3.8/5
1,009 reviews
Photo by Tom Ritson via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Taipei

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great

food

cheap

good

big

friendly

boring

pretty

cool

western

means

tokyo

street

fast

air

cafe

working

Taipei stands out as one of the safest and cleanest cities in East Asia, offering excellent value compared to nearby countries like Korea and Japan. The city is known for its friendly locals and smooth everyday functioning, much like Tokyo. With fast internet, high affordability, and an efficient public transport system, it's easy to navigate and live in the city comfortably. Street food is widely available and inexpensive, and there's a strong presence of local culture, especially in activities like tea-oriented day trips.

However, opinions on food quality vary—some found the cuisine to be world-class, while others thought it lacked flavor. The housing situation may be a downside; finding a good place to stay isn’t as easy compared to cities in Southeast Asia or even Europe. Additionally, the weather tends to be rainy and gloomy, particularly in the spring, which may affect overall enjoyment. Taipei is also slower-paced and may feel overly relaxed for those seeking a more dynamic urban experience. Despite these minor inconveniences, the overall experience in Taipei is overwhelmingly positive and it's considered a hidden gem by those who've visited.

AI-generated summary of reviews
1 year ago

The only thing stopping Taipei from being perfect is that it's not that easy to find good places to stay, not just compared to Thailand or Vietnam, but even Europe or Latin America. Besides that, it's amazing.

2 years ago

Taipei is one of my favorite cities in the world—it's incredibly affordable, convenient, and boasts some of the best food you’ll ever try (I can’t imagine who would find it bland!). It’s also one of the safest cities I’ve visited. While it may not always be the most innovative, everything runs smoothly, and the people are genuinely friendly.

2 years ago

I love Taipei, extremely underrated place—not sure why, though I'm fine with that. The cleanliness, amenities, and kindness of the people will remind you of Tokyo.

3 years ago

Taipei offers a great value because for far east Asia, it’s quite cheap compared to Korea or Japan. Very pretty historical city. A typical meal is usually 200 which is around $6.50 but you can easily get street food for much cheaper. I stayed for 5 weeks.

Pros:
extremely safe and clean
Friendly locals
Lots of Chinese culture - like day trips into tea fields
Great tea!
People spoke some English
Fast wifi
Clean air
Lots of street food
Incredible transportation - so easy to get around with mRT
7-11 everywhere with Cheap food /drinks
Cons:
Bland food (not very flavorful ) which was a big bummer for me
A little boring overall
Very slow paced (this might be a pro for some but I found it a little too sleepy for me even though it’s a city of 2 million. )
Weather - I came during spring but it rained quite a bit and was gloomy
No real grocery stores
Typically no kitchen in apartment so you have to eat out for every meal

3 years ago

Definitely check out The Key (on near Zhong Xiao Dun Hua station) if living here for more than a month. Cafe + Gym + Bar all in one, monthly membership about $50 USD. English-friendly, no contracts. Made my 3 month stay here immensely better with fast wifi in the cafe and it's a great feeling to be able to work out immediately after working.

7 years ago

Stayed here for 3 months (Thank you Taiwan for the generous hassle free Visa)
This place is a goldmine for Nomads, great cafes everywhere, very convenient.
Taiwanese people are truly blessed, they're kind, honest and genuine.
There's a very cheap coffee-shop chain called "Louisa" cafe which is dirt cheap and has great set ups for nomads .
Highly recommended, Kaohsiung is cool too.
For some reason, they LOVE to sleep on desks and chairs in Cafe / Offices (Don't ask me why!)

7 years ago

I have been to many cities but I have been returning to Taipei the most. The keyword in my opinion is liveability. Although dense the city is relaxing. Turn off the main roads and you often find streets empty, especially during office hours. Small parks are everywhere, just as food stalls and a cheap bikes to cycle in between them. Like Tokyo you can find gems of cafe's and shops just by walking around. On the bustling side of things there are plenty night markets. And being a city with lots of students Tapei has got a proper night life too. Culturally, there is everything you can expect from a big city: cinema, festivals, music scenes, (hidden) cocktail bars and modern art venues. Within an hour outside Taipei you can reach the ocean and mountains. I also liked getting a cheap rental car and just touring the island. All-in-all Taipei has got a good balance between quiet places, nature and being a big, bustling city. It definitely hasn't got as many gems as Tokyo, as big of a food scene as Hong Kong or as big as a party scene as Bangkok but it does combine many of these things in a balanced manner.

