San Antonio vs Tampa
Metro-area medians — San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX Metro Area vs Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area — not the cities proper.
San Antonio comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
San Antonio costs about 7% less to live in, and household incomes are similar. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in San Antonio.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, San Antonio leaves you about $3,961/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose San Antonio for
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Average commute
Choose Tampa for
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
San Antonio vs Tampa — frequently asked
- Is San Antonio cheaper than Tampa?
- San Antonio is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 7% below Tampa's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, San Antonio or Tampa?
- Household incomes are similar — $78,112 in the San Antonio metro versus $78,275 in Tampa (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in San Antonio or Tampa?
- A paycheck stretches further in San Antonio. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $82,470 there versus $77,584 in Tampa.
- Which has cheaper rent, San Antonio or Tampa?
- San Antonio has cheaper rent — a median of $1,422/mo versus $1,776/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).