What It Costs to Study Medicine in Georgia: The 2026 Figures

What does it cost to study medicine in Georgia in 2026?

A first year at a private medical faculty in Tbilisi comes to roughly GEL 52,000 in 2026, which is about EUR 17,100 or USD 19,900. Tuition accounts for GEL 15,700 of that. Six years on the same assumptions reach about GEL 310,000, or EUR 102,000; run on the leaner student budget that Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy itself publishes, the same six years come to about GEL 179,000, or EUR 59,000.

Tuition is the part that is fixed and published. Everything else is a decision you make: which city, whether you rent alone or share, how quickly you want the Public Service Development Agency to process your papers. Those decisions move the six-year total by far more than the gap between one Tbilisi faculty and the next. The city choice dominates.

Georgia is not a marginal destination for this. The National Statistics Office of Georgia counted 44,400 international students in Georgian higher education in 2025/2026, 19.7% more than a year earlier, across 64 accredited institutions of which 45 are private.

Which medical faculties in Tbilisi and Batumi enrol international students in 2026/2027, and what do they charge?

The private faculties are the ones enrolling new international students for 2026/2027, and their published annual tuition for the six-year English-taught Medical Doctor programme sits between USD 6,000 and USD 7,000. Georgian American University in Tbilisi publishes USD 6,480 a year for 2026/2027 and a six-year programme total of USD 38,880, which is exactly six times the annual figure. Caucasus International University and the University of Georgia both publish USD 6,000. Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy and New Vision University both publish USD 7,000.

All of these are six-year programmes worth 360 ECTS credits, taught in English. In Batumi, BAU International University Batumi runs a six-year, 360-ECTS Medical Doctor programme in English but does not put a tuition figure on its programme page.

The two state universities are in the table because their fees are still published and because students already enrolled there continue on those terms. For a new international applicant in 2026/2027 they are not the relevant column. Which private faculty fits a particular profile is something Medschool Experts works out case by case in a free individual consultation, and our university overview shows the programmes we can currently place students on.

What one-off costs fall due before the first lecture?

Before tuition there is paperwork, and in Georgia the paperwork has a published price list. Recognition of a foreign school-leaving certificate by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement costs GEL 40 on the one-month track, GEL 80 for fifteen working days, GEL 120 for five working days and GEL 250 for one working day, with GEL 5 added for postal delivery. Those are 2026 tariffs from the centre's own service page.

Documents that have to exist in Georgian go through translation and certification. A Public Service Hall charges GEL 30 per page, or part page, for translation into or out of its eight service languages, and the apostille or legalisation service itself costs GEL 30 for eight working days, GEL 60 for four, GEL 120 for two and GEL 150 same-day, under the Public Service Development Agency's 2026 tariff. Where a notary certifies the translation instead, Government of Georgia Resolution No 507 sets the fee at GEL 1 per page for certifying a translation, GEL 0.50 per page for certifying a copy and GEL 2 for certifying a signature.

The D3 study visa is the cheapest line on the list. Georgian embassies publish it at the equivalent of USD 20, for example 75 dirham at the Embassy of Georgia to the United Arab Emirates in 2026.

Faculties add their own one-off charges, and they vary. Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy lists a USD 300 registration fee on enrolment and a USD 2,100 reservation fee payable before enrolment is confirmed. Georgian American University lists a USD 100 non-refundable application fee. Alte University lists USD 250. Caucasus International University and the University of Georgia publish no separate registration fee on their international fee pages.

What does the Georgian residence permit for study cost, and how long does it take?

The study residence permit is issued by the Public Service Development Agency and priced by speed: GEL 300 for a decision by the thirtieth calendar day, GEL 450 by the twentieth and GEL 600 by the tenth, on the agency's 2026 tariff. At the August 2026 exchange rate the standard tier is about EUR 99. The permit is granted to adults enrolled at an authorised Georgian higher or vocational education institution.

Timing is where students lose money rather than on the fee itself. The Georgian government ordinance governing residence permits, in its version amended on 26 August 2026, requires an applicant to apply forty calendar days before their lawful stay in Georgia expires, and gives the agency up to thirty days to review a complete file. Miss the forty-day mark and the only way back onto the calendar is the GEL 600 tier.

The same ordinance lists what has to be in the file: the application, a copy of the travel document, a copy of the D3 immigration visa, a certificate from the authorised educational institution confirming enrolment, proof of legal income or a personal bank account holding at least double the subsistence minimum, a 3x4 photograph and the receipt for the service fee. That income proof is the line most first-year budgets forget.

What does health insurance cost for a medical student in Georgia?

Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy puts student health insurance at USD 7 to USD 25 a month in 2026 and requires it to be in place before the semester begins. Over twelve months that is USD 84 at the bottom of the band and USD 300 at the top, or GEL 220 to GEL 785 at the August 2026 rate.

It is a small line and an unavoidable one. Budget the top of the band rather than the bottom, because the cheaper policies are the ones with the narrowest cover, and a medical student spends six years inside hospitals.

What does it cost to live in Tbilisi and Batumi in 2026?

Numbeo's Tbilisi price data, last updated on 29 August 2026 from 156 contributors over the preceding twelve months, puts a one-bedroom flat outside the centre at GEL 1,147.33 a month and one in the centre at GEL 1,807.83. Basic utilities run GEL 232.15, a monthly public transport pass GEL 40, and household internet GEL 51.12. Numbeo estimates monthly costs for a single person excluding rent at GEL 1,755.

Batumi is cheaper on every line. On Numbeo's Batumi data, updated 23 August 2026 from 107 contributors, a one-bedroom flat outside the centre is GEL 918.25, one in the centre GEL 1,282.11, utilities GEL 190.14, a transport pass GEL 30 and internet GEL 41.06, with single-person costs excluding rent at GEL 1,546.

Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy publishes its own student bands for Tbilisi in 2026 and they sit lower: accommodation USD 250 to 550 a month, food and groceries USD 100 to 250, transport USD 15 to 40 and personal expenses USD 50 to 150. Added up, that is USD 415 a month at the bottom and USD 990 at the top. The gap between the faculty's lower band and Numbeo's general single-person figure is the difference between a shared flat and a flat of your own.

What do one year and six full years actually add up to?

Here is the worked example: Caucasus International University in Tbilisi, six-year Medical Doctor programme in English, entry in the 2026/2027 academic year. The assumptions are stated so the arithmetic can be checked. Tuition USD 6,000 a year. A one-bedroom flat outside the centre, rented alone. Numbeo's single-person estimate for everything except rent. Health insurance at the top of the band Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy publishes. Recognition of the school certificate on the fifteen-working-day track, six pages of certified translation, six notarised copies, the D3 visa and the standard thirty-day residence permit. Conversion at 1 USD equals 2.6156 GEL and 1 EUR equals 3.0333 GEL, the National Bank of Georgia rate for 31 August 2026.

Across six years the entry paperwork is paid once, the residence permit is paid six times, and everything else repeats. That produces GEL 309,953, which is EUR 102,184 or USD 118,501.

Swap the living assumption and the answer changes shape. Run the same six years on the USD 415 a month that Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy gives as its lower band, covering accommodation, food, transport and personal spending together, and the living lines fall from GEL 208,968 to GEL 78,154. The six-year total becomes GEL 179,139, or EUR 59,057. Tuition, unchanged at GEL 94,162, then makes up 52.6% of the whole rather than 30.4%.

When does each payment actually fall due?

The order is fixed by the government offices, not by the faculty. Working backwards from the start of teaching, this is what the calendar looks like in weeks.

Every one of those steps is a government or logistics step with a published price. None of them is a university deadline. What a particular faculty expects of you personally belongs in a free individual consultation, because it depends on your file rather than on a calendar.

What moves the number: the lari, the dollar or the city?

Tuition in Georgia is quoted in US dollars and living costs are paid in lari, so a family budgeting in euro carries two separate exposures. They behave differently, and they can move in opposite directions.

Take the lari first. At GEL 2,902 a month, living in Tbilisi costs EUR 957 at the rate of 31 August 2026. If the lari weakened to 3.30 to the euro, the same lari spending would cost EUR 880, saving EUR 77 a month and about EUR 5,566 over six years. If it strengthened to 2.80, the bill rises to EUR 1,036 a month, EUR 5,738 more across the degree. Tuition is untouched by either move, because it is priced in dollars.

The dollar exposure sits entirely on tuition. Six years at USD 6,000 is USD 36,000, which at the euro-dollar cross implied by the National Bank of Georgia rates of 31 August 2026 is EUR 31,043. At 0.95 euro to the dollar it would be EUR 34,200; at 0.80 it would be EUR 28,800. A swing of roughly EUR 5,400 in either direction, on a number the university never changes.

City choice is the one lever entirely in your hands. On the August 2026 Numbeo data, Batumi costs GEL 438 a month less than Tbilisi on rent and general living combined. Across seventy-two months that is GEL 31,542, or about EUR 10,400. That is more than a year of tuition at most of the private faculties.

Can a medical student in Georgia work alongside the degree?

Yes, with a registration step that changed in 2026. Since 1 March 2026, foreign nationals in Georgia who do not hold a permanent residence permit must obtain a right to work before taking employment with a Georgian employer, working remotely for one, or operating as self-employed. Applications go through the State Employment Support Agency of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons, Labour, Health and Social Affairs, on its labour migration portal that opened the same day.

The Law of Georgia on Labour Migration, in its version amended on 25 June 2026, lists the categories exempt from that requirement: refugees and people with protection status, asylum seekers, diplomatic staff, accredited journalists, investment and special residence permit holders, people performing short-term professional activity, and people carrying out remote work for foreign employers. Holders of a study residence permit are not on the exemption list. A student who wants a paid job in Tbilisi or Batumi registers for the right to work like any other foreign national.

What that means for the budget is straightforward. Georgian student wages will not cover a medical tuition bill, and a six-year medical programme leaves little room for a serious job in the clinical years. Treat any earnings as a contribution to living costs, not as part of the funding plan. The realistic version is the arithmetic above, funded from family or a loan, with work covering some of the monthly lari.

What is the gap between the sticker tuition and what a student transfers each year?

The sticker is the annual figure on the fee page. What leaves the bank account in year one is larger at some faculties and identical at others, and the difference is entirely in the one-off charges.

At Caucasus International University and the University of Georgia the published USD 6,000 is what a first-year student transfers as tuition, with no separate registration fee on their international fee pages. At Georgian American University the USD 6,480 is joined by a USD 100 non-refundable application fee. At Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy the USD 7,000 is joined by a USD 300 registration fee on enrolment and a USD 2,100 reservation fee due before enrolment is confirmed, so the first payment leaving home is larger than the annual figure suggests even where the reservation counts towards the year. Alte University lists a USD 250 application fee.

Two things sit outside every published price list. The first is conversion: universities publish in dollars and collect into Georgian bank accounts, so the rate a commercial bank applies on the day of transfer, not the National Bank of Georgia reference rate, decides what the payment costs. The second is the payment schedule, which faculties set out in the offer rather than on the fee page, and which decides whether the year is one transfer or two. Both are worth asking about before the first payment. Our placement service handles that part of the paperwork with the faculty directly.