Few other thing I want to mention. Like others said the air quality can be brutal when the wind is coming from China. There are not many Western tourists so expect to feel a bit like Lost in Translation sometimes. There are lots of Japanese influences. The youth is very Western oriented and liberal. Still they life with parents until married. Stay in student houses if you can, it's cheap and social. The food is great but carbs based (lots of noodles!). Get some veggies from markets and eat some chicken/eggs from the 7Eleven to top up proteins. The insects are crazy. Butterflies are huge but so is other stuff.. If I could change Taipei I would also add more digital nomads and coworking spaces. Ok that's it!

7 years ago

Stayed here for 1 month in Da'An district. As a previous reviewer said, Taipei is a real hidden gem and really has the best of both worlds on many fronts. It's a very modern city with excellent public transportation and utilities, yet you can live here cheaply. It's also very laid back while also having many interesting things to see and do. The north and east coast of the island are especially worth visiting if you come here. Street food scene is incredible, some of the most interesting and diverse food I've tried anywhere in the world. People are also reasonably friendly, but without being fake. It helps to speak basic chinese here to get around, but is by no means a necessity. While Taipei is not for everyone (for example, it's probably not a great place if you're looking to party), it's certainly an amazing place to live and work while getting just enough culture shock without being uncomfortable. It was my favorite place to DN in asia by far.

7 years ago

Really friendly and social people, laid back, easy to get around, food is good, 4g is great. Heavy clouds for the 4 days I was here in December, which was depressing as hell.

8 years ago

There are many a reason few Westerners are here. Keep that in mind.

8 years ago

It's the hidden garden of Eden of Asia.
Safe, clean, good services, relatively cheap for the quality of living you can get here.
Friendly people and attractive girls.
You walk out of the house, sun is shining with this cool tower in the skyline, you get your coffee, and some 7 eleven snack you go do some work.
As Pieter said, you get to hang out with cool taiwanese ppl, many studied and worked in USA, and in general open to foreigners. Always felt treated well.

For some reason, Taiwanese people don't think as highly of their country, but having seen the rest of the world, believe this is Heaven.
Imagine if whole of China was as cool as Taiwan, the world would be one big happy party. Sorry not sorry

8 years ago

I lived in 🇹🇼 Taiwan for 3 months. Here's my TL;DR on Taipei: great food, friendly people, mellow vibes, great for working, great infrastructure and slightly boring but in a good way.

First thing (and I recommend everyone does this wherever they arrive ALWAYS), get a 4G SIM card. It's only 1000 TWD (or $33) for UNLIMITED 4G! And it's VERY fast. The only other country I know that has this for foreigners is South Korea.

Da'an is my favorite area. It's the center of Taipei for fashion, shopping, hipsters, mixed Taiwanese and foreigners a like. Da'an itself is pretty giant and it has lots of sub-neighborhoods with third wave coffee shops, boutique vintage fashion and lots of excellent (and cheap) Taiwanese and (not so cheap) Western food.

For Taiwanese, Da'an is supposedly expensive af. But internationally it really isn't. I had a good deal but I paid $23/night for a clean studio with bathroom right smack in the center. The more normal price would be $40/night. That's $1,200/month for an Airbnb. That means the rent is generally half here, so $600/month. As I said, that's pretty cheap to live in a really cool area. I was told houses here cost upwards of a million dollars. Okay.

Now, if you're not Taiwanese. You might already have been in contact with Taiwan in your daily life. Your iPhone is made in China, but by a company from here called Foxconn. You used to have a laptop that always broke and it was probably by a company from here called ASUS. You might not have an ASUS laptop but there's a 30% chance your laptop is still made by a Taiwanese company called Quanta, who actually makes the laptops sold by Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba. Their microchips are great and they're probably in almost every electronic device you have made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). This is most of their entire economy. It's high tech AF. And it's for a reason. They're smart AF too. They're the highest educated people in the world.

