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tuition fees for non-EU students — so if a consultant or an old forum post tells you TUM is free, that information is out of date.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 1.1 years for TUM vs 0.7 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.
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