2.77/5
529 reviews
Photo by Sabeer Darr via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Penang

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Penang is a very affordable place to stay, with food, rent, and general living costs being low. Many digital nomads found month-to-month options through Airbnb with prices as low as $100/month on the cheap end. English is widely spoken, making it easy to get by without learning a local language. Locals are helpful and friendly, and the area is considered very safe, even compared to other Malaysian cities. The food variety is good though mainly limited to Malay, Indian, and Chinese, and it's known for being clean and unlikely to cause stomach issues.

The biggest downside mentioned repeatedly is the slow and unreliable internet, both in accommodations and cafes. A common workaround is using 4G mobile networks, which can offer speeds around 40 Mbps with a local SIM card. WiFi in cafes tends to be poor, and many cafes aren't well-suited for work due to being crowded, under air-conditioned, or not laptop-friendly. The climate is consistently hot and humid, and most outdoor activities happen early morning or at night. Some also noted a high level of noise pollution from religious prayer calls. So while Penang has strong upsides in cost, safety, and hospitality, its internet and climate remain serious drawbacks for long-term remote workers.

AI-generated summary of reviews

Penang is really, really hot and humid. It's pretty affordable but it's relatively small. Personally, I think traveling Penang is great because you have a mix of cultures but I couldn't stay here for a longer time because it is so unbelievable hot.

2 years ago

The noise pollution here is insane. The prayer calls from the mosques seem to reverberate throughout Penang. Seems like they are competing for who can be the loudest. This really ruined Penang for me and I cut my time short.

5 years ago

We picked up 4G SIM from the airport for $5 that got us 20Gb for the 2 weeks we visited the place to see if we wanted to work here.

5 years ago

Penang is great.

It's everything the rest of Malaysia is not: Penang is clean, super safe, people are friendly, the food won't make you sick.

Penang probably is not the next nomad hotspot soon though but it could be. There's quite a lot of cafes, but not many are good for laptopping. Very few cafes have solid airconditioning, so it'll be hot. They do usually have fans though. Most buildings are small built here, so cafes can also be quite cramped and get crowded fast, especially around lunch and late afternoons. Also cafes close very early, like 5pm or 6pm.

Internet is legendarily slow, doesn't matter if it's in your hotel or cafe. Internet in Penang in general is just very slow. But there's an easy fix for that: buy a 4G Hotlink SIM card and top it up every day/week with a few gigabyte. Then use your phone to tether. It'll be extremely fast at around 40 Mbps, vs the WiFi's at 1 Mbps (!).

Great thing vs. for example Thailand is that people here speak almost perfect English, and compared to Kuala Lumpur people here are generally quite educated. Also about the people: Penangites are just really friendly and nice. They know you're a tourist and it doesn't matter, they're happy to help you get around and give tips where to go. Really friendly and chill people.

Food is good but I'll be real here, there's kinda limited options. Everything is either Malay, Indian or Chinese. Which is nice, but gets limited fast.

Some recommendations to work:
- Wheeler's cafe (ask or book beforehand to make sure you sit in the aircon area upstairs)
- Coffee Addicts cafe
- Daily Dose (make sure you order food here though cause they don't seem to like laptops that much)

To eat:
- Nasi Kandar Line Clear, yes it's an alley way but nice and you won't get sick, very clean: go there ask for rice and beef or chicken and vegetables and curry sauce, it'll be $2 or $3 USD, ask for hot tea, that's how locals eat it. It's open 24/7.
- Halab, a Syrian restaurant, it's not cheap (think $20 for a meal) but it's a loooot of grilled meat, good if you need protein after gym, also didn't get sick it so seems safe.

I think if Penang gets some nice aircon'd hipster cafes that like laptops, fixes its slow WiFi speeds everywhere and gets more nomads coming, it could very well become a new nomad hotspot in Asia.

5 years ago

Beware of slow internet speed! It's also difficult to get month-to-month accommodation. Airbnb is basically the only choice. I got a great studio apartment at the Kim Haus for $620/month, which includes tourist tax of RM10 per day. Excellent location. But the internet is so slow it is unusable. And there are very few cafes that have better internet. One of the better cafes in town happens to be across the street from the Kim Haus. It's called Coffee Addicts.

6 years ago

I've been living here for a year. English is widely used everywhere so you don't need to learn any other language. Internet at home fiber 1Gbps super fast. Rental is both cheap and expensive, you can find places as cheap as $100 per month and as expensive as $1000-$2000 for luxury style condos. Food is excellent, you can literally eat every day out for less than $5 per meal + drink and never repeat the same restaurant. Maybe the only downside is that as it's so hot people only do exercise very early in the morning or at night or in the gyms (usually condos have a gym).

6 years ago

Loved Penang! I rented an Airbnb 1BR apartment in Straits Quay for a month @ $35/nt and rent is probably lower if you stay longer or live in a less touristy area. Great food, easy transportation, nice beaches, super affordable plus my host upgraded wifi to 30mbps. Everyone speaks English, thanks to Malaysia's colonial history and the people are so hospitable. I hope to move there permanently someday!