The fact that they're high-tech means that their internet is super fast and solid everywhere. Their 4G is also on-par with the best in the world, which is Korea. Generally, technology is approached just very proper in Taiwan. Government somehow gets it and most interfaces you'll use in Taiwan will work very very well.

So what's the vibe here? Culturally? Well, it's pretty unique. You can see the strong Japanese influence in their aesthetics. It's still here. Girls wear giant lenses to make their eyes look bigger (that's a predominantly Japanese thing) and their make up looks strongly Japanese, not at all Chinese. "Oh Pieter, why do you talk about how people look?". Well, because it's a pretty good indicator of their cultural influences.

Then there's that definite Western vibe. As in, people talk, move and behave very Western (unlike the rest of Asia). Now, there's not many foreigners here at all. So I can only presume that comes from the Taiwanese diaspora (that means people living outside the country), which is massive and predominantly in America. That means you get lots of American-born Taiwanese and Taiwanese studying and working in America. You know a few of them probably, like YouTube's co-founder Steve Chen and Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang.

Another thing is, it's a dense city but somehow it's not busy on the streets. There's so much space. I've never seen any crowds in the street in Taipei. That has a very calming effect.

Actually, yes, that's the keyword. Taipei is calm. It doesn't stress me out like Tokyo or Bangkok or (sometimes) Bali does. It's not loud here. It's not busy. People are mellow. I'd go as far to again call Taipei boring, but unlike when I was here 3 years ago, now I like that it's boring. It's boring in a good way.

There's one big thing that makes it hard to live in Taipei. The air is one of the most unhealthy in Asia.

And it's not so much their fault, but China's. When the wind blows east, China's pollution goes straight to Taiwan. But it doesn't pass over. Taiwan is pretty much an island that is half one big mountain that crosses it. And that mountain is so high it blocks the air pollution, so it gets stuck. I don't really know what you can do about this except blowing up that mountain. But that's probably unfavorable.

Here's my TL;DR on Taipei: great food, friendly people, mellow vibes, great for working, great infrastructure (like 4G, roads, etc.), slightly boring but in a good way.

The most important word though is, Taipei is mellow. Maybe boring. But in a good way.

8 years ago

✅ Very safe

✅ Very clean

✅ Friendly people

✅ Fast internet

✅ Very affordable

✅ Great public transportation

✅ Lots of fun stuff to do

✅ Warm now

✅ Warm in the spring

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Many Nomads.com members here all year round

✅ Very easy to make friends

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Great hospitals

✅ Roads are very safe

✅ Great freedom of speech

✅ Democratic

✅ Very safe for women

✅ Family friendly

✅ Very friendly to LGBTQ+

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

✅ Not a lot of alcohol abuse

❌ Bland food

❌ Hard to find good accommodations

❌ Rainy and gloomy weather

❌ Very hot in the summer

❌ Very sweaty and humid now

❌ Nomads.com members didn't like going here

❌ Feels crowded

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

1661°
cool

2068°
mild

2272°
mild

2373°
mild

39102°
hot

38100°
hot

43109°
scorching

39102°
hot

3799°
hot

3086°
warm

2170°
mild

1864°
cool

Real (median)

1661°
cool

2067°
mild

2271°
mild

2373°
mild

3187°
hot

3086°
very warm

3289°
hot

3086°
very warm

2780°
warm

2170°
mild

1763°
cool

Humidity

damp
82%

nice
81%

nice
83%

nice
82%

sweaty
82%

sweaty
84%

sweaty
81%

sweaty
86%

sweaty
80%

sweaty
81%

nice
84%

damp
82%

Most common

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

Rain

rainy
96mm

rainy
97mm

rainy
98mm

rainy
122mm

rainy
183mm

rainy
276mm

rainy
232mm

rainy
303mm

rainy
133mm

rainy
242mm

rainy
142mm

rainy
122mm

Cloud

cloudy
83%

pockets
49%

cloudy
67%

cloudy
77%

cloudy
82%

cloudy
84%

cloudy
61%

cloudy
60%

pockets
42%

cloudy
76%

cloudy
83%

cloudy
85%

Air quality

okay
77 US AQI

okay
56 US AQI

clean
23 US AQI

okay
56 US AQI

okay
70 US AQI

okay
68 US AQI

Sun

seek shade
4 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

seek shade
6 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

seek shade
4 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

Remote workers

7,520 people

6,075 people

7,920 people

5,400 people

5,920 people

3,565 people

4,200 people

3,379 people

4,120 people

5,100 people

6,400 people

6,720 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

Current weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0)

