What does it cost to study in Germany?
A student in Germany needs roughly €807 a month in Chemnitz and €1,323 in München, with a WG room, the student Deutschlandticket, average food, health insurance and other costs. Rent is the big difference: a WG room costs €274 to €790 a month (warm) across 38 university cities. Pick your city below for your own budget.
Berlin · WG room
€1,157/ month
≈ €13,886 per year
- Rent (incl. utilities)€624.00
- Food & groceries€210.00
- Health & care insurance€147.00
- Transport€37.80
- Rundfunkbeitrag€18.36
- Leisure, phone & other€120.00
Rent here is €244 above the €380 BAföG housing allowance.
Estimates from averages, not quotes. Your rent, insurer and habits will differ.
City guides
The budget, rent rank and address-registration details, city by city. More cities are on the way.
What a student budget in Germany includes
Most of your spending falls into four buckets. Only rent changes dramatically from one city to the next.
Rent
The biggest cost and the one that changes most by city. Rents here are warm (utilities included).
Food
About €210 a month for the average student, less if you cook and use the Mensa.
Health insurance
Around €147 a month for statutory student cover, including care insurance.
Transport
The student Deutschlandticket is about €37.80 a month where offered.
Student rent by city in Germany
Monthly warm rent for a WG room and a 30 m² apartment, most expensive first. The last column shows the gap to the €380 BAföG housing allowance.
| City | State | WG room | Apartment | WG vs BAföG |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| München | Bayern | €790 | €837 | +€410 |
| Frankfurt am Main | Hessen | €702 | €734 | +€322 |
| Hamburg | Hamburg | €678 | €626 | +€298 |
| Köln | Nordrhein-Westfalen | €641 | €688 | +€261 |
| Heidelberg | Baden-Württemberg | €633 | €670 | +€253 |
| Berlin | Berlin | €624 | €664 | +€244 |
| Freiburg | Baden-Württemberg | €615 | €644 | +€235 |
| Münster | Nordrhein-Westfalen | €608 | €649 | +€228 |
| Stuttgart | Baden-Württemberg | €593 | €640 | +€213 |
| Konstanz | Baden-Württemberg | €580 | €571 | +€200 |
| Würzburg | Bayern | €547 | €582 | +€167 |
| Bonn | Nordrhein-Westfalen | €540 | €582 | +€160 |
| Nürnberg | Bayern | €535 | €558 | +€155 |
| Karlsruhe | Baden-Württemberg | €526 | €570 | +€146 |
| Düsseldorf | Nordrhein-Westfalen | €517 | €557 | +€137 |
| Regensburg | Bayern | €510 | €542 | +€130 |
| Rostock | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | €502 | €496 | +€122 |
| Mainz | Rheinland-Pfalz | €495 | €549 | +€115 |
| Oldenburg | Niedersachsen | €495 | €526 | +€115 |
| Bremen | Bremen | €484 | €504 | +€104 |
| Aachen | Nordrhein-Westfalen | €483 | €521 | +€103 |
| Darmstadt | Hessen | €483 | €555 | +€103 |
| Saarbrücken | Saarland | €480 | €496 | +€100 |
| Ulm | Baden-Württemberg | €480 | €530 | +€100 |
| Tübingen | Baden-Württemberg | €464 | €526 | +€84 |
| Mannheim | Baden-Württemberg | €455 | €502 | +€75 |
| Jena | Thüringen | €452 | €466 | +€72 |
| Hannover | Niedersachsen | €451 | €477 | +€71 |
| Göttingen | Niedersachsen | €448 | €508 | +€68 |
| Dresden | Sachsen | €435 | €499 | +€55 |
| Trier | Rheinland-Pfalz | €435 | €510 | +€55 |
| Leipzig | Sachsen | €434 | €442 | +€54 |
| Kiel | Schleswig-Holstein | €419 | €460 | +€39 |
| Bielefeld | Nordrhein-Westfalen | €398 | €443 | +€18 |
| Greifswald | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | €340 | €402 | -€40 |
| Magdeburg | Sachsen-Anhalt | €339 | €374 | -€41 |
| Bochum | Nordrhein-Westfalen | €322 | €368 | -€58 |
| Chemnitz | Sachsen | €274 | €296 | -€106 |
Updated September 2026. Source: MLP Studentenwohnreport 2025.
Student living costs, answered
How much does a student need per month in Germany?
It depends mostly on the city. With a WG room, student Deutschlandticket, average food and health insurance, a student needs roughly €807 a month in Chemnitz and €1,323 in München. Use the calculator above for your own city and habits.
What is the cheapest university city in Germany?
In our data, Chemnitz has the lowest WG rent at about €274 a month (warm), against €790 in München. The average across 38 cities is about €505.
Is the BAföG housing allowance enough to pay rent?
The housing allowance is €380 a month. A WG room stays within it in 4 of 38 cities in our data. In the rest, you cover the gap from other income.
Does the Deutschlandticket save money for students?
Yes, where your university offers the student version. It costs about €37.80 a month from winter semester 2026/27, against €63.00 for the regular ticket.
How accurate is this calculator?
It uses published averages: city rents from the MLP Studentenwohnreport 2025 and national averages for food and insurance. Real rents on listing sites can be higher, especially for a fast search in Munich, Berlin or Hamburg, so treat it as a planning baseline rather than a quote.
Where the numbers come from
- MLP Studentenwohnreport 2025Warm rent for a 30 m² apartment and a 20 m² WG room in 38 university cities
- 22nd Sozialerhebung, Deutsches StudierendenwerkAverage student spending on food, adjusted to 2026
- Moses Mendelssohn Institut, Hochschulstädte-Scoring 2026Current WG-Gesucht asking rents, used as a cross-check
Asking rents on listing sites run higher than these averages in the big cities: the Moses Mendelssohn Institut’s 2026 WG-Gesucht data puts a WG room at about €850 in Munich, €650 in Berlin and Hamburg, and €640 in Cologne. Health insurance and other national figures are averages and vary by provider. Read our guides on moving to Germany.