Six in ten students receive their Erasmus grant only after they have left

The question students ask most before an Erasmus is not how much they will get, but when. For most of them the answer is: after they have already paid the biggest bills.

The figures

The ESNsurvey XV, the Erasmus Student Network survey of students who went on exchange between 2021 and 2023, gives a clear picture across Europe:

• 37.26% received their grant before leaving;
• 36.84% received it within 30 days of arriving;
• 25.9% received it later than that.

In other words, 62.7% were paid only after departure. And it depends a lot on where you come from:

Home country	Paid before leaving	More than 30 days after arriving
Denmark	71.15%	11.54%
Germany	36.34%	23.29%
Italy	20.49%	37.13%
Spain	11.6%	64.05%

The survey only breaks down these four sending countries. The Danish figure is based on a small sample (52 answers).

The grant also falls short for many: 35.63% say it does not cover the cost of living, the most cited problem. The average grant was €468 a month against an average cost of living of about €790, and housing and essentials took 72.71% of the budget.

Why it arrives late

The first payment does not depend on being selected, but on your university having your paperwork and the funds. One example, from Valencia: at the Universitat Politècnica de València (2025-26), the advance is 70% of the maximum grant plus 100% of the travel grant, and it is only processed once you are registered as “arrived at destination” and the university has received the money. The UPV itself warns that students arriving in August or September will probably have to wait until the end of October.

Rules differ from one university to another: check your call for when the advance arrives and which documents unlock it.

And the balance, at the end

When your exchange ends you receive the invitation to the participant report (EU Survey). In the grant agreements we checked (Valencia and Bonn), you have 30 days to submit it, it counts as your request for the balance and the university then has 45 days to pay. If you do not submit it, the last payment is delayed.

What it means for your budget

In practice you pay the first month yourself: deposit, first rent, travel and settling in. If you arrive in September, perhaps the second month too. The tightest moment is not the end of your Erasmus but the first few weeks.

It is worth working out the lowest point of your bank balance: how much money you need before leaving so you do not go into the red before the advance arrives. That is what the Erasmus Kit calculator does. And if you are still choosing where to go, see how much each country’s agency pays.