Georgia: Tbilisi among the cheapest capitals for nomads

Rankings of the “cheapest” cities are most often based on self-reported baskets, fed by internet users. For Georgia, there is a public, dated figure produced by the national statistics office: the average nominal monthly wage of employees.

In the second quarter of 2026, it stood at about GEL 2,389.3¹. This figure does not measure an expatriate's cost of living — it measures what a Georgian employee earns. But it gives the order of magnitude of the economy in which a freelancer paid in euros comes to spend, and in that respect it is more reliable than a reconstructed budget.

Georgia's distinctive feature is not tax-related but administrative. Ordinance No. 255 of the Government of Georgia of 5 June 2015 approves the list of countries whose nationals may enter without a visa. The note following this list specifies that they may enter and stay for 365 days² — a full year.

This is what sets the country apart from most so-called “nomad” destinations: there is no specific visa to apply for, no proof of income to produce, no application to put together before departure. The permission to stay comes down to an entry stamp.

The second attraction is small business status. A freelancer registered under this status is taxed on turnover at a rate of 1%³, up to an annual ceiling of up to GEL 500,000⁴.

Above this ceiling, or outside this status, the ordinary regime applies: personal income tax is levied at a rate of 20%⁵. The gap between the two regimes is considerable, and it is this — far more than the level of rents — that explains why freelancers settle there.

The status is not automatic: it requires registration, and eligible activities are restricted. An activity that falls within an excluded profession cannot qualify.

Staying in a country and being a tax resident there are two different things. Georgian tax residency is acquired beyond 183 days⁶ of presence over a year.

For a French national, the question is not whether Georgia considers them resident, but whether France has stopped considering them so. The two assessments are independent, and a year spent in Tbilisi without genuinely moving one's household leaves French tax residency intact, one per cent regime or not.

1. Check that your nationality is indeed listed in the annex to Ordinance No. 255: the list is exhaustive;
2. do not confuse the right to stay with the right to work: registering an activity is a separate step from entering the country;
3. treat the departure from France as a matter in its own right — household, centre of economic interests, documentation — before relying on local taxation;
4. keep proof of your days of presence, in both countries.

We do not publish a typical monthly budget for Tbilisi: as of the date of consultation, we did not find an official Georgian data series measuring a basket of spending comparable to that of an expatriate. The amounts in circulation on this point come from unverifiable self-reported databases, and we prefer not to repeat them.

Rent levels by neighbourhood are not documented by any public source we have been able to consult either. They also depend heavily on the season and the type of rental.

Finally, the one-year visa-free stay is based on a government ordinance, and therefore on a text the government can amend without a parliamentary procedure. It is a real advantage, but it does not have the stability of a right attached to a residence permit.