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

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✈️3h

$4,030 / mo

25 Mbps

Taiwan

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked very bad

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 38° 100° 29° 85° Has AC AQI 31

✈️11min

$2,362 / mo

24 Mbps

Seoul

South Korea

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 27° 81° 26° 78° Has AC AQI 39

✈️2h

$3,582 / mo

37 Mbps

Hong Kong

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 45° 113° 31° 89° Has AC 🥵 AQI 33

✈️3h

$1,436 / mo

🌇 Also went here345 people

Chiang Mai

Thailand

⭐️ OverallAll

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked bad

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 29° 84° 27° 81° Barely AC 🥵 AQI 15

✈️15h

$5,085 / mo

🌇 Also went here328 people

New York City, NY

United States

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 34° 93° 28° 83° Has AC AQI 18

✈️17h

$7,418 / mo

🌇 Also went here366 people

3,000 remote workers in Taipei now, of which 4+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

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.

🎒 Nomad Score™	3.8/5 (Rank #72) 1009 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍6 liked it 👎4 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Good
👶 Family score	Good
🎒 Community score	Okay
🤯 Overcrowding score	0% is nomad here
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $2,497 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 23 Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Good
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Hot: 26°C80°F (feels 32°C90°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	🥵 Sweaty: 95%
❄️ % of buildings with AC	😍 Very high: 94%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Great: 22 US AQI
💨 Air quality (annual)	🌱 Good: 56 US AQI
👌 Safety	Great
👩 Safe for women	Great
🌈 Safe for LGBTQ+	Great
🤮 Food safety*	Good
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Great
🤝 Lack of racism*	Good
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Resilience to climate change	Okay
💰 Income level*	Rich: $2,048 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
😤 People density	😤 Dense: 15k ppl/km² (1 per 8x8m)
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Okay
✈️ Airline scores*	Great
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
🏥 Hospitals	Great
😄 Happiness*	Good
🍸 Nightlife	Okay
📶 Free WiFi in city	Great
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Great
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Great
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Good
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Asia
🚩 Country	Taiwan
🗓️ Average trip length	12 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	23 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌧 26°C 80°F + 🥵 Sweaty (95%) = feels 32°C 90°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 22 US AQI 🍃 OK
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👎😷 56 US AQI
🔌 Power	115V 60Hz
🧔 Best neighborhood to stay	Zhongsheng South
🚀 Upcoming neighborhood	Nangang
🚕 Best taxi app*	Uber
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 100 TWD in USD	USD 3.15
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	TWD 10,000 = USD 315
💸 Tipping	No
💳 Cashless	💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners)
💻 Best coworking space	CLBC
💻 Best alt. coworking space	Citron
☕️ Best coffee place	Picnic
🏪 Best 24/7 coffee place	McDonalds
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	👍13% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	9,318,900 visitors
📸 Tourists now	178,596 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	9,100,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$24,577 / year
😤 Population density	😤 crowded: 8x8m (64m²) per person
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 45% 👱‍♀️ 55%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 52% 👱‍♀️ 48%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 82% 👱‍♀️ 18%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
💻 Online electronics shop	PCHome
🏠 Apartment listings	Airbnb
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	EVA
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Air Asia
🏥 Best hospital	Taipei Hospital

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$2,497 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,888 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$3,802 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$1,086 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$1,308 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$3,315 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$870 / month
🏠 Median home price	$684,476
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$61 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$109 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$189 / month
🍛 Dinner	$5
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$3
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$3
👩‍🏫 International school	$16,757 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$17 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$3 / trip

Cost of Living in Taipei

3,000 remote workers in Taipei now, of which 4+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

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