How much is a studio or one-bedroom apartment? In many big cities, the extra room costs almost nothing

The typical studio apartment listed for rent in the 50 largest US metro areas cost $1,422 a month in September 2026, and the typical one-bedroom $1,568, according to Realtor.com. Both were slightly cheaper than a year earlier, studios by 1.0% and one-bedrooms by 0.4%. Two-bedrooms ran $1,890.

Those are asking rents, what you'd see on a new listing. What renters actually pay is lower. Across all US renter households in 2024, the median gross rent, which includes utilities, was $1,321 for a studio, $1,301 for a one-bedroom, and $1,490 for a two-bedroom, according to the US Census Bureau.

That national figure looks backward, with studios costing more than one-bedrooms, because studios are concentrated in big, expensive cities. City by city, the gap between the two is often tiny.

San Francisco is the outlier. Its typical one-bedroom costs $843 a month more than a studio, a gap that comes to more than $10,000 a year. In Dallas and Nashville, studios cost slightly more than one-bedrooms, and in Columbus and Fort Worth the two are essentially the same price. New York's gap is just $38, though both cost far more than in most cities.

These Census figures cover all renters, including people on older leases, so they run below what a new lease costs today. Typical US asking rent across all home types, including houses, was $1,932 in September 2026, according to RentDataNow data built on the Zillow Observed Rent Index.

Among the 25 largest cities, the cheapest for either unit are El Paso and Oklahoma City. In El Paso, the median studio rent was $778 and a one-bedroom $881. Oklahoma City came in at $819 and $960. For more on the trade-off, see whether a studio is worth it over a one-bedroom and average rent by apartment size.

Sources

• Realtor.com September 2026 rent report (October 15, 2026), for asking rents by unit size in the 50 largest metros
• US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2024, table B25031, median gross rent by bedrooms, for the nation and the 25 most populous cities
• RentDataNow national rent data, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, September 2026