6 years ago

SLOW internet speed and local people mostly relies on 4G/LTE networks instead of cables. However, I need to recommend the Wheeler's: https://goo.gl/maps/Z2cLP2y9hqT2 It has the fast internet speed in town, around 20Mbps download/upload.

6 years ago

✅ Very affordable

✅ Friendly people

✅ English widely spoken

✅ Safe

✅ Great food

✅ Affordable to live

✅ Pretty safe

✅ Fast internet

✅ Warm now

✅ Warm all year round

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Nomads.com members liked going here

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Spacious and not crowded

✅ Very easy to make friends

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Democratic

✅ People can speak basic English

✅ Very safe for women

✅ Family friendly

✅ LGBTQ+ friendly

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

✅ Not a lot of alcohol abuse

❌ Slow internet

❌ Very hot and humid

❌ Limited good cafes for work

❌ Noise pollution

❌ Freedom of speech is weak

❌ Not much to do

❌ Very sweaty and humid now

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Roads are very dangerous

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

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May

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Jul

Aug

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Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels

91 33°
hot

93 34°
hot

97 36°
hot

95 35°
hot

99 37°
hot

95 35°
hot

93 34°
hot

95 35°
hot

93 34°
hot

91 33°
hot

97 36°
hot

Real

84 29°
very warm

85 30°
very warm

86 30°
very warm

85 30°
very warm

86 30°
very warm

85 30°
very warm

84 29°
very warm

85 30°
very warm

84 29°
very warm

83 29°
very warm

86 30°
very warm

Humidity

sweaty
75%

sweaty
71%

sweaty
75%

sweaty
78%

sweaty
79%

sweaty
77%

sweaty
78%

sweaty
79%

sweaty
80%

sweaty
81%

sweaty
76%

Most common

☔️ Rain

Rain

rainy
69mm

dry
15mm

rainy
182mm

rainy
222mm

rainy
250mm

rainy
177mm

rainy
208mm

rainy
209mm

rainy
259mm

rainy
338mm

rainy
361mm

rainy
236mm

Cloud

cloudy
85%

cloudy
57%

cloudy
66%

cloudy
90%

cloudy
88%

cloudy
85%

cloudy
90%

cloudy
85%

cloudy
88%

cloudy
85%

cloudy
52%

Sun

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
10 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

Remote workers

1,343 people

1,329 people

1,527 people

1,017 people

850 people

600 people

892 people

1,160 people

636 people

900 people

892 people

1,109 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Penang's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

	Project Coordinator @ Lead Bank
	Associate Program Manager @ Lead Bank
	Manager Maintenance @ Commonwealth Fusion Systems
	Software Engineer Infrastructure @ Gauntlet
	Software Engineer Data @ Gauntlet
	Software Engineer III Frontend @ Shippo
	HQ Senior Frontend Engineer @ Job&Talent
	Brand Designer @ Contra
	Motion Designer @ Contra
	Lead Product Designer @ Stealth
	DeFi Researcher @ Gauntlet

Help pick the best photos for Penang and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	2.77/5 (Rank #174) 529 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍12 liked it 👎2 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Good
👶 Family score	Good
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $1,073 / mo
📡 Internet	🙂 Good: 19Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Hot: 29°C84°F (feels 33°C91°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	🥵 Sweaty: 75%
👌 Safety	Good
🤮 Food safety*	Good
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Good
🤝 Lack of racism*	Good
🎓 Education level*	Mediocre
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Good
💰 Income level*	Low: $792 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Good
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Bad
✈️ Airline scores*	Good
🧳 Lost luggage*	Okay
🏥 Hospitals	Good
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Good
📶 Free WiFi in city	Great
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Okay
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Great
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Okay
👩 Female friendly	Great
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Okay
🎅 Startup Score	Okay

🌍 Continent	Asia
🚩 Country	Malaysia
🗓️ Average trip length	8 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	19 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌦 29°C 84°F + 🥵 Sweaty (75%) = feels 33°C 91°F
🔌 Power	230V 50Hz
🚕 Best taxi app*	Grab
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 10 MYR in USD	USD 2.29
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	MYR 1,000 = USD 229
💸 Tipping	No
💳 Cashless	💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners)
💻 Best coworking space	Settlements
☕️ Best coffee place	Wheeler's
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	10% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	3,194,400 visitors
📸 Tourists now	61,221 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	740,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$9,508 / year
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 81% 👱‍♀️ 19%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Religious
💻 Online electronics shop	Lazada
🏠 Apartment listings	Ibilik
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Air Asia
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Malaysia
🏥 Best hospital	Gleneagles Medical Centre

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$1,073 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$780 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$1,733 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$495 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$366 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,119 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$251 / month
🏠 Median home price	$114,312
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$17 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$37 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$73 / month
🍛 Dinner	$2
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$3
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$2
👩‍🏫 International school	$5,944 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$6 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$1 / trip