PhD stipend calculator and stipend ranking, adjusted for cost of living
A $40,000 stipend in Cambridge is not the same money as $40,000 in Pittsburgh. Enter your own stipend and city and RealPay adjusts it for cost of living, subtracts typical rent and essentials, and ranks it against 438 published stipends from the PhDStipend database of 798 programs. Or skip the form and go straight to the stipend ranking below: the highest PhD stipends in the USA once cost of living is factored in.
PhD stipend ranking: Top 25 programs by RealPay
Most stipend rankings sort by the headline number, which rewards expensive cities. This ranking sorts by RealPay: the stipend after cost of living adjustment (stipend times 100, divided by the city's cost of living index). A slightly smaller stipend in a cheap city can outrank the highest PhD stipend in an expensive one.
| # | Program | University | City | Stipend | COL index | Avg 1BR rent | RealPay (adjusted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Ranked among the 438 programs with a published stipend, out of 798 programs tracked. Nominal stipend is the university's published annual figure (9-month or 12-month basis as published). Pick any row's program in the calculator above to see its full breakdown.
How the math works
- Adjusted stipend: your stipend multiplied by 100 divided by your city's cost of living index (100 = an average US city). It answers: what would this stipend spend like in an average city?
- Essentials baseline: $900 a month at index 100 for one person (groceries, transport, phone, household basics), scaled by your city's index. For a household of two with a spouse on a dependent visa, essentials are multiplied by 1.65. That 1.65 is an assumption, stated plainly, not a measurement.
- Rent: the average one-bedroom rent for the city in the PhDStipend database. One household pays one rent, so rent does not change when the spouse toggle is on.
- Monthly leftover: monthly gross minus rent minus essentials, before tax. The IRS taxes most stipends, so your real leftover will be lower.
- Percentile: where your adjusted stipend lands among the 438 programs in the database with a published stipend (798 programs tracked in total). Programs that do not publish a stipend cannot be ranked.
- City median: the median published stipend among programs in the same city.
Stipend, cost of living, and rent figures come from the PhDStipend database, collected from university sources and last verified in September 2026. This calculator gives estimates for planning, not financial advice. Your program's actual offer letter is the only number that counts.