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Cairo, Egypt
Photo: Faris El-Gwely · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Cairo

Egypt · Africa · 10,100,166 people · Africa/Cairo · EGP

Cairo scores 46.5/100 for digital nomads under balanced weights, ranking 1344 of 1501 cities. Expect about $881 per month, no dedicated nomad visa, and a measured median download speed of 10.6 Mbps.

Cairo is extraordinarily cheap and endlessly interesting, with the new Grand Egyptian Museum and the Nile at its centre. Air quality, traffic and noise make it a demanding base.

  • Pyramids and museums
  • Nile
  • Very low cost
  • Pollution and traffic
Cost of living: 8.9 of 46 points (scores 80/100)Safety: 5.2 of 46 points (scores 47/100)Healthcare: 7.3 of 46 points (scores 66/100)Internet: 4.7 of 46 points (scores 42/100)Visa ease: 3.8 of 46 points (scores 34/100)Getting there & around: 3.7 of 46 points (scores 33/100)Climate: 5.6 of 46 points (scores 50/100)Air quality: 1.5 of 46 points (scores 14/100)Quality of life: 5.8 of 46 points (scores 52/100)47
Balanced score
out of 100
Vibe check
  • Cost8.9
  • Safety5.2
  • Health7.3
  • Internet4.7
  • Visa3.8
  • Mobility3.7
  • Climate5.6
  • Air1.5
  • QoL5.8

Rank 1,344 of 1,501

For US nomads

  • US passport entry
    visa on arrival
    check the consulate before booking
  • Time vs New York
    7 hours ahead of New York
    2h of a 9–6 day overlap with Eastern time
  • Time vs Los Angeles
    10 hours ahead of Los Angeles
    0h of a 9–6 day overlap with Pacific time
  • Non-stop from the US
    5 US airports
    Wikipedia, 2026-10

Prices are in US dollars. US citizens are taxed on worldwide income; the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and state residency rules are worth a look before a long stay.

Eating out

OpenStreetMap, 2026-1116

178restaurants within 3 km

Mapped around the centre of Cairo: a modest scene, worth checking the neighbourhoods. A count of what is on the map, not a rating, and it does not affect the score.

How Cairo scores, factor by factor

Superscripts link to the source list at the bottom. Country-level figures apply to all of Egypt.

Cost of living

Monthly cost for one person (log-scaled, cheaper is better).
80
  • Monthly cost, one person: $8812 · city-level, 2026-09
  • Central one-bedroom rent: $3062 · city-level, 2026-09

Safety

Homicide rate and political stability (country-level).
47
  • Homicide rate: 4.2 per 100k4 · country-level, 2021
  • Political stability: 50/1005 · country-level, 2025

Healthcare

WHO universal-health-coverage index and life expectancy (country-level).
66
  • UHC service coverage: 71/1006 · country-level, 2023
  • Life expectancy: 71.9 years7 · country-level, 2023

Internet

Median measured download and upload speed (M-Lab, city-level; the province or country aggregate where the city has too few tests).
42
  • Median download: 10.6 Mbps8 · city-level, 2024
  • Median upload: 1.6 Mbps8 · city-level, 2024
  • Tests measured: 68,5088 · city-level, 2024
  • Starlink: Unknown9 · country-level, 2026-10, not scored

Visa ease

How easily your passport gets in and stays: visa-free days, eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa or consular visa, plus a nomad visa and how affordable its income threshold is. Averages US, EU and UK passports until you pick yours.
34
  • Nomad visa: none listed10
  • Entry, US passport: visa on arrival11 · country-level, 2026-02
  • Entry, EU passport: visa on arrival11 · country-level, 2026-02
  • Entry, UK passport: visa on arrival11 · country-level, 2026-02

Getting there & around

Non-stop airport destinations (hub size) plus editorial walkability and transit ratings.
33
  • Non-stop destinations from CAI: 12812 · city-level, 2026-10
  • Walkability: 2/513 · editorial, 2026-09
  • Public transit: 3/513 · editorial, 2026-09

Climate

Share of months that are comfortable: 59–82°F (15–28 °C) mean, at most 5.9 in (150 mm) rain, at most 85% humidity.
50
  • Comfortable months: 6 of 1214 · city-level, 2001–2020 normals

Air quality

Annual mean PM2.5 on a fixed scale: 5 µg/m³ (WHO guideline) scores 100, 50 µg/m³ or worse scores 0.
14
  • Annual mean PM2.5: 43.9 µg/m³15 · city-level, 2023

Quality of life

Human Development Index and English proficiency (country-level).
52
  • Human Development Index: 0.75417 · country-level, 2023
  • English proficiency: low18 · country-level, 2024

What does Cairo cost per month?

Total, one person$881city, outskirts one-bedroom
Total with a central one-bedroom$971derived
One-bedroom rent, centre$306city
One-bedroom rent, outskirts$216city
Country cost index (US = 100)19country

Can you stay legally?

