Cost of Living in the UK for International Students, 2026-27

Three different sources give three different answers, and the gaps matter. The Home Office requires you to show £1,171 a month for living costs outside London and £1,529 a month in London, for up to 9 months. Edinburgh and Manchester, which publish their own 2026-27 estimates, put a postgraduate student's living costs at about £1,510 to £1,542 a month. And in a survey of 4,918 international students at Russell Group universities, the median monthly spend was £1,103 outside London and £1,635 in London.

So the visa figure is a minimum you must prove, not a budget. If you are planning a real monthly budget, start from your university's own estimate and compare it with what the visa asks for, as the table below does.

For a Student visa you must show enough money to pay one academic year of course fees (up to 9 months, as stated on your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) plus living costs. GOV.UK sets the living-cost amounts at £1,529 a month in London, which is £13,761 over 9 months, and £1,171 a month outside London, which is £10,539 over 9 months. The money must be held for 28 consecutive days, and that period must end within 31 days of your application date.

The University of Edinburgh is blunt about the limits of that number. It says the amount the government requires you to show can be much less than you will need to pay for your living expenses in Edinburgh, and it does not recommend creating a budget around it. The visa figure tells you what proof the Home Office wants, not what a month will cost.

Both universities publish estimates for a single student, and Manchester says its figures are a guide only. Edinburgh estimates £18,504 a year for a postgraduate student, an average of £1,542 a month, calculated in March 2026. Of that, accommodation and utilities range from £752 to £1,249 a month depending on the type of housing, and food and other shopping is £248 a month.

Manchester estimates £18,188 a year for a postgraduate student over a 52-week year, or £1,510 a month, with private accommodation including utilities at £10,000 a year (£836 a month) and groceries at £3,000 a year. For undergraduates it estimates £14,840 over a 41-week year, or £1,484 a month. Manchester says it takes its non-grocery figures from the Save the Student National Student Money Survey, adjusted for inflation to February 2026.

Set against the visa figure for outside London, Edinburgh's postgraduate estimate is £371 a month higher and Manchester's is £339 a month higher. Those gaps are our arithmetic from the published numbers.

In a survey by Russell Group Students' Unions with UKCISA, open from 9 December 2024 to 28 February 2025 with 4,918 responses, the median monthly spend excluding tuition was £1,402 across all international students. It was £1,635 for students in London and £1,103 for students outside London. Median rent was £851 a month, rising to £1,052 in London.

Treat these as a reality check, not a forecast. The respondents were self-selecting, the results were weighted by home country with a margin of error of about ±1.5%, and the survey ran before the 2026-27 year. Outside London the median spend of £1,103 sits £68 below the visa figure of £1,171, while in London the median of £1,635 sits £106 above the visa figure of £1,529.

Some costs sit outside a monthly budget. The Student visa application fee is £558 when applying from outside the UK, and the Immigration Health Surcharge for students is £776 per year, according to GOV.UK. Both are paid as part of the visa application, and the surcharge is calculated by how long your visa lasts. Neither is in the university estimates above.

Tuition is separate from all of this, so see our cost-of-studying guide for fees. If you plan to work part-time, remember that the rules allow up to 20 hours a week in term time for most full-time degree students, and that income is not guaranteed.

Take three steps. First, find your own university's living-cost page and use its latest estimate for your level of study, because Edinburgh and Manchester differ by only about £30 a month for postgraduates, but other cities may differ more. Second, check it against the Home Office figure for your location, so you know the minimum you must prove. Third, add the one-off costs of the visa fee and health surcharge, and leave a margin, since Manchester describes its figures as a guide only.

If your estimate comes out well above the visa minimum, that is normal. The visa figure is set for proving funds, and Edinburgh's own page says the required amount can be much less than you will need.

Outside London, two universities' 2026-27 estimates of £1,484 to £1,542 a month sit £313 to £371 above the Home Office's £1,171, and in London the visa figure is £1,529 a month. Budget from the university's own estimate, not the visa minimum, and check both against the current GOV.UK page before you apply, because the visa amounts and the university estimates are updated each year.