How Bogota and Mexico City compare on cost, visas, working hours, weather, internet and safety. Every figure comes from our city guides and tools, checked and dated there.
The short answer
Bogota Pick it for a lower visa income bar.
Mexico City Pick it for faster internet and a lower US travel advisory level.
Everyday costsEven
What we have checked of rent, a coworking desk, weekday lunches and getting around comes to $769 to $1,590 (£578 to £1,190) a month in Bogota, against $933 to $1,460 (£701 to £1,100) in Mexico City. We can't call it: Bogota has no checked figure for a desk, so that total leaves it out.
The visaBogota
Bogota asks for less income. Bogota: Visa V Nomada Digital, about $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month). Mexico City: Residente Temporal, economic solvency, about $4,050 to $4,630 a month (USD 4,049 a month, sources differ).
A London 9 to 5Even
A start in the small hours in both: 03:00 to 11:00 in Bogota, 02:00 to 10:00 in Mexico City.
A New York 9 to 5Even
Normal hours in both: 08:00 to 16:00 in Bogota, 07:00 to 15:00 in Mexico City.
InternetMexico City
Mexico City is faster. Typical download speed: 72 Mbps in Bogota, 117 Mbps in Mexico City, from each guide.
SafetyMexico City
Mexico City. The US State Department puts Colombia at level 3 and Mexico at level 2.
Side by side
Measure
Bogota
Mexico City
Country
Colombia
Mexico
Language
Spanish
Spanish
Currency
Colombian peso (COP)
Mexican peso (MXN)
Plugs
Type A and B, 110V
Type A and B, 127V
Time zone
UTC−5 today
UTC−6 today
A month's basics
$769 to $1,590 (£578 to £1,190), with a desk missing
$933 to $1,460 (£701 to £1,100)
Remote work visa
Visa V Nomada Digital
Residente Temporal, economic solvency
Income needed
About $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month)
About $4,050 to $4,630 a month (USD 4,049 a month, sources differ)
Without a visa
British and American passports: 90 days, up to 180 in a year
British and American passports: up to 180 days, at the border officer's discretion
Tax residency
183 days in any 365
No day count: tax residence follows where your home is
Download speed
72 Mbps
117 Mbps
Comfortable months
—
January, February, March, April, May, June, October, November and December
US travel advice
Level 3: reconsider travel
Level 2: increased caution
Meetups
None we could confirm
4 regular groups still running
Dollars and pounds at today's exchange rate. Download speeds are the typical figure from each guide, which says where it comes from: some are for the city, some for the whole country, so treat a small gap as no gap.
What a month costs
Rent, a coworking desk, a cheap lunch on each of 22 working days, and getting around: the same four costs our budget calculator uses. The rent figures aren't always the same kind of figure (some are furnished one-beds, some are averages across every size of flat), so read the note under each.
Bogota
$769 to $1,590£578 to £1,190 a month
Rent
$599 to $1,420Furnished studio or one-bed, asking, Chapinero Alto and Usaquen. Administracion is often extra. COP 1,900,000 to 4,500,000
A desk
No checked figureNo monthly coworking price on an operator's own site: Regus quotes COP 21,967 a day only on 24-month contracts
Weekday lunches
$122Corrientazo, the national average in January 2026. There is no Bogota figure, COP 17,542 each, 22 working days
Getting around
$49TransMilenio at COP 3,550 a ride, two rides each working day (our arithmetic). COP 156,200
About $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month); in pounds, about £1,240 a month
How long
Up to two years
What it leads to
Nowhere: time on it does not count towards residence
Without a visa
British and American passports: 90 days, up to 180 in a year
The catch. The bar is pinned to the minimum wage, so it moves every January. The 2026 wage survived a court challenge in July, though a final ruling is still due.
About $4,050 to $4,630 a month (USD 4,049 a month, sources differ); in pounds, about £3,040 to £3,480 a month
How long
One to four years, then permanent residence
What it leads to
Citizenship after five years, with exams
Without a visa
British and American passports: up to 180 days, at the border officer's discretion
The catch. Every consulate prints its own figure. Check the sheet for the one you will apply at, and apply before you travel: it cannot be done inside Mexico.
The US level is for the whole country, as the State Department sets it, and some countries have stricter advice for particular regions.
Who each one suits
From each city guide, word for word.
Bogota
It suits
Someone who wants a big capital rather than a nomad enclave, and who will live on TransMilenio at COP 3,550 a ride. US-facing workers, who get UTC-5 with no clock changes. Someone who is happy for the weekend to be free museums: the Museo Botero every day, the Museo del Oro on Sundays. And someone with Spanish, or about to learn it: Bogota's English score of 513 beats Colombia's 480, but Spanish still does the work at every counter that matters.
It doesn't suit
Anyone wanting a warm-weather nomad city. Anyone who needs everything in English: the tourist police complaints route, the cedula, the car-restriction platform and the lease all run in Spanish. Anyone who takes a listed rent as the rent, because administracion often adds COP 400,000 to 600,000 a month. Anyone careless about safety: the US rates Colombia Level 3, "Reconsider travel", the US Embassy has warned that foreigners are drugged and robbed through dating apps in Bogota, and the British government warns of fake police who ask to check your cash. And anyone hoping the nomad visa leads somewhere: it does not count towards residence, and its income bar resets every January.
You have functional Spanish or a real intention to get it, you earn in dollars or pounds, and you want a genuine city rather than a nomad compound. If you can show roughly 80,000 to 84,000 pesos a month on paper you get a four-year residency route with a five-year path to a passport, which is unusually generous. Live in Juarez or San Rafael rather than Condesa and you pay about a third of Condesa rent for the same commute. Buy a desk instead of pretending cafes work, and the infrastructure holds up fine.
It doesn't suit
You want a cheap, clean, easy city. The air was officially clean on 15 days out of 273 this year. You will live 2,240 metres up, which flattens people for a fortnight. The British government tells you not to hail taxis, not to use street ATMs and not to leave your drink, in a city where 59.8 per cent of adults already feel unsafe. Take the obvious flat in Roma or Condesa and you are on the soft lakebed where 2017 shook fifty times harder than firm ground, in the exact building height that fell, in the neighbourhoods where hundreds marched in July 2025 to tell foreigners to leave. Their complaint is arithmetically correct: Cuauhtemoc rents rose 13.7 per cent in a year against a 3.69 per cent cap that protects everyone except the newcomer.
