Spotify has become an integral part of daily life for millions of music lovers worldwide, with the monthly subscription fee now just another expense. But as a global service, the local pricing of the subscription is a curiosity. How much does Spotify cost around the world? And why might there be disparities in these prices?

Whether you’re considering a big move abroad or you’re just someone intrigued by economics, understanding Spotify’s pricing across countries offers a fascinating glimpse into the market dynamics, purchasing power, and regional strategies that the most popular music app on the planet has to take into account.

We’ve crunched the numbers on this and laid out the cost of Spotify in various countries for comparison. We’ll also offer you insight regarding whether you can take advantage of these global price differences.

Spotify is available in over 180 countries worldwide, but we’ve kept our list to 50 countries for the purpose of this comparison, with all of the main regional music streaming markets represented. We’re also confident that we have the cheapest country in the world on our list, as well as the most expensive.

We’ve avoided comparing apples with oranges when it comes to plans. Spotify Premium, which is what we’re talking about when we refer to the paid version of Spotify, has different rates for individuals, families, duos, and students. There are also instances of cheaper rates when you pay upfront for a whole year. You can see how this could quickly get confusing, so we’ve kept things simple by only highlighting the cost of the individual plan in each country. This means you’re not overloaded with numbers and, in any event, the cost of the individual plan is usually a good indicator of the other plan pricing in each country.

In the table below, you can see how much Spotify costs around the world. The price in each country has been converted from the local currency to USD at the rate it was on the day of publication. The countries have then been ranked in order of the cheapest to the most expensive.

The table shows that Pakistan is the cheapest country in the world for a monthly Spotify subscription, followed by India and Turkey. The mere $1.04 per month that Pakistan residents pay may reflect the spending power in that region, the strength of the local currency against the US dollar, or any number of other factors. The cheap end of the comparison table is dominated by countries in Asia, Africa, and South America.

The United States is understandably at the pricier end of the spectrum for Spotify subscriptions, sitting in 37th place on the table. It could be worse for Americans — the Europeans generally get charged even more, with the poor old Danes having to fork out over $16 per month.

VPNs are an excellent addition to your setup for many reasons, one of which is the ability to misrepresent your location. Now that we know how much Spotify costs around the world, you may have also wondered if you can use a VPN to take advantage of the lower Spotify prices in other countries.

It is a possibility. However, we think it would neither be straightforward nor advisable. Even if Spotify’s filters don’t manage to pick up on the fact that you’re using a VPN, your IP address isn’t the only clue to your location. For example, you’d probably need to set up the payment from a bank account or credit card registered in the region. This would probably be a lot harder to fake.

It’s tough to say if all of this deception would be against the law, although that’s never a risk you want to be taking. In any event, Spotify’s terms and conditions almost certainly prohibit such attempts to game their regional pricing structures. If the streaming service catches on to your little scheme, your account is likely to be shut down.