Prices in Switzerland 🇨🇭
What 7 everyday items cost in Switzerland, shown in US dollars, in CHF, and as roughly how long someone earning the average local wage works to buy one.
Switzerland is the most expensive country in the game for almost every item, and the Big Mac Index has used it as the standing example of an overvalued currency for years. High wages are the main cause — Swiss prices look far less extreme once you divide by what people earn.
What things cost
| Item | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Mac | $9.08 | 7.3 CHF | 16 min |
| Coca-Cola (330ml can) | $2.46 | 2.2 CHF | 4 min |
| Cappuccino | hidden — in play right now | ||
| Milk (1 litre) | $2.25 | 1.82 CHF | 4 min |
| Eggs (dozen) | $7.68 | 6.21 CHF | 14 min |
| Apples (1 kg) | $3.72 | 3.01 CHF | 7 min |
| Gasoline (1 litre) | $2.28 | 1.84 CHF | 4 min |
Local-currency figures are converted from US dollars at recent exchange rates, except the Big Mac, which is published in local currency by The Economist and converted the other way. Work time divides the dollar price by an estimated average hourly wage — the roughest number on this page. See methodology.
How Switzerland compares
Relative to the rest of the game, Switzerland is most expensive for big mac, where it ranks 1st out of 33 countries at $9.08 — against a global median of $5.69.
It is relatively cheapest for apples at $3.72, which is 7th of 32 — only 25 countries in the game are cheaper.
Measured against local earnings rather than dollars, the item that takes the longest to afford here is big mac, at roughly 16 minutes of the average wage. Dollar prices and work-time prices often rank countries very differently — that gap is usually the more interesting number.
Play a puzzle
Switzerland comes up in the daily puzzle roughly once every 33 days, paired with a different item each time. Play today's puzzle or browse the archive of past rounds.