
Warsaw
Poland · Europe · 1,863,056 people · Europe/Warsaw · PLN
Warsaw scores 65.8/100 for digital nomads under balanced weights, ranking 343 of 1501 cities. Expect about $1,607 per month, no dedicated nomad visa, and a measured median download speed of 36.8 Mbps.
Warsaw is Poland's business capital with modern infrastructure, a two-line metro and lower prices than Western Europe. It is less picturesque than Kraków but has more jobs.
- Rebuilt old town
- Fast-growing economy
- Good metro
- Cold winters
Eating out
OpenStreetMap, 2026-1116765restaurants within 3 km
Mapped around the centre of Warsaw: a dense dining scene. A count of what is on the map, not a rating, and it does not affect the score.
How Warsaw scores, factor by factor
Superscripts link to the source list at the bottom. Country-level figures apply to all of Poland.
Cost of living
Monthly cost for one person (log-scaled, cheaper is better).Safety
Homicide rate and political stability (country-level).Healthcare
WHO universal-health-coverage index and life expectancy (country-level).Internet
Median measured download and upload speed (M-Lab, city-level; the province or country aggregate where the city has too few tests).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.Getting there & around
Non-stop airport destinations (hub size) plus editorial walkability and transit ratings.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.- Comfortable months: 3 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.- Annual mean PM2.5: 14.7 µg/m³15 · city-level, 2024
Quality of life
Human Development Index and English proficiency (country-level).What does Warsaw cost per month?
| Total, one person | $1,607 | city, outskirts one-bedroom |
|---|---|---|
| Total with a central one-bedroom | $1,863 | derived |
| One-bedroom rent, centre | $1,140 | city |
| One-bedroom rent, outskirts | $884 | city |
| Country cost index (US = 100) | 35 | country |
Can you stay legally?
| Nomad visa | none listed | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum income | — | |
| US passport | 90 days | |
| EU passport | unlimited | |
| UK passport | 90 days | |
Visa rules change often. Verify with the issuing government before you book.
Do you pay tax here on income from abroad?
Airports and nonstop flights
Warsaw is served by 2 airports; a destination reachable from more than one counts once in the total.
| Airport | Nonstop destinations | International | From US airports |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAWWarsaw Chopin Airport | 142 | 132 | 6 |
| WMIWarsaw Modlin Airport | 54 | 54 | 0 |
| All airports, unique destinations | 163 | 153 | 6 |
Wikipedia airport pages as of 2026-11: seasonal routes included, charters and announced-but-not-started routes excluded.
What is the weather like through the year?
Comfortable months by our rule: Jun–Aug. Rank cities for Jun–Aug →
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean °F | 25 | 28 | 36 | 48 | 58 | 65 | 69 | 68 | 58 | 47 | 38 | 29 |
| Rain in | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 3 | 2.4 | 2 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| Humidity % | 94 | 91 | 83 | 74 | 72 | 69 | 67 | 66 | 72 | 82 | 91 | 94 |
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 Warsaw?
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.
| Option | Rent per month | Monthly total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom outside the centre | $884 | $1,607 | The basis of the monthly cost and the cost score. |
| One-bedroom in the centre | $1,140 | $1,863 | The 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 Europe: A Coruña, Aachen, Aalborg, Aarhus, Aberdeen, Adana
The vibe
What people post about living in Warsaw, read for its mood. It is a reading of opinions, not a fact, and it is not part of the score.
Liked · 68Warsaw draws warm praise for history, greenery and value, with caveats about loneliness, a harsh winter and a slow internet-package trap, so it reads as mostly positive with caveats.
- history
- green spaces
- cleanliness
- affordable value
- central European feel
- friendly locals
- vibrant city life
- loneliness
- winter weather
- slow-to-meet social scene
- internet data caps
- Praga reputation
- pace of city life
- Warsaw is rich in history and feels deeply rooted in its past.
- Many long-term residents love the city and find it welcoming.
- Newcomers often struggle to build social circles and feel lonely.
- Parks and cleanliness make it easier to live comfortably.
- Mobile internet packages can look unlimited but throttle after roughly 100GB.
Read from 8 videos, 40 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-08; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.
Frequently asked
- How much does it cost to live in Warsaw as a digital nomad?
- A single person typically spends about $1,607 per month in Warsaw, renting a one-bedroom outside the centre (about $884). A central one-bedroom costs about $1,140, which brings the total to roughly $1,863. That is a 51/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.
- Is Warsaw safe for digital nomads?
- Warsaw scores 83/100 on safety. Poland records 0.68 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2024) and a political-stability score of 77.8/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.
- Does Poland have a digital nomad visa?
- No dedicated digital nomad visa was listed for Poland as of 2026-07. Visitors from the US can stay 90 days visa-free.
- How fast is the internet in Warsaw?
- Measured median download speed in Warsaw was 36.8 Mbps (upload 17.2 Mbps) across 89,257 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.
- Is Starlink available in Warsaw?
- Yes. Starlink's availability map lists residential service as available in Poland (checked 2026-10), so a dish can serve as a backup line in Warsaw. Check the exact address on starlink.com before ordering, since capacity varies by area.
- Which airports serve Warsaw and how many nonstop flights are there?
- Warsaw is served by Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) with 142 nonstop destinations and Warsaw Modlin Airport (WMI) with 54 nonstop destinations, 163 unique destinations across all of them, of which 153 are international. 6 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-11.
- When is the best time of year to be in Warsaw?
- The most comfortable months are Jun, Jul, Aug. Mean temperatures range from 25°F (-4°C) in Jan to 69°F (21°C) in Jul (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).
- Warsaw or Kraków: which is better for digital nomads?
- Kraków is the city with the closest factor profile to Warsaw 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.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.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.
- 3.2026 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.Victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population (national data, latest year), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, dataUNODC. UNODC data, free to reuse with attribution. Retrieved 2026-10-12. Police- or statistics-office-recorded rates reported to UNODC's crime-trends survey, latest year per country (2024 for most), both sexes, all ages; the United Kingdom uses England and Wales. Replaces the WHO modelled estimate wherever UNODC has a figure from 2018 or later; WHO's 2021 estimates ran several times above recorded figures for El Salvador and Honduras. Workbook data_cts_intentional_homicide.xlsx (July 2026) reduced by scripts/build-dataset/inputs/convert-unodc-homicide.py.
- 5.Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100), World Bank. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 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.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.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.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.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.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.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.Walkability and transit ratings (editorial), Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology.
- 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.WHO Ambient Air Quality Database, June 2026 update (V8), World Health Organization. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22. Annual mean PM2.5 for the most recent year available for the city.
- 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.Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023), United Nations Development Programme. CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 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.