Rent Calculator
Enter a positive income and a ratio between 1-100%.
Or work backwards: how much income do you need for a target rent?
The 30% rule is a widely-cited budgeting guideline, not a fixed rule — some cities' high costs of living make it unrealistic, and landlords often use their own income multiple (commonly 2.5-3x monthly rent) instead.
Free rent calculator using the 30% rent-to-income guideline, with a bidirectional mode — enter income to see max rent, or enter a target rent to see the income needed.
How it works
- Enter your gross monthly income and a rent-to-income ratio
- See your recommended max rent instantly
- Or work backwards: enter a target rent to see the income needed
Frequently asked questions
Why 30%?
It's the most widely cited budgeting guideline for rent, tracing back to older US housing-assistance thresholds — but it's just a rule of thumb. In high-cost cities it's often unrealistic; adjust the ratio to fit your own budget.
Why is my max rent different from what a landlord requires?
This tool uses your own ratio choice. Many landlords instead require gross income to be some multiple of rent (commonly 2.5-3x monthly rent) as a screening rule — a related but different calculation.
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From the blog
Update history
- 2026-09-03 Bounded numeric fields are now sliders instead of number inputs.
- 2026-09-01 Added: a cover image (a house-shaped price tag balanced on a stack of coins, showing a percentage slice) — used as the card thumbnail, social share image, and blog title image.
- 2026-09-01 Launched: bidirectional rent calculator — income → max rent, or target rent → required income, both using an adjustable rent-to-income ratio (default 30%). Entirely client-side.