Salaries here are good, but so are costs, especially rent in the Randstad. Here's a grounded picture so you can budget before you arrive. Treat everything except official figures as a realistic estimate, not a quote.
Rent, the big variable, by city
| City | 1-bedroom / month | Family home / month |
|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | €1,700 – €2,300 | €2,500+ |
| Amstelveen | €1,600 – €2,200 | €2,400+ |
| Rotterdam | €1,100 – €1,500 | €1,800 – €2,200 |
| Eindhoven | €1,100 – €1,500 | €1,700 – €2,100 |
These are indicative free-sector market ranges for 2026, not official statistics, the market moves fast and individual listings vary widely. Always verify against live listings on Pararius/Funda.
Everything else, monthly
- Groceries: roughly €250–€350 (single) / €400–€600 (couple). Albert Heijn is convenient; Lidl, Aldi and Dirk are cheaper.
- Health insurance: about €155–€165 per adult (see our health insurance guide).
- Utilities (gas/electric/water): €150–€250 depending on home and season.
- Internet + mobile: €40–€70 combined.
- Public transport: budget €80–€150 if you commute; cycling is basically free once you own a bike.
As a rough all-in figure excluding rent, a single person in a mid-size city lands around €900–€1,300/month, and a couple noticeably more. Nibud (the national budget institute) pegs core household spending excluding rent at roughly €443/month for a single and €771 for a couple, reality sits above that once you add insurance, transport and a social life.
For context: the minimum wage
From 1 July 2026 the statutory minimum wage is €14.99/hour (age 21+). At a 36–38 hour week that's roughly €2,340–€2,480 gross per month, useful as a floor when you're weighing a job offer.
Work out your actual take-home first
A Dutch job offer is quoted in gross salary, but what lands in your account is very different after tax, and much better if you have the 30% ruling. Before you compare an offer to your Indian salary, calculate the net. The free tool thetax.nl does exactly this: enter your gross, tick the 30% ruling if it applies, and it shows your monthly take-home.
Will your salary actually go far? (Hyderabad vs Amsterdam)
This is the question everyone asks, and raw currency conversion misleads. A €5,000 salary looks enormous at about ₹4.5 lakh a month, but Amsterdam is far more expensive than Hyderabad, so it buys a similar life, not a lavish one. That gap is purchasing power parity (PPP): what your money actually buys locally, rather than its exchange-rate value.
Roughly, living costs in Amsterdam run about 3 to 4x Hyderabad once rent is included. The calculator below turns a gross offer into real, purchasing-power-adjusted terms so you can compare it honestly with your life in India, and you can adjust the exchange rate and cost multiplier to your own cities:
India vs Netherlands: what the offer is really worth
A euro salary looks huge in rupees, but life here costs far more. This estimates your real Dutch take-home and compares its purchasing power, not the exchange rate, with your life in India today.
What actually lands in your account, not CTC.
Gross annual salary / package on the offer.
Dutch net take-home
€4,388
per month · 30% ruling adds ~€756
On paper (₹100/€)
₹4,38,763
looks huge, but read on
Real India-lifestyle value
₹1,00,915
purchasing-power adjusted
The rupee figure uses the fallback exchange rate of ₹100 to €1. The real-value comparison uses a fixed purchasing-power benchmark (a comfortable Amsterdam life ≈ the same in Hyderabad, from Numbeo), so it doesn't swing with the currency. Dutch net is modelled on 2026 brackets and credits and lands within a few percent of thetax.nl; the 30% ruling has conditions (see our 30% ruling guide). It's a rough India-to-Netherlands estimate, not a city-by-city comparison, so treat it as a sense-check.
Rule of thumb: focus on what you can save each month after a comfortable life here, not the headline rupee figure. And don't be put off by a lifestyle 'step down' the calculator shows, because your savings are in real euros. Saving even €1,000 a month is about ₹1.1 lakh banked every single month, often more than a whole Indian salary, and it is fully yours to invest or send home. Plan it well (the 30% ruling, a sensible first year, secondhand furniture) and that number only grows. That is the figure that actually changes your future.
Questions & answers
- What costs do newcomers always forget to budget for?
- The sneaky ones are the local taxes: municipal waste and sewage charges plus the regional water-board tax add up to roughly €300 to €700 a year, billed separately from your rent. Then there's the €385 health-insurance own-risk if you need care, and the one-off hit of a deposit, some furniture and a good bike when you land. Nice surprise the other way: there's no TV licence here.