four chairs, a sofa, a television and a pressure cooker from IKEA, Costco and Facebook Marketplace, $1,500–3,500 for an apartment; Indian families leaving the area sell whole flats of furniture in the local group, which is the cheapest route.
8. The car, week 3–6: a used car at $18,000–26,000 with 10–20% down, or a new one at the $50,562 average; title and registration $100–400; insurance at the no-history rate ($250–350 a month) paid monthly. A driving test on the Indian licence takes two to eight weeks to book depending on the state, so start on day one.
9. Health insurance, from the start date: confirm the effective date with HR, enrol the dependants within 30 days, and buy a short-term policy for any gap.
10. School and daycare, week 2 onwards: enrol the school-age child the week the lease is signed (lease, utility bill, immunisation records translated, birth certificate); put the younger one on daycare waiting lists before you fly — six-month waits are normal in Bellevue and Fremont — and pay a registration fee of $100–300 and the first month on acceptance.
11. Winter clothing, if it is October in Chicago or New Jersey: $800–1,500 for four people who have never owned a proper coat.
12. Credit, from month two: a secured credit card or the bank’s starter card, used for groceries and paid in full, so that the second lease, the car loan and the phone contract are priced for a person with a score. Six months of history is enough for most things; two years for the best mortgage rate.

Carry $3,000–5,000 in accessible dollars for the first fortnight (deposits are often cashier’s cheques, not cards), bring the documents the what to take guide lists in reverse — birth and marriage certificates, degree certificates, immunisation records, the Indian driving licence, an international driving permit — and do not ship the furniture: the box costs more than IKEA.

Averages are published; the price you will pay is reported. Whether a Mission San Jose two-bed went for $3,400 or $3,900 this month, which Frisco complex waives the deposit for H-1B arrivals, which Plainsboro Montessori has a place in January and what it charges, whether the Bellevue Costco has the 20-lb atta this week, what a particular employer’s plan paid for a delivery at Overlake or El Camino, which visitor policy actually settled a parent’s hospital bill in Irving, and what NJ Transit charged from Edison after the July rise are questions no statistics table answers — and the questions that get answered within an hour in the Namaste Community groups for each US city, where the people writing signed a lease last month. Post a question on Ask when you want the answer kept for the next family: "Frisco, two-bed, October 2026, $2,050, deposit $500, Frisco ISD" is worth more than any aggregator. Every figure on this page is dated October 2026 and most of them move every year — rents in both directions, premiums up, tax brackets with inflation, Georgia’s rate down a tenth at a time — so if a number is stale, use the report link on the section and say what you paid, where and when.