International student budget in France: the real cost of a month in Paris, Lyon and Lille

Information checked on 6 October 2026.

To get your visa, you must prove €877.50 of resources per month. But what international student budget in France do you actually need to live, and not just to get past the consulate counter? According to the 2026 ranking by UNEF (a French student union), a month of study costs €1,618.41 on average in Paris. This article puts the figures side by side: rent in a CROUS residence or on the private market, 2026-2027 transport passes, meals, phone, insurance, CVEC and moving-in costs. Every amount comes from a named source; when we do a calculation ourselves, we say so. For the whole procedure, from application to visa, start with our complete Campus France guide.

International student budget in France: the 2026 benchmarks

Three figures keep coming up, and they do not measure the same thing.

The €877.50 threshold is an administrative floor, not a budget. Our article on the minimum resources for a student visa explains where it comes from and how it will track the SMIC, the French minimum wage. The student unions' estimates describe what a French student spends. For a newly arrived international student the bill climbs: the 2026 UNEF survey puts their cost of living 95.31% higher than that of a French student without a grant, largely because of tuition fees. FAGE, another student federation, estimates a non-European student's start-of-year spending at about €7,023.

Rent: CROUS residence or private market

Housing takes more than half the budget. Between a room from the CROUS (the public student services body) and a private studio, the gap runs into hundreds of euros.

At the time of writing, 2026 city figures had only been published for Paris and a few cities; for Lyon, Lille, Marseille and Toulouse we therefore use the 2025 ranking, and private rents have risen by 2.87% on average since. A room in a residence remains the cheapest option, but there are not enough for everyone: how to get one is explained in our article on CROUS housing for international students.

One change weighs heavily since 1 July 2026: non-European students who do not hold a means-tested grant are no longer entitled to the APL, the CAF housing allowance, except in cases such as apprentices or students with a job. Do not count on it in your budget before checking your situation: everything is in our article on the end of the APL for international students.

Transport: youth passes for 2026-2027

Each network has its own fares. These are the prices we were able to check for the 2026-2027 season.

Three caveats. The TCL grant-holder fare is for students on means-tested grants, a scheme most international students are excluded from. In Lille, Ilévia raised many of its fares on 1 August 2026 (the single ticket went from €1.80 to €1.90): check the youth price on ilevia.fr before you budget. Finally, Imagine R is taken out for the school year, until 30 April 2027 for the current season.

Eating: the €1 CROUS meal for everyone

This is the good news of 2026. Since 4 May 2026, the €1 meal in university restaurants is open to all students, with no means test, and no longer only to grant holders or students in hardship. It used to cost €3.30.

• The meal includes a main dish and up to two sides (starter, dessert, cheese, fruit).
• One €1 meal per service, lunch or dinner.
• You need an active Izly account, the CROUS payment app.
• Apprentices and doctoral students also have access.

Twenty lunches a month at the university restaurant therefore cost €20, exactly the amount FAGE uses. The rest of your food, shopping and dinners, comes to €180.97 a month according to the same indicator.

Phone, insurance, health, CVEC and tuition fees

Registering with French health insurance (Assurance maladie) costs nothing; top-up cover is optional but reimburses what social security does not. As for tuition, universities could until now exempt many of their international students: a decree of 19 May 2026 caps these exemptions at 30% of each university's international students in 2026-2027, then 25% in 2027-2028. Ask your institution what you will actually pay.

Moving-in costs: the most expensive month

The first month concentrates the big expenses. The FAGE 2026 indicator gives the averages:

Add the first month's rent, the CVEC, the VLS-TS validation and insurance. Without a guarantor in France, the Visale guarantee from Action Logement acts as a free guarantor for many students. Plan to have at least two months of budget in your account when you arrive.

Monthly budget in Paris, Lyon and Lille: our estimate

The table below adds up sourced items, city by city: average rent, youth pass per month, 20 CROUS meals, food outside the university restaurant, phone and internet, home insurance and top-up health cover. This is a Compatri calculation, not an official statistic, and it leaves out leisure, toiletries, books and the unexpected.

The CROUS column uses the national average of €426.36; a Paris residence often costs more. Read this table as a minimum: in Lille, Marseille or Toulouse, a CROUS room keeps you below the visa's €877.50, while in Paris even a tight private-market budget exceeds it by more than €350.

Closing the gap: work, grants, exchange-rate margin

You can close the gap between the visa threshold and real spending in three ways.

• A student job: up to 964 hours a year with a student permit, with a different regime for Algerians. The rules are in our article on working in France as an international student.
• A grant: from the French government, your country or your institution. Our overview of study grants for Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia lists the ones that exist.
• An exchange-rate margin: if your family pays in dinars or dirhams, a drop in the currency can shrink the budget from one quarter to the next. Keep 10% aside.

If you are hesitating between cities, our guide to studying in Lyon covers daily life there, from the welcome desk to winter.

Ask those who already pay these bills

No table replaces the answer of a fellow national who already lives in the city: what their flat-share really costs, which neighbourhood is still affordable, where to find food from home without going broke. On Compatri, your country's community in your future city brings these people together, and you can join before you even have your visa: see the communities in Paris or Lille. The "African students" group, shared by every city, also talks about grants, student housing and mutual help between campuses.

Compatri is not a Campus France or French government service and does not replace official sources: for the amounts that apply to you, they are the reference.

Official sources

• Service Public: 2026-2027 tuition fees for international students
• Étudiant.gouv: how to get the €1 CROUS meal
• Étudiant.gouv: the CVEC
• TCL: 18-25 pass, 12 months
• Service Public: security deposit for rented housing