2026
Cost of living in Puerto Rico
The numbers we can stand behind, dated and sourced: the electric bill, the sales tax, and the excise on a car. Where a clean official figure does not exist, this page says so instead of inventing one.
Every dollar figure below has a source and a date. If we could not find a primary or reputable published number, we left the cell blank on purpose. Neighborhood rents, a typical grocery basket, and “average” insurance premiums are not printed here.
How to read this
Three prices, not one lifestyle
Puerto Rico is not cheaper or more expensive than “the States” in a single direction. Electricity is high. A lot of housing is still less expensive than coastal U.S. cities, and the census is the honest way to say that, not a realtor’s median from last Thursday. Imported goods carry freight. The sales tax is higher than most state sales taxes. A tax decree does not change the grocery store.
Use this page with moving, where to live, and Act 60. The IVU calculator is at /ivu-calculator.
01
Electricity: base rate is not the bill
LUMA delivers power. Genera runs most of the legacy plants. The residential bill is a base tariff plus riders, above all fuel (FCA) and purchased power (PPCA), which the Energy Bureau resets by quarter.
Base tariff, general residential service (GRS)
From the FY2027 electric tariff book filed with the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau on June 30, 2026. Fiscal year 2027 began July 1, 2026. These charges do not include fuel or purchased-power riders.
| GRS charge | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly customer charge | $8.00 | FY2027 tariff book, GRS |
| Energy, first 425 kWh | $0.08648 / kWh | Same |
| Energy, above 425 kWh | $0.08648 / kWh | Same |
What customers are actually paying this quarter
El Nuevo Día reported on October 1, 2026 that the Energy Bureau approved most of LUMA’s quarterly adjustment and that residential customers will pay 33.86 cents per kWh between October and December 2026. The same story says an average unsubsidized residential customer will pay $42.27 more per month than in the previous quarter. We are not reprinting a model bill the article’s public text does not show, and we are not adding the base rate to the riders ourselves and calling the sum official.
per kWh, Oct–Dec 2026Average residential rate after the Energy Bureau’s quarterly review, as reported by El Nuevo Día on October 1, 2026. Subsidized tariffs (lifeline, public housing) are lower and are in the same tariff book.
Lifeline residential service (LRS) and public-housing rates use lower customer charges and a lower rate on the first 425 kWh. See the tariff book before you quote “the” rate to someone on a subsidized schedule.
02
Sales tax, the IVU
Since July 1, 2015, the general sales and use tax is 11.5%: 10.5% to the Commonwealth and 1% to the municipality. That split is in Hacienda’s Administrative Determination 15-10, implementing Act 72-2015, and a 2025 Hacienda circular still instructs agencies that sell taxable goods to charge 11.5%.
| Example | Tax | Total |
|---|---|---|
| $100 of goods at the general rate | $11.50 | $111.50 |
The $11.50 is arithmetic on the statutory 11.5% rate, not a receipt from a store. Shelf prices usually exclude the tax. Hacienda certifies a lower rate for some prepared-food merchants and treats some services differently. Those reduced rates are on our IVU calculator and on Hacienda’s merchant list. This page does not restate them as if they applied to everything in the cart. Many unprocessed foods and prescription medicines are exempt or taxed differently. Check Hacienda before you plan a grocery budget off the 11.5% line.
03
The excise on a car
Hacienda publishes the excise (arbitrio) for automobiles introduced from abroad or manufactured in Puerto Rico after October 31, 2014. The tax is on the taxable price in Puerto Rico, which the Code defines from the suggested consumer price. It is not automatically the price you paid on the mainland.
| Taxable price in Puerto Rico | Excise |
|---|---|
| Up to $6,170 | $637.50 (minimum) |
| $6,170 to $10,690 | $637.50 plus 10.2% of the excess over $6,170 |
| $10,690 to $21,380 | $1,098.00 plus 19.6% of the excess over $10,690 |
| $21,380 to $31,780 | $3,188.35 plus 23.0% of the excess over $21,380 |
| $31,780 to $44,890 | $5,575.15 plus 27.2% of the excess over $31,780 |
| Over $44,890 | $9,253.10 plus 34.0% of the excess over $44,890 |
A worked example, labeled as arithmetic
Take a taxable price of $30,000, which falls in the $21,380 to $31,780 bracket. Excess over $21,380 is $8,620. Twenty-three percent of $8,620 is $1,982.60. Add the bracket base of $3,188.35 and the excise is $5,170.95. That is our calculation on Hacienda’s published table. It is not a bill, it ignores any credit or exemption you might qualify for, and it is only as good as the taxable price Hacienda actually assigns to that vehicle. Motorcycles, trucks, and buses use different rates on the same Hacienda page.
