Los Angeles vs San Francisco
Metro-area medians — Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro Area vs San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
San Francisco comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Los Angeles and San Francisco cost about the same to live in, but San Francisco households earn about 41% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in San Francisco.
Their widest everyday difference: San Francisco has cleaner air on a typical day — a median AQI of 53 versus 80.
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, Los Angeles leaves you about $909/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 Francisco for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
More comparisons
Metros closest to Los Angeles and San Francisco on cost, income, size, and education.
Los Angeles vs San Francisco — frequently asked
- Is Los Angeles cheaper than San Francisco?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Los Angeles and San Francisco metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Los Angeles or San Francisco?
- San Francisco has the higher median household income — $135,590 versus $96,405 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 41% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Los Angeles or San Francisco?
- A paycheck stretches further in San Francisco. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $117,279 there versus $84,889 in Los Angeles.
- Which has cheaper rent, Los Angeles or San Francisco?
- Los Angeles has cheaper rent — a median of $2,114/mo versus $2,435/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).