13 of the best cafes for study & work in Vienna

Not only will your adopted work/study station at das cafe (which used to be known as Das Möbel) be big, but also beautiful. This old favourite, das cafe, is furnished by tables and chairs created by local designers, and they all make a great spot to open up a laptop, or study old school with paper, pens and stuff.

The big windows and the fresh and light interior design will ensure you won’t get weighed down under that workload. There’s plenty of space as well, and you’re pretty much guaranteed a table to yourself in the quiet hours from 2pm until about 6pm.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: 2pm–6pm during the week

We’d estimate that 80% of people perched at a table at Jonas Reindl have got a laptop open during daylight hours. Seeing as it’s neighbouring the main university campus, this comes as no surprise. Lots of students find their way here in a break between classes at the nearby university. It’s not a huge place (translation = it’s about the size of your living room) but if you are lucky enough to score a table, you’ve hit the jackpot in terms of study / work cafes – the coffee in here is consitently superb.

Word of warning though – you’ll need to be one of those that can block out the world and focus when need be, as between the squeal of the coffee machine,  and the hundreds of conversations going on around you, it does get loud in here.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: 9am–6pm during the week.

The Austrian coffee bean roaster’s flagship café is churning out some wickedly good cups of coffee on a daily basis and it just so happens to be the right kind of bright, and big for somebody to get down to work without feeling like they’re in the way, or will be disturbed.

It opens early, and the staff are known for greeting coffee craving guests with a smile. Their WIFI is solid, and there’s a big table which is perfect to prop your laptop on and get focus in on some coffee-buzz-fuelled work hours.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? the community table has plenty of power outlets, and also by the windows you’ll find a few.
Best study/work hours: 8am–6pm during the week, or if you have some work to catch up on, on Sunday, it’s one of the few cafés open!

While the Viennese bakery chain, Ströck, is seen on every third corner, its fancy bakery-restaurant-bar hybrid, Feierabend, on Landstraße offers more room, and a wider selection of food and a neat kind of busy calmness. You can stay here for hours, use the free WLAN, sip on your Kleiner Brauner and munch on a Pain au chocolat. The 7am open is very convenient if you’re an early starter, and while there are a lot of people walking in and out around the clock, you’ll always find a free seat (excluding dinnertime, which can be busy).

Tip: avoid the evenings for working here when people turn up for a fancy dinner
Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for powering up your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: MON–FRI, 7am–12pm

The sight of hungry and thirsty students’ faces lit up by laptop screens is common amidst WerkzeugH chaotic charm, which looks something like a garden workshop of some eccentric do-it-yourself-er (hence the name, which originates from the place’s past life as a tool shop).

The big windows will remind you when tangled up in some deep economic theory, or trying to get that assignment done, that the world extends beyond your present mental constipation. The best window for work here is between 4-7pm before studious students morph into their drinking and swearing selves (wink, wink).

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: 4pm–7pm

Everything about Coffee Pirates screams – ‘sit down, sip your skilfully made coffee and study!’ This vast, bright public living room atmosphere offers a colourful mix of different seating areas (festive wooden table vs. window bar vs. cosy lounge area).

It fills up often, but if you score a seat, you can work your way through dozens of quality coffees while working away on your laptop.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: Whenever you can get a seat, all day long.

It couldn’t be closer to the university, and thanks to its free WIFI internet, and comfy atmosphere (especially in the pillow-ridden setup at the back), the Welt Café has garnered a reputation as a student café par excellence.

One can study over a typically fantastic Verlängerten, or mix it up with the more adventurous variations of coffee on the menu, like the Mexican coffee, or the brew out of Senegal, or Ethiopia. There’s also a raft of hot chocolate options.

The food is nothing that will inspire ground-breaking essays but is reasonably priced and wholesome. Welt Café has a definite hippy milieu mixed with a student vibe, so you won’t feel out of place here. Well, unless you’re an Economics or business student. Oh, and if you get stuck with a certain problem with your work, you can ask the Buddha above the bar for answers.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: morning until lunch and then anytime during the afternoon.

Torn, broken and mismatched furniture paired with a shabby chic charm and the crackling flames of a fireplace – this is the lulling bubble of calm at the café attached to the vintage clothing boutique, Burggasse 24. The quiet living room set up, with a street lamp randomly propped in the middle of it, is the perfect setting for some hardcore studying or quiet work hours.

They make a mean coffee and also have a cake typically on offer, which can prove useful if a sugar hit is needed to get you focused. Even if you set fire to a pot plant (OK, maybe we’re exaggerating), the staff will leave you alone for hours. But they are very chilled, indeed.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: from open until close

This place has been a legend amongst those backpack-wearing laptop nomads since…well, the day it opened. It’s got a vintage, individualistic charm that’s aged well, and it’s comfy. The service is casual and friendly, and the place has plenty of table space to fit anybody looking to set up office, or study space, for a couple of hours.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: during the afternoon after the lunch rush

Pickwicks is mostly known for its ginormous portions of fries, pub quizzes, and being a student hang. It turns out that it’s also a central study location during the day.

They have plenty of big tables and comfy chairs for you to get to work in, and they have a wall lined with books that you can look up at occasionally and suck in some inspiration.

Plus, if you do happen to get hungry, their pub food menu has definitely got you covered. It can start to get busy around 5 pm, but before then, you’llll mostly have the place to yourself besides the odd tourists that come wondering in.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for powering up your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: 9am–5pm

Café Jelinek is one of the reasons why we love living in Vienna – it’s dripping with true Viennese coffehouse-charm and is the perfect place to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, or a day of studying. From the yellow nicotine stained walls covered with pictures of famous people, the very well-worn wooden floor, to the comfortable scruffy velvet sofas, it feels as if nothing has changed since Jelinek found its popularity in the 80s (It was actually opened by a Jewish couple back in 1910.)

The relaxed, old world coffeehouse atmosphere, along with the delicous coffee, always makes us feel like staying for hours. We also love the little coffehouse tables inviting people to stay and study, read one of the many national and international newspapers or throw glances at celebrities (we just spotted Josef Hader, one our favourite Austrian comedians!) Another highlight is the old fireplace oven in the center of the café, which is still used in winter.

Tip: When that inevitable study low hits, we recommend you go for one of the home-made cakes that you’ve been secretly eyeing up all day – we fall for the legendary Guglhupf every time.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for charging your laptop? Not that we could find
Best study/work hours: morning until 5pm during the week. Weekends get quite busy.

Wirr does not only have a bomb vegan pizza and cool-looking interior, but it’s also a great go-to spot for all kinds of situations you head to a cafe – to meet friends for a coffee, study, work, have a boozy evening. For the sake of this article, we’re honing in on what makes it a great study or work cafe.

It’s been around for a while but still has got all the boxes ticked when it comes to what the hip crowd looks like in a hip cafe. The menu is also your solid cafe options, including soups, sandwiches, salads, burgers, wraps, and a few other random inclusions.

Sitting yourself at one of the tables lining the big window at the front is highly recommended.

Wi-Fi: Yes
Power outlet for powering up your laptop? Yes
Best study/work hours: 8am–5pm