Gas is sold by the liter. Distances on the road are in kilometers. Speed limits are in miles per hour. None of that is a price, but it is how the car you just taxed actually gets used. Drive times between towns are on the distance tool.
04
Housing, and what we will not invent
We do not have a 2026 official median rent or median sale price we are willing to put in a table. The Census Bureau’s API now requires a key, and a housing-market PDF we tried to pull from HUD User came back empty. Repeating a figure we could not open would be exactly the failure this page is trying to avoid.
What we can say from a dataset we hold: the 2020 Census counted 3,285,874 residents in 78 municipalities. San Juan was 342,259. Ponce was 137,491. Those populations, and the free-flow drive times from San Juan, are in the places-to-live guide, with the census and the routing source named. Asking rents in Condado and Dorado are a different market from the islandwide median. Read listings for the building you want. Do not average them in your head and call it data.
05
Groceries
There is no Puerto Rico grocery basket from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that we can cite the way people cite a mainland CPI market basket, and we are not using a crowdsourced price site as if it were one. Two structural facts are enough to budget without a fake total.
- Most taxable goods at retail pick up the 11.5% IVU at the register. Many unprocessed foods are treated differently. The distinction is Hacienda’s, not the store’s marketing.
- Ocean freight from the mainland moves under the Jones Act, on U.S.-flag vessels. That is a real cost in the supply chain. We are not attaching a percentage to it. A carrier quote is a number. A blog’s “everything costs 20% more” is not.
The produce in the photograph is the Plaza del Mercado in Santurce, which is still the right place to see what local fruit actually costs this week.
06
Insurance
We are not printing an average homeowners or auto premium. The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance does not publish one number that describes a house in Dorado and an apartment in Ponce, and a national average would be the wrong island.
What to read on the declarations page: homeowners, flood, and auto are separate policies. Flood is generally a National Flood Insurance Program policy, not a line buried in the homeowners form. The hurricane deductible is often its own line, and it is often larger than the deductible for everything else. Ask for it in dollars before you bind. We are not stating a typical percentage because we do not have a current official distribution to cite.
07
Schools
Public school, through the Departamento de Educación, does not charge tuition. Instruction is mainly in Spanish. Private and bilingual schools publish tuition the way they choose. Saint John’s School in Condado, checked October 8, 2026, points families to the admissions office and does not list a dollar figure on its tuition page. A table of “typical” private tuition would be fiction. Budget from the school’s own offer.
Questions
Straight answers
Is the electric rate 8.6 cents or 34 cents?
Both numbers are real and they measure different things. $0.08648 per kWh is the FY2027 GRS base energy charge in the tariff book filed June 30, 2026. It does not include fuel and purchased-power riders. 33.86 cents per kWh is the average residential rate El Nuevo Día reported for October–December 2026 after the Energy Bureau’s quarterly review.
Is sales tax 11.5% on everything?
11.5% is the general rate: 10.5% Commonwealth and 1% municipal, in force since July 1, 2015. Prepared food at certified merchants, some services, and many unprocessed foods are different. Use the IVU calculator and Hacienda, not this paragraph, for a specific item.
How much excise will I pay to ship my car?
It depends on the taxable price Hacienda uses, not on a flat fee. The brackets are above. A $30,000 taxable price in the published table works out to $5,170.95 by arithmetic. Your vehicle may not be a $30,000 taxable price.
Why isn’t there a rent table?
Because we could not open a 2026 official series we were willing to cite. A made-up median would be worse than a blank.
Sources
Sources and dates
- PREPA electric rates and rules, FY2027 tariff book, filed with the Energy Bureau June 30, 2026 (NEPR received 6:41 p.m.). GRS customer charge $8.00 and energy charge $0.08648/kWh.
- El Nuevo Día, Manuel Guillama Capella, October 1, 2026: 33.86¢/kWh for October–December 2026, and $42.27 more per month for an average unsubsidized residential customer versus the prior quarter.
- Hacienda, Determinación Administrativa 15-10: IVU 10.5% Commonwealth plus 1% municipal, total 11.5%, from July 1, 2015, under Act 72-2015.
- Hacienda circular 1300-51-25, April 24, 2025, still directing agencies to collect 11.5% IVU on taxable sales.
- Hacienda, arbitrios on vehicles. Brackets for automobiles introduced after October 31, 2014. The $5,170.95 example is arithmetic on that table, not a Hacienda quote.
- Populations: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census, as compiled in this site’s municipality file. See the places guide.
- Saint John’s School tuition page, reviewed October 8, 2026.
Photo credit
Plaza del Mercado, Santurce: Betxypr, Frutas en la Plaza del Mercado, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.