Nomad visanone listed
Minimum income—
US passportvisa on arrival
EU passportvisa on arrival
UK passportvisa on arrival

Visa rules change often. Verify with the issuing government before you book.

Do you pay tax here on income from abroad?

Tax status · Egypt

Work you do from Egypt is taxed up to 27.5% even if paid from abroad; foreign interest, rent and pensions are not

Territorial

Egypt taxes income earned in Egypt, and work you physically do there counts even when the employer or clients are abroad: salary and freelance fees pay 0%–27.5%. Residents are also taxed on foreign dividends and on gains from shares not listed in Egypt, but not on foreign interest, rent or pensions. Gains on Egyptian-listed shares became tax-free in July 2026. There is no wealth or inheritance tax.

  • Remote work income

    Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

    Taxed

    0%–27.5% progressive (first EGP 40,000 at 0%, plus a EGP 20,000 personal allowance on salary)

  • Investments and pensions

    Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad

    Taxed

    Foreign dividends and gains on shares not listed in Egypt: 0%–27.5% progressive; Egyptian dividends 5%–10%; listed Egyptian share gains exempt

  • Wealth

    Net wealth and inheritance

    No wealth tax

    No inheritance tax

Tax resident after
183 days a year
Top income tax rate
27.5%

On the nomad visa

Egypt has no digital nomad visa on its official portals. Most visitors use a tourist e-visa from the Interior Ministry's portal (US$30 single entry, US$65 multiple entry), whose terms say that engaging in any business or employment without the required permit is an offence. A tourist stay has no tax status of its own: work done in Egypt is Egyptian-source income taxable from the first day, and after more than 183 days in 12 months you are resident, which brings foreign dividends and share gains into scope. Longer stays need a residence permit; those categories were not reviewed here.

Not yet reviewed by a person · compiled from official pages read on 2026-10-27

General information, not tax advice. Tax treaties, your citizenship and your home country's exit rules can change the answer. US citizens are taxed by the US wherever they live.

Airports and nonstop flights

Cairo is served by one airport.

AirportNonstop destinationsInternationalFrom US airports
CAICairo International Airport1281205

Wikipedia airport pages as of 2026-10: seasonal routes included, charters and announced-but-not-started routes excluded.

What is the weather like through the year?

Comfortable months by our rule: Mar–May, Sep–Nov. Rank cities for Mar–May →

MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Mean °F545763707883868682756657
Rain in0.30.30.30.4000000.20.70.3
Humidity %615651454040424550565962

Green temperatures mark months that meet the comfort rule (59–82°F, ≤5.9 in rain, ≤85% humidity). NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology at the city coordinates.

Where can you stay in Cairo?

Three ways to live here, and what each does to the monthly budget. Rents are the one-bedroom figures from the cost table; hotels and short lets are priced per night and cost more, most of all in high season.

OptionRent per monthMonthly totalNotes
One-bedroom outside the centre$216$881The basis of the monthly cost and the cost score.
One-bedroom in the centre$306$971The monthly total with the central rent swapped in.
Hotel or short let——For the first weeks or a stay under a month. Compare hotels on Navoy →

Monthly rents assume an unfurnished lease of six months or more; furnished monthly lets usually cost 20 to 50 percent more.

Cities with a similar profile

Also in Africa: Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Agadir, Alexandria

Where Cairo ranks

Ready to see Cairo for yourself?

Nostos tells you where. Navoy, the AI travel planner behind it, builds the trip: itineraries, places to stay and what to book before you land.

Opens on navoy.io.

The vibe

What people post about living in Cairo, read for its mood. It is a reading of opinions, not a fact, and it is not part of the score.

Liked · 72Commenters, many Egyptian or long-term residents, describe Cairo as warm, hospitable and food-rich, with caveats on heat, crowds, hygiene and poverty; the best-liked content is the honest, non-sensational portrayal.

People praise
  • friendly people
  • hospitality
  • food
  • honest portrayal
  • affordability
  • safety
People warn about
  • heat and humidity
  • crowds and density
  • dirt and hygiene
  • harassment on transport
  • visa changes
  • poverty visible
  • Locals are warm and respectful toward visitors and each other
  • Cairo's heat and crowds are hard to handle day to day
  • Long-term residents find it cheap and rewarding despite grime
  • Some find Alexandria a calmer alternative to Cairo
  • Thin evidence on remote work and daily life specifically

Read from 8 videos, 33 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-07; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.

