The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.Coffee lovers beware. A cappuccino in Zurich is more expensive than anywhere else in the world.UCG/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesZurich and Geneva are the most expensive cities in the world.The Swiss cities reign supreme in several categories, while Tokyo is surprisingly cheap.Here's where everyday items, from a beer to rent, cost the most.A Pepsi in Zurich. A pack of cigs in Sydney. A gym membership in San Fransciso.Around the world, the costs of everyday purchases are reaching new highs.A new report from the Deutsche Bank Research Institute compared the prices of more than a dozen everyday items across 69 cities and tracked how much they've increased over the past 12 years.The researchers used data from the crowdsourced platform Numbeo and cross-referenced it with other sources.Switzerland is home to the two most expensive cities in the world, Zurich and Geneva. The two cities consistently ranked among the priciest for a coffee, a cab ride, a pair of jeans, and a can of Coke. That said, the residents also earned some of the world's highest salaries. They also topped the rankings for disposable income after taxes and rent, with a couple renting a three-bedroom apartment left with more than $10,000 a month.The prices reflect the Swiss franc's strength over several decades, Jim Reid, the global head of macro research and thematic strategy for Deutsche Bank Research Institute, told Business Insider.New York and San Francisco, long among the most expensive cities in the US, ranked among the top 10 priciest in many categories.But America's relative dominance has faded somewhat as foreign investment — which drives up currency values and can cause inflation — has slowed."The geopolitical world is getting more challenging, and people don't want all of their eggs in one basket," Reid said.An outlier, Tokyo stands out for its low prices. Renting a three-bedroom apartment in the Japanese capital costs less than a third of what it does in New York, and a McDonald's meal is less than a quarter of what it is in Tel Aviv. It's the cheapest place in the world to buy an iPhone."Another year of yen depreciation just catapulted Tokyo into the realm of being astonishingly cheap for such a developed market city," Reid said.Here's where everyday items cost the most in 2026 — and how much you'll pay for them, on average.Cappuccino: Zurich, $7.13Coffee shop, Zurich.Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesA cup of coffee in Zurich costs nearly 40% more than it did 10 years ago. It's the only city where a cappuccino tops $7.00 — making it a couple of dollars more than a three-course meal in Jakarta. Authentic cappuccinos are among the cheapest; it costs $2.24 in Rome and $2.18 in Milan.iPhone: Turkey, $2,592 for an iPhone 17 ProAn iPhone in Ankara.Akin Celiktas/Anadolu via Getty ImagesBuying an iPhone in Turkey will cost you more than twice as much as in the US, reflecting high taxes and the lira's decline. At $1,121 a pop, Japan ranks as the cheapest place in the world to buy an iPhone.The device "has become one of our most reliable cross-economy price comparisons," the report says, due to Apple's central pricing strategy. Any differences reflect taxes, tariffs, distribution costs, and currency effects.Pack of cigarettes: Sydney, $44.50Cigarettes, Sydney.Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesCigs in Australia will cost you, with Marlboros exceeding $40 per pack in Sydney and Melbourne. That's more than double the $19 in New York and twenty times the $2.1 in Cairo. The high price is the result of Australia's liberal use of sin taxes on products like alcohol and tobacco; with regular tax hikes, the cost of a pack has more than doubled over the past decade.Pair of jeans: Geneva, $141Rue de la Croix D'Or, Geneva.UCG/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesA pair of jeans — think Levi's 501, not designer — costs $141 in Geneva, nearly twice as much as in New York. Denim is cheapest in Delhi, where a pair costs $24.Bottle of wine: Singapore, $23.20FairPrice supermarket, Singapore.UCG/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesThanks to a volume-based alcohol tax, a mid-tier bottle of wine in Singapore will cost you. Still, that's not much more than in many other expensive cities; a similar bottle costs $20 in New York and about $18 in Oslo. For a cheap bottle, head to Rome, where a bottle costs $4.60.A Coke (or Pepsi): Zurich, $6.03Coca-Cola factory.STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFPA 0.33-liter bottle of Coke or Pepsi — the small glass ones common overseas, or the size of a can in the US — exceeds $6 in only one market: Zurich. In most markets, a soda of that size costs $1 or $2, though in Cairo, the least expensive market, it's only $0.38.McDonald's combo meal: Tel Aviv, $20.90McDonald's, Tel Aviv.Francis Dean/Corbis via Getty ImagesA McDonald's meal in Tel Aviv may be fast, but it's
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