How Much Does It Cost to Study in Spain?

The real cost of studying in Spain (summary)

Spain is one country with seventeen fee schedules. Public tuition is set by the autonomous community, not by the university, so the same bachelor’s costs €757–8,186 per year depending on where you study. Andalusia charges non-EU students what it charges Spaniards; Madrid applies its highest tier. A public master’s sits on a separate, usually higher scale, €5,044–10,153 per year.

Add living costs of €700–1,200 per month, health insurance at €480–840 per year, and three one-off charges: the consular visa at €90, the stay authorisation itself at €10.94, and the TIE identity card at €16.08, applied for within a month of arrival. There is no recurring German-style semester fee; new students pay a one-time admin charge of €28–140. Region and city move your total far more than the university’s ranking does.

Tuition fees in Spain: public and private universities

At a public university the price is fixed by the region, not the institution. Andalusia sets one price per credit regardless of nationality, so the University of Granada charges €757 per year. Catalonia unified its bachelor’s prices in the 2025/26 reform, so the University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona both charge €1,061 per year, while the Polytechnic University of Catalonia applies a non-EU surcharge and charges €1,800 per year.

Madrid is the outlier: under Decreto 43/2022 non-EU students pay the top enrolment tier from year one, so Complutense, Autónoma and Carlos III all charge €6,822.60–8,186.40 per year.

Master’s fees follow a different scale and are usually higher than the bachelor’s at the same university: €5,044–10,153 per year. Granada is again the cheapest at €821 per year; Complutense charges €5,044.20–10,152.60 per year, the top rate applying to regulated-profession (“habilitante”) programmes. Medicine at Madrid’s public faculties and at private universities runs €8,186–21,830 per year, but Andalusia’s flat pricing covers medicine too, at €757 per year in Granada.

Private universities are a separate market, at €10,380–26,500 per year for a bachelor’s across the sector. Individual price lists run wider, from €9,127–20,400 per year at the University of Navarra to €26,500–43,800 per year at IE University. A private master’s costs €30,000–50,000 per year, and IE prices its programmes as a flat total, €34,500–89,900 per programme. Private universities also charge a non-refundable place-reservation fee on top of tuition; each sets its own amount.

Application fees are small and inconsistent: free at Carlos III, Complutense and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, €30 at the University of Barcelona, €59.10 at Granada, €150 at IE. All 96 recognised institutions publish their own schedule — the bands sit side by side on our Spanish universities list.

Living costs in Spain

Plan for €700–1,200 per month. The city decides the number, and rent decides the city. Madrid is the most expensive we track, €900–1,300 per month with a shared room at €500–600 per month. Barcelona’s total budget is lower, €720–1,200 per month, but its rooms are the priciest in Spain at €550–650 per month.

Pamplona runs €850–1,100 per month on rent of €410–460 per month, Valencia €800–1,050 per month on €370–430 per month, and Salamanca €750–950 per month on €280–320 per month. Granada is the cheapest: €700–800 per month, with a room at €250–350 per month.

Food, a transport pass and a phone plan sit inside those totals and vary little between Spanish cities. Valencia, Salamanca and Pamplona publish no official student budget, so those totals are estimates built from dated rent data plus Barcelona’s official non-rent breakdown.

The figure the immigration authority uses is far lower — €600 a month, 100% of the IPREM — and it is a legal threshold, not a budget. Clearing it gets you the authorisation; it does not pay for a room in Madrid. Prove the legal figure, plan on the city figure.

Health insurance

Cover is compulsory and the visa rules are specific about its shape. The policy must come from an insurer authorised in Spain and either give benefits equivalent to Spain’s basic public healthcare package, with no co-payments and no waiting periods, or provide at least €30,000 of cover if it is more limited.

Budget €40–70 per month, or €480–840 per year. Buy the annual policy rather than paying monthly: the consulate wants proof of cover for the whole period you are asking for, so the year is what you pay up front. Spain publishes no exemption from this requirement, and travel policies with waiting periods or co-payments are refused.

Proof of funds for the Spain student visa

The rule is 100% of the IPREM (Indicador Publico de Renta de Efectos Multiples) per month of intended stay, per Real Decreto 1155/2024 Art. 35.h), which comes to €600 per month. For a twelve-month programme that is the monthly figure multiplied by twelve, and it drops only if your accommodation is pre-paid for the whole stay.

No blocked-account system (unlike Germany): shown via bank statements, a valid job offer/contract if work-authorised, a scholarship award letter, or a sponsor's 'toma a cargo' undertaking to cover costs. Insufficient or unclear proof of funds is the first refusal reason Spanish consulates list, so clear the threshold with room to spare rather than matching it to the euro. The full document list is on Spain student visa requirements, and our proof of funds guide explains how consulates read the evidence.

Cheapest universities and student cities

Five public universities do the heavy lifting on price. The University of Granada is the cheapest in our dataset at €757 per year for a bachelor’s and €821 per year for a master’s. The University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona charge €1,061 per year at bachelor’s level, with UAB master’s from €3,960–6,000 per year.

The University of Salamanca charges €1,249.20–2,028 per year, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia €1,800 per year for a bachelor’s and €2,700 per year for a master’s — the cheapest engineering route we track. The University of Valencia sits at €1,774–2,162 per year.

Granada is the rare case where the cheapest tuition and the cheapest city are the same place: €700–800 per month against Madrid’s €900–1,300 per month. Salamanca and Valencia are the next cheapest cities. The trade-off is language, because the cheapest universities teach almost entirely in Spanish. For a wider comparison, see the cheapest countries in Europe to study.

How to cover the costs

Two national schemes are open to our students. Erasmus Mundus accepts applicants from all nine countries we work with. MAEC-AECID is open to Egypt, restricted for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Morocco, and closed to Uganda and Zambia. Both are competitive; apply, then plan as though you had not won. Regional fee pricing is the more reliable saving, and it is a choice you control at shortlisting.

Work helps at the margin. You may work Up to 30 hours/week, year-round, and full-degree students need no separate work permit — the authorisation comes with the study status. Spain’s minimum wage is €1,221 per month for full-time work, so a capped student job covers food and transport, not tuition. Nothing you expect to earn in Spain counts towards the funds you must prove before you travel. More detail on Spain scholarships.