Frequently asked

How much does it cost to live in Cairo as a digital nomad?
A single person typically spends about $881 per month in Cairo, renting a one-bedroom outside the centre (about $216). A central one-bedroom costs about $306, which brings the total to roughly $971. That is a 80/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.
Is Cairo safe for digital nomads?
Cairo scores 47/100 on safety. Egypt records 4.2 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2021) and a political-stability score of 50/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.
Does Egypt have a digital nomad visa?
No dedicated digital nomad visa was listed for Egypt as of 2026-07. Visitors from the US get a visa on arrival.
How fast is the internet in Cairo?
Measured median download speed in Cairo was 10.6 Mbps (upload 1.6 Mbps) across 68,508 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.
Which airports serve Cairo and how many nonstop flights are there?
Cairo is served by Cairo International Airport (CAI) with 128 nonstop destinations, of which 120 are international. 5 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-10.
When is the best time of year to be in Cairo?
The most comfortable months are Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov. Mean temperatures range from 54°F (12°C) in Jan to 86°F (30°C) in Jul (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).
Cairo or Suez: which is better for digital nomads?
Suez is the city with the closest factor profile to Cairo in this dataset. Which one wins depends on your weights; the comparison page puts every factor side by side with the numbers behind them.

Sources

Dataset 2026.11.3, published 2026-11-10. Download the full dataset or read the methodology.

  1. 1.City population (latest census or official estimate), Wikipedia (citing national statistics offices). CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. City-proper figures; the per-city source URL is stored with the seed row.
  2. 2.WhereNext city cost estimates 2026 (city pages), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. The '~$X/mo' single-person estimate published on each city page (the API only exposes countries). Scaled to the WhereToEmigrate basket by the median ratio observed on cities both sources cover, so figures are comparable across the dataset; the scaling factor is recorded in the value's note on /methodology. Where the headline estimate is below the city's own outskirts one-bedroom rent divided by 0.55 (rent at most 55% of a single person's spending), the total is raised to that floor; the page's figure is implausibly low there.
  3. 3.2026 Cost of Living Index (country level), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Country-level monthly estimate used only where no city-level figure exists; cost_index kept for every city.
  4. 4.Estimates of rates of homicides per 100 000 population, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22. WHO GHO modelled estimate, used only where UNODC has no national figure from 2018 or later (seven countries in this dataset). May be reused with attribution under WHO's data policy.
  5. 5.Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100), World Bank. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  6. 6.UHC service coverage index, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  7. 7.Life expectancy at birth (years), both sexes, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  8. 8.M-Lab NDT statistics (city aggregates, 2024), Measurement Lab. CC0 1.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Median of daily median download/upload throughput over 2024 for the city aggregate; sample count is the number of tests. Speeds reflect user-initiated tests, not advertised plans.
  9. 9.Starlink availability map, SpaceX (Starlink). Factual status cited from starlink.com. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Residential service status per country from the file Starlink's map loads. Grouped as on the map: launched or available = available; coming soon, pending regulatory approval or test = coming soon; blacklisted = not offered; unknown or excluded = unknown. Shown on city pages and as a ranker filter; not part of any score. Roaming and maritime plans can work in more places.
  10. 10.Digital Nomad Visas 2026, WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Programme name, minimum monthly income (EUR, converted to USD) and whether it leads to permanent residence. Values are directional; verify with the issuing government.
  11. 11.Passport Index dataset (visa requirements, 199 passports × 199 destinations), Ilya Ilyankou (compiled from passportindex.org). MIT. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Days per visit where stated; 'visa free' without a limit is credited as unlimited; eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa and visa required are credited 0 days for scoring but shown by kind. The default US/EU/UK figures use the US, German and British passports.
  12. 12.Airport destinations (Wikipedia airline and destination tables), Wikipedia contributors; countries via Wikidata. CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-24. Distinct destination airports listed in each airport article's passenger table, resolved through Wikidata. Seasonal routes count; charters and routes announced but not yet flying are excluded. The as-of date is the newest article revision among the city's airports. Falls back to the OpenFlights snapshot when an airport has no article or table.
  13. 13.Walkability and transit ratings (editorial), Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology.
  14. 14.NASA POWER climatology (2001–2020 monthly means), NASA Langley Research Center. Public domain (US Government). Retrieved 2026-09-22. T2M, PRECTOTCORR and RH2M at the city coordinates (0.5° grid). Monthly precipitation = mm/day × days in month.
  15. 15.SatPM2.5 satellite-derived annual PM2.5 (V6.GL.02.04), Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, Washington University in St. Louis. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Annual 2023 PM2.5 for the 0.1° grid cell at the city centre, from satellite aerosol retrievals combined with a chemical transport model and ground monitors. Used only for cities with no WHO database row. Where the same country has WHO-measured cities, values are scaled by the median measured/satellite ratio there (corrects desert-dust overestimates in the Gulf). Across 811 cities with both, log-correlation with WHO values is 0.89 and the median difference 2 µg/m³.
  16. 16.OpenStreetMap restaurants (Overpass API), OpenStreetMap contributors. ODbL 1.0. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Count of OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre coordinate. Measures how many restaurants are mapped, which tracks real density well where OpenStreetMap is well maintained (Europe, the Americas, East and Southeast Asia) and under-counts where it is not (parts of Africa and Central Asia).
  17. 17.Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023), United Nations Development Programme. CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
  18. 18.EF English Proficiency Index 2024 (band), EF Education First. Proprietary; band cited as a fact with attribution. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Only the proficiency band is stored, transcribed by hand from the public ranking.