Cost of Living in Georgia: What You'll Actually Spend

Realistic monthly costs in Tbilisi, Batumi and Kutaisi — rent, utilities, groceries, transport and internet — with sample budgets for one person and a family.

Last updated: July 2, 2026

Georgia is cheap by Western standards and no longer as cheap as the blog posts from five years ago claim. Prices — especially rent in Tbilisi and Batumi — moved sharply with the migration waves of recent years and never fully came back down. Here's what things actually cost, city by city, in GEL. For converting to your currency at the official rate, use our currency-aware tax calculator or any rate site; all figures below need checking against current reality.

Rent by city

Rent is the variable that makes or breaks your budget, and it varies wildly by city and neighborhood.

Monthly rent (long-term, furnished)	Tbilisi	Batumi	Kutaisi
1-bedroom, central	1300–2200 GEL	1000–1800 GEL	500–900 GEL
1-bedroom, outside center	800–1400 GEL	700–1200 GEL	400–700 GEL
2–3 bedroom, central	2000–3500 GEL	1500–2800 GEL	800–1400 GEL

Listings are often quoted in USD, and yearly contracts are sometimes pegged to the USD rate. These ranges are indicative, checked July 2026.

Notes that matter more than the numbers:

Batumi is seasonal. Summer rents are commonly 50–100% above winter rents, and many landlords prefer short summer lets. Sign a yearly contract in autumn if you can.
Listings aimed at foreigners run above local prices. The gap between a listing on an English-language portal and the same flat via a local Facebook group or agent is commonly 10–30%.
Standard practice is typically one month's deposit; the agency fee, where used, is typically half to one month's rent, sometimes paid by the landlord.

Utilities

For a typical 1-bedroom apartment, expect these monthly ranges:

Electricity: 40–120 GEL, doubling or more in months with AC or electric heating
Natural gas (cooking + heating): 10–30 GEL in warm months, 100–150+ GEL in heating season
Water: 3–15 GEL depending on household size
Building/cleaning fee: 5–30 GEL (apartment buildings; houses typically have none)

A realistic all-in utilities line is 80–150 GEL in mild months and 200–350 GEL in winter for gas-heated apartments — less for small households or outside the big cities. Older buildings are poorly insulated; heating costs surprise almost everyone in their first winter.

Food and groceries

Where you shop matters more than what you eat:

Bazaars (produce markets) are the cheap option: seasonal vegetables at 3–7 GEL/kg, fruit similar, local cheese 20–25 GEL/kg.
Supermarkets (local chains and hypermarkets) sit in the middle.
Imported goods are where money disappears — European brands often cost 1.5–2× their EU price.

For groceries, a frugal single shopper can manage on 250–400 GEL/month; 500–800 GEL is a typical comfortable single, 800–1300 for a couple.

Eating out stays affordable outside tourist zones: khinkali 1–2 GEL apiece, a filling meal at a simple local place 15–30 GEL, a proper restaurant meal around 50–70 GEL per person. A cappuccino is often 8–14 GEL in Tbilisi specialty cafés.

Transport

Tbilisi public transport (metro + buses) uses a unified card; a single ride is 1 GEL with free transfers within 90 minutes, and a monthly unlimited pass is 40 GEL (see the official tariff page).
Ride-hailing (Bolt, Yandex) is the default for most expats: 7–25 GEL cross-town in Tbilisi, more at night or in rain.
Intercity: marshrutkas (minibuses) cost roughly 12–30 GEL Tbilisi–Kutaisi and 30–40 GEL Tbilisi–Batumi; the train Tbilisi–Batumi runs 36 GEL 2nd class / 76 GEL 1st class / 126 GEL business (Georgian Railways, July 2026).
Owning a car adds fuel at roughly 3.6–4.2 GEL/liter, cheap parking outside the center, and a mandatory periodic technical inspection (newer cars only every two years); check current insurance requirements when registering a car.

Without a car, public transport is nearly negligible in your budget (a 40 GEL monthly pass covers it); the real budget-setter is taxi habits — frequent Bolt use pushes 150–250+ GEL/month.

Mobile and internet

Connectivity is one of Georgia's quiet strengths:

Mobile: unlimited calls runs about 30 GEL/month and unlimited mobile data about 30 GEL/month as separate plans; combined all-unlimited plans run 50–70+ GEL (Magti, Silknet, Cellfie). Coverage is good in cities and along main roads.
Home fiber: roughly 50–80 GEL/month depending on provider and speed; Silknet's 100 Mbps optic packages run about 75–80 GEL. Installation is quick in most urban buildings.
Speeds and reliability in Tbilisi are genuinely good; village internet varies.

Sample monthly budgets

Three honest profiles, all in GEL, all excluding rent-deposit and setup costs.

Illustrative example budgets based on the ranges in this guide — your numbers will differ.

Line	Frugal single (Kutaisi)	Comfortable single (Tbilisi)	Family of 3 (Tbilisi)
Rent	600	1700	2700
Utilities + internet	160	240	350
Groceries	550	750	1500
Eating out	110	430	430
Transport	65	190	270
Mobile	45	55	110
Everything else	220	540	860
Total	~1750 GEL	~3905 GEL	~6220 GEL

Two caveats. First, health insurance isn't in the table: local private insurance is commonly quoted at 50–200 GEL/month depending on age and coverage, and many expats instead pay out of pocket — an initial paid consultation typically runs 50–150 GEL, varying by clinic and city. Second, the lari's exchange rate moves — if your income is in USD or EUR, your effective cost of living swings with it, which is exactly why we built the exchange-rate-aware calculator.

If you're earning a Western remote salary, Georgia remains comfortably affordable. If you're earning locally, these numbers explain why Tbilisi feels expensive to the people who live there. Budget against the pessimistic end of each range for your first three months — the setup period always costs more than the steady state.