Digital Nomads in Bali

Part of the Bali travel guide — see every topic in All Bali Guides.

Bali has been a remote-work destination since long before the term existed, and Canggu is now one of the densest concentrations of location-independent workers anywhere. The infrastructure has caught up: fibre in the main areas, a dozen serious co-working spaces, and since 2024 an Indonesian remote-worker visa that finally gives a legal basis to what most people were doing on tourist stamps. The constraints are real too — power cuts, wet-season internet, and a social scene that can consume the working day if you let it.

Visas

Visa rules change, so verify before you book. The practical options have been: visa on arrival (30 days, extendable once to 60) for short stays; the B211A social/business visa allowing 60 days with extensions to around 180; and the E33G remote worker KITAS introduced in 2024, a one-year stay for people employed by or contracting with companies outside Indonesia, with an income threshold and proof-of-employment requirements. The E33G does not permit working for Indonesian clients. Overstaying carries a per-day fine that escalates quickly and is enforced at the airport, so track your dates.

Where to work

Dojo in Canggu is the original and still the most social; Outpost has locations in Canggu and Ubud and skews slightly more professional; Tropical Nomad, BWork and Genesis fill in around them. Ubud's Hubud closed but Outpost Ubud covers that market. Monthly hot-desk memberships run 1.5–3.5 million rupiah; day passes 150,000–250,000. Beyond that, the cafe network is the real workspace, and the good ones publish their wi-fi speeds. Sanur is the underrated option: quiet, cheap, fast internet, and no queue for a table.

Connectivity and power

Fibre in Canggu, Seminyak, Sanur and central Ubud is genuinely good — 50–300 Mbps is normal. Outside those areas it degrades quickly. Buy a local SIM at the airport or any Alfamart: Telkomsel has the best coverage, and 50–100 GB costs 100,000–250,000 rupiah a month, which makes tethering a viable fallback. That fallback matters, because power cuts are frequent, particularly in the wet season, and take the wi-fi with them. Anyone doing live calls should have a phone plan with data and a power bank as a matter of routine, not emergency.

What it costs

A one-bedroom villa with a private pool in Canggu is 8–20 million rupiah a month; a room in a shared villa 4–8 million; the same in Sanur or Ubud is thirty to forty per cent less. Scooter hire is 700,000–1,200,000 a month. Eating a mix of warung lunches and cafe dinners runs 4–8 million. Add co-working, a gym and a social life and a realistic Canggu month is 18–30 million rupiah — comfortable, but no longer the cheap posting it was in 2016. Sanur, Ubud and Amed are all materially cheaper for the same internet.

Digital Nomads at a glance

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