Cost of Living in San Antonio, TX

Population & Growth of San Antonio, TX

San Antonio is home to roughly 1,548,422 people as of 2025, making it the second most populous city in Texas. Growth has been moderate, with the population rising about 1.6% annually over the past five years. That steady demand for housing has put upward pressure on home prices.

Storage offers an affordable way to free up space at home. A 5x10 unit costs about $36 per month on average in San Antonio. If you're planning a move, Extra Space Storage has facilities across neighborhoods like Alamo Heights, Downtown San Antonio, and Monte Vista to make your move easier. Find a storage unit in San Antonio today!

Cost of Living in San Antonio, TX by Household Size

A single adult in San Antonio needs about $35,863 per year after taxes to cover essentials. A family of four, with two adults and two children, needs about $68,444 annually for the same categories. That's nearly double the single-adult figure, driven largely by childcare, groceries, housing, and transportation.

What Salary Do You Need to Live in San Antonio, TX

Based on U.S. median household income adjusted for San Antonio's cost of living in 2026, you'd need to earn around $74,341 per year to match the standard of living of a typical American household. That's about 9% below the national figure of $81,604. For essentials only, MIT's Living Wage Calculator puts the floor at $35,863 after taxes for a single adult covering housing, groceries, transportation, healthcare, and other basic costs.

• Is $70,000 a good salary in San Antonio? For a single adult, yes. $70,000 is about 6% below the household benchmark but well above the essentials-only floor, so it covers typical costs with some room to save.

• Is $100,000 enough? For a single adult, $100,000 comfortably covers typical San Antonio costs. It's about 35% above the benchmark, which makes saving much easier.

For context, San Antonio follows the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, since Texas doesn't set a higher state minimum. The median household income in San Antonio is $66,176, about 11% below the cost-of-living benchmark.

Taxes in San Antonio, TX

Texas has no state income tax, and San Antonio doesn't add a local one. That can make a $74,341 salary go further here than in a state like California, where income tax rates reach 12.3%. Texas makes up for it through sales and property taxes. The combined sales tax rate in San Antonio is 8.25%, and Texas property tax rates are among the highest in the country.

How Does San Antonio, TX Compare to the Rest of Texas

As of 2026, San Antonio’s cost of living is 7.9% lower than the Texas state average—a smaller gap than the 9% difference from the national average, showing how much more affordable San Antonio is relative to the rest of the state.

Cost of Living in San Antonio, TX Changes Over Time

San Antonio's cost of living has stayed below the national average over the past five years, though prices still rose in absolute terms, led by housing. A competitive market and limited new development have kept prices climbing: median rent increased about 9.8% between 2021 and 2026, and median home sale prices rose about 24%. Nationwide inflation also pushed up the cost of groceries, utilities, and healthcare.

Compare San Antonio Cost of Living to Other Nearby Cities

How does San Antonio compare to other cities nearby? San Marcos's cost of living is 6% lower than San Antonio’s, with the biggest gap in housing and groceries. See the full city-by-city comparisons below.

• Cost of Living in Seguin, TX—0.5% lower than San Antonio

• Cost of Living in San Marcos, TX—6.5% lower than San Antonio

• Cost of Living in Austin, TX—6.3% higher than San Antonio

• Cost of Living in Cedar Park, TX—3.6% higher than San Antonio

• Cost of Living Index—C2ER: Our cost of living calculator is powered by data from the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), a trusted nonprofit organization that collects and compares prices across hundreds of U.S. cities. The C2ER Cost of Living Index measures everyday expenses like housing, groceries, transportation, utilities, healthcare, and other common goods and services, so you can see how costs stack up in different places. Each city's score is benchmarked against a national average of 100, which makes comparisons easy. For example, a score of 110 would indicate costs about 10% higher than the national average. We update our calculator twice a year to reflect the latest C2ER data. While these numbers represent citywide averages, it's important to keep in mind that your actual expenses may vary depending on your lifestyle and the neighborhood you choose. The category comparisons and dynamic figures throughout this page pull directly and automatically from this C2ER dataset via our CMS integration, so they stay current without manual updates each refresh cycle.

• Salary Benchmarks—Census/ACS and MIT Living Wage Calculator This page uses two distinct salary benchmarks, kept separate because they answer different questions. The "salary needed to live" figure is a cost-of-living-adjusted equivalence: U.S. median household income (Census/ACS) multiplied by the city's overall C2ER index, divided by 100—representing what a typical American household would need to earn locally to match the purchasing power they'd have nationally. The essentials-only figure referenced alongside it, and reused in the household-size breakdown, comes from MIT's Living Wage Calculator, using the after-tax, single-adult, no-children estimate as the baseline. The family-of-four figure in the household-size section uses MIT's "2 adults, both working, 2 children" scenario for consistency across cities. These figures are checked and refreshed manually as part of each city page's content update.

• Taxes—State and Local Tax Authority Sites: State income tax status, combined sales tax rate, and local income tax rate (where applicable) are researched and verified manually against each state's Department of Revenue or equivalent tax authority site as part of each city page's update.

• Cost of Living Over Time—Historical C2ER Data: Year-over-year cost-of-living trend figures are calculated in-house by comparing the city's current C2ER Cost of Living Index score against its own past C2ER reports, checked and calculated manually as part of each city page's content update.

• Population and Income Context—Census/ACS: Population figures, growth rates, and median household income come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, checked manually at each refresh.

• Neighborhood-Level Pricing—AreaVibes: Where a page identifies a specific cheaper neighborhood or suburb, median rent and home price comparisons are sourced from AreaVibes listing data, checked manually at each refresh. 

• Update Cadence: C2ER data refreshes automatically twice a year via our CMS integration. All other figures on this page—salary benchmarks, tax rates, CPI trends, Census data, and neighborhood pricing—are manually reviewed and updated as part of each city page's content refresh cycle.