“Is Singapore expensive?” is the question I am asked most, and it is almost always answered badly — usually by someone comparing hotel rates and stopping there. The truthful answer is that Singapore is expensive in exactly four categories and startlingly cheap in the ones you use every day. Understand that split and the city costs far less than its reputation.
| Item | Typical cost (SGD) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hawker meal | 4–8 | The best food in the city sits at the bottom of this range |
| Food court meal | 8–15 | Air-conditioned, convenient, rarely better |
| Casual restaurant meal | 25–45 per person | Before drinks |
| Mid-range restaurant dinner | 60–100 per person | Before drinks |
| Kopi at a kopitiam | 1.20–2 | Café coffee: 5.50–8 |
| Beer in a bar | 12–18 | Cocktail: 20–28. Alcohol is heavily taxed |
| MRT journey | 1–2.50 | Contactless bank card; fares cap automatically |
| Taxi / Grab, short city trip | 10–20 | Airport to city: roughly 25–40 |
| Major attraction ticket | 25–60 | Universal Studios and similar sit at the top |
| Mid-range hotel night | 180–350 | The number that dominates any budget |
| SIM card, tourist | 12–30 | Or an eSIM before you land |
| Style | Per day | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Hawker-first | SGD 30–50 | Three hawker meals, MRT everywhere, free attractions, one paid entry every few days |
| Mid-range | SGD 90–150 | Hawker breakfast and lunch, restaurant dinner, one paid attraction daily, occasional taxi |
| Comfortable | SGD 250+ | Restaurant meals, cocktails, multiple attractions, taxis by default |
Singapore is cheaper than its reputation for anyone who eats like a local, and more expensive than expected for anyone who doesn’t. The four expensive categories are hotels, alcohol, taxis and attraction tickets — and you can control three of them completely. Eat at hawker centres, use the MRT with a contactless card, and pick free attractions for half your days, and Singapore costs less per day than Sydney, London or Tokyo while feeding you better.
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The most useful single money fact about Singapore: a Michelin-recognised hawker meal and a hotel club sandwich cost about the same, and only one of them is worth eating. Every day you shift meals from restaurants to hawker centres saves real money and improves the food.
If you want your specific trip costed rather than a range — or you’re modelling a longer stay or a move — the free 60-second calculator gives a personalised estimate, and the quarterly Arrival Cost Index publishes the underlying methodology.
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Singapore is expensive where it is famous for being — hotels, alcohol, taxis and attraction tickets — and remarkably cheap where it matters daily. Hawker meals cost SGD 4–8, public transport a couple of dollars a journey, and many of the best experiences (the Supertree light show, Marina Bay at blue hour, the Botanic Gardens, Jewel, the heritage districts) are free. A traveller who eats at hawker centres and uses the MRT spends a fraction of what the city's reputation suggests.
Excluding accommodation: a budget traveller eating at hawker centres and using the MRT can manage on roughly SGD 30–50 a day; a mid-range traveller mixing hawker meals with a restaurant dinner and one paid attraction lands around SGD 90–150; and a comfortable traveller with restaurant meals, cocktails and multiple attractions should budget SGD 250 and upward. Accommodation is the variable that dwarfs all of these.
A hawker meal costs SGD 4–8, a food-court meal SGD 8–15, a casual restaurant meal SGD 25–45 per person, and a mid-range restaurant dinner SGD 60–100 before drinks. A cocktail in a bar commonly costs SGD 20–28. The gap between hawker and restaurant pricing is the single most useful economic fact about eating here.
More than most visitors realise: the Supertree Grove light show at 7:45pm, the Marina Bay waterfront loop, Gardens by the Bay's outdoor gardens, the Botanic Gardens, Jewel's Rain Vortex, all the heritage districts on foot, Haw Par Villa, the Southern Ridges walk, most nature reserves, and Fort Siloso. A genuinely excellent Singapore day can cost nothing but transport and food.
Three moves do almost all the work: eat lunch and dinner at hawker centres rather than restaurants, use the MRT with a contactless bank card instead of taxis, and choose free attractions for at least half your days. Skipping one paid attraction and one restaurant dinner typically saves more than any accommodation downgrade.
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