Yeah and that's for a 538 sqft apartment. I don't know the specifics of the San Francisco rental market, but you can easily beat $4k/mo for a studio in desirable parts of Manhattan, so I assume the same is true of SV
$3000 will get you a not bad one bedroom in a old building with rent control in SF, or in a new building in the burbs.
You can do $3k for a 1BR/studio in a new building?
I've been seeing >$3,600 in Peninsula currently.
50m^2 is about 534 sqft for comparison. I haven't looked at renting in SF in a long time but 2500-4000 CHF for that seems pretty high.
You don't need to live in the city center though.
Zurich itself is crazy expensive. If you're willing to travel by train for 20 minutes (direct, no changes), then prices quickly drop to around 2k for 120 square meters
In many Indian cities it is possible to find decent full appartments for about 150$ per month, not to mention the cheaper food and medical costs, and general costs of living.