Budgeting for a term · Amman

The cost of living in Amman

Real figures, in Jordanian dinars, from a school that helps students settle here every month. Rent is the number that moves; almost everything else is cheaper than most people expect.

Three ways to live here

Rough monthly totals including rent, bills, food, transport and a phone. One dinar is roughly 1.40 US dollars.

Careful

A room in a shared flat, cooking most days, public transport
450–550
JD per month
Entirely liveable, and how a good number of our students actually do it.

Typical

A small studio of your own, eating out a few times a week, taxis when needed
650–800
JD per month
The middle of the range, and where most students land.

Comfortable

Your own furnished flat in western Amman, eating out often, apps rather than buses
1,000+
JD per month
There is no upper limit here — furnished flats run well past this.

Rent: the number that decides everything else

Rent varies more by neighbourhood in Amman than almost any other cost. The same money buys very different things a fifteen-minute drive apart.

Unfurnished flat, eastern Amman and popular districtsAround the edges of downtown, or fifteen to twenty minutes north or east of the centre. A whole apartment, not a room.
190 – 300 JD
A room in a shared flat, central and western AmmanSharing with other students or young professionals. From about 250 JD, or 300–320 JD with water, electricity and internet included.
250 – 320 JD
A studio in the university districtsFurnished or unfurnished, in student areas. Small, and plainer than what the same money buys further west.
around 350 JD
A furnished flat of your own, western AmmanJabal Al-Weibdeh, Jabal Amman, Abdoun, Al-Rabieh. The ceiling is high — the top of this range is diplomatic-standard housing.
500 – 2,000 JD

Two things shift the price beyond the neighbourhood: whether the flat is furnished, and whether bills are included. Always ask about both before you compare two offers, because a cheap-looking room without bills is often the more expensive one.

Our guide to the neighbourhoods explains what each area is actually like, and how renting works here covers the contracts and the agents.

Everything else

This is where Amman surprises people. Once rent is settled, the rest of the month costs far less than in most European or North American cities.

Water and electricityPer person, sharing a flat. Living alone, budget around 30 JD. Air conditioning in summer or heating in winter can push a single-person bill to 70–100 JD in the heaviest months.
20 – 30 JD
Phone and internetMonthly packages. Cheap by almost any international comparison, and one of the easiest things to arrange in your first week.
20 – 25 JD
Breakfast, the Jordanian wayFalafel, liver or potato sandwiches from a neighbourhood shop. Around 700 fils at the bottom, rarely more than two dinars. This is what most of the city eats in the morning.
0.70 – 2 JD
Lunch in an ordinary restaurantA full traditional meal in a local place. The same dish in a tourist-classified restaurant, a mall or a smarter district costs several times this — the food is not always better, the address is.
3 – 15 JD
A yellow taxi across townThe minimum fare is about a dinar, covering the first kilometre and a half. The longest journey across Amman tops out around 10–12 JD.
1 – 12 JD
A whole day on public transportCrossing the city north to south with several changes. Buses are by far the cheapest way to move, and where you will hear the most Arabic.
3 – 5 JD

On food, the range is the whole story. You can eat for under a dinar or for a hundred, in the same city on the same day. What decides it is less the neighbourhood than whether a place carries a tourist classification — and both kinds sit side by side, in malls, in markets and on ordinary streets. Learning to tell them apart is one of the first practical things you pick up here.

Ride-hailing apps price by demand, so a trip at rush hour costs more than the same trip at eleven in the morning — but the difference is modest. More on the options in our transport guide.

What these numbers are, and what they are not

These are the ranges we see students paying, gathered from our own experience helping people settle in Amman. They are honest, and they are approximate.

Prices move, landlords differ, and the same flat can be offered at two prices to two people. Treat this page as a way to build a realistic budget before you arrive, not as a quotation. If a figure you are being given sits far outside these ranges in either direction, ask us — we will tell you whether it sounds right.

Last reviewed: September 2026.

Living in Amman: the practical guides

The questions our students ask most often before they arrive.

Where to live in AmmanThe neighbourhoods compared, for newcomers Finding an apartmentHow renting works and what landlords ask for Student housingHost families and flats we arrange near the school Visas and residencyThe 2026 rules — 90 days on arrival, and how to extend Getting around AmmanTaxis, apps, buses and reaching Jabal Al-Weibdeh What to wear in JordanDress code by season, without overthinking it Life in Jordan for studentsCulture, routines and settling into the city A week in Jabal Al-WeibdehThe neighbourhood our school sits in, day by day

Tell us your budget and we will be straight with you

Course fees are only part of what a term in Amman costs, and we would rather you arrived with the full picture than discovered it in week two. Send us what you have to work with and we will tell you honestly what it stretches to.

See our course fees Ask us a question