Best Coffee Shops to Work or Study From in Santa Monica

    Working from Santa Monica sounds idyllic until you have circled the same three blocks for twenty minutes and every window seat is holding a tourist's beach bag. The good news: the cafés here that take remote workers seriously take them very seriously, with real Wi-Fi, real outlets, and staff who will not glare at your laptop.

    The trick is knowing which ones before you commit to parking. Every café below is graded on Wi-Fi, outlets, seating, and parking through the Grounded Score, so you can pick the one that fits the session you need — a quick email sprint or a full afternoon.

    These are the Santa Monica spots worth the drive.

    9 work friendly cafés in Santa Monica

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    How the Grounded Score works

    Every café gets a score from 0–100 based on the four things that actually matter when you're trying to get work done. Each one is graded A through F.

    • Wi-Fi

      Reliable, free Wi-Fi earns the highest grade.

    • Outlets

      The easier it is to find a plug, the better the grade.

    • Seating

      Comfort and elbow room for a long session.

    • Parking

      Free lots grade highest; metered spots grade lowest.

    Cafés scoring 80 or higher are Grounded Certified — the spots we'd confidently send you to for a full work session.

    Frequently asked

    Where can you park in Santa Monica?
    Assume a meter. Santa Monica runs on them almost everywhere, and most cafés here have one outside rather than a lot. The exceptions worth driving for are Amai coffee, blossom and friends and DOL Coffee & Tea, which each have a free lot. If you're staying longer than an hour or two, one of those three saves you feeding a meter all afternoon. Otherwise leave the car and take the Expo Line in.
    Which Santa Monica coffee shops open early?
    10 Speed Coffee at 6am, every day of the week. Caffe Luxxe opens at 6 on weekdays and half an hour later at weekends, and La Monarca is 6 all week too. If you want the first table of the day, this is an easy city for it. One thing before you plan around Caffe Luxxe: it doesn't have wifi.
    Are there Santa Monica coffee shops without wifi?
    A few, and two of them are rooms you'd otherwise pick: Caffe Luxxe and Primo Passo. If you're going to either, bring a hotspot and make it a reading or writing session rather than a day of calls. Everything on this page has wifi, and every café page says so before you go.
    Can you work late in Santa Monica?
    Santa Monica is a daytime city, and those 6am openings are what make it work. DOL Coffee & Tea runs to 8pm every day, the latest of the coffee shops here, so there's somewhere to go if the day runs over. Most of the rest close in the late afternoon, so start early rather than planning a long evening. For a room after dark, Koreatown is at the other end of the 10.
    Can you work outside?
    This is the city for it. Most Santa Monica cafés have a table outside, and here that's real seating rather than overflow. It's what saves you when the room inside is full, so ask about a patio table before you give up on a place. Bring something for the glare and a layer for the wind off the water.

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