Honest answer
Is TUM still free for international students in 2026?
Numbers last checked: 2026-07-09
Short answer
No. The Technical University of Munich now charges real tuition to non-EU students - the "Germany is free" reputation no longer applies to TUM. Full cost for the MSc Computer Science (24 months, tuition + Munich living costs) is about ₹61.0 lakh. RWTH Aachen, by contrast, still charges near-zero tuition even for non-EU students: about ₹32.7 lakh all-in for its MSc Data Science, almost entirely living costs.
What changed, and what didn't
TUM introduced tuition fees for non-EU students - so if a consultant or an old forum post tells you TUM is free, that information is out of date. Budget about ₹61.0 lakh total for the 2-year MSc CS including Munich's high living costs.
Germany's public-university tradition isn't dead, though: RWTH Aachen genuinely still charges near-zero tuition for non-EU students. Its MSc Data Science works out to about ₹32.7 lakh total - the best pure cost-to-ROI ratio in our verified dataset. The catch: RWTH requires the GRE (Quant 75th+ percentile), which is unusual for Germany.
Both keep Germany's 18-month post-study job-search visa, and typical starting salaries are similar (₹63.1 lakh vs ₹54.4 lakh/year, market bands) - which is why the tuition difference matters so much to payback: roughly 2.6 years for TUM vs 1.8 years for RWTH.
Verify these numbers yourself
- Tuition policy: tum.de (non-EU fee rules)
- Salary band: Glassdoor / Indeed / PayScale / ZipRecruiter (Jul 2026)
- Visa: Germany 18-month post-study job-search visa
- Tuition & GRE requirement: rwth-aachen.de
Costs, salaries, and visa rules change - always confirm against the official program page before making a real decision. TruthPathMS aggregates and cites; it does not originate tuition, salary, or visa data.
What should you check next?
If this answered the question you arrived with, these are usually the next three.
- 1
Does your CGPA clear the bar for the programmes you want?
Two conversion methods, plus the verified programmes whose published minimum that value clears. convert your CGPA.
- 2
Are you comparing two specific programmes?
Cost, starting salary, payback and visa runway side by side, from per-programme figures rather than rank-band estimates. the verified comparisons.
- 3
Is the acceptance rate doing the work you think it is?
We measured rank against published admission bars across 35 programmes and found essentially no relationship. why acceptance rates mislead.
- 4
Want the same reasoning applied to your own shortlist?
Ranks the programmes you are considering against your GPA, budget and priority, and names the contradictions in the list for free. run the free assessment.
Want this math run on your own profile?
The free assessment scores real programs against your GPA, budget, and priorities - with the formula and sources shown, not hidden. No phone number required.
Get My Free Assessment