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One page of sourced numbers per city: what a day costs, what the travel advisory says, and which months score best on the weather.

Data: GeoNames, Open-Meteo, World Bank, US State Department, UK FCDO.

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© 2026 Travel City Index. Every number on this site comes from a dataset named on the page that shows it.
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United States · United States

New York City vs San Francisco: cost, safety and weather compared (2026)

Every figure below comes from the same datasets for both cities, so the two columns are comparable.

New York City and San Francisco compared on cost, safety, weather and size
New York CityUnited StatesSan FranciscoUnited States
Daily cost, per personestimate
Budget$110$90
Mid-range$260$210
Luxury$560$450
Price level1.00× US (2025)1.00× US (2025)
US advisoryNot ratedNot rated
Best monthsJun, Aug and SepMay, Jun, Jul and Aug
Annual rain1,309 mm737 mm
Average high17.7 °C17.3 °C
Population8.8M828K
Time zoneAmerica/New_YorkAmerica/Los_Angeles

The short answer

San Francisco is about 19 % cheaper per day than New York City, $210 against $260 (mid-range estimate). No US advisory was found for either city. In September, the daily average is 20 °C in New York City and 18 °C in San Francisco.

Keep reading

City overviews

  • New York City overview
  • San Francisco overview

Cost and safety in detail

  • New York City trip cost
  • Is New York City safe?
  • San Francisco trip cost
  • Is San Francisco safe?

Where they rank

  • Cheapest cities in North America
  • Safest cities in North America

Countries

  • All cities in United States

Sources

  • GeoNames city database — CC BY 4.0, fetched September 14, 2026
  • Open-Meteo climate archive — CC BY 4.0, fetched September 21, 2026
  • World Bank price level and exchange rate — CC BY 4.0, data year 2025
  • US State Department travel advisories — public domain, fetched September 21, 2026

Dates are the most recent fetch across the cities on this page. Every sentence here is generated from the data by rule, with no AI writing; the formulas are public.