Air Quality (AQI) in India Today - Live Updates
Live Air Quality Index (AQI) for 269 cities across India, scored on the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) national air quality index. Updated 25 Oct 2026 from Government of India monitoring stations.
๐ Last updated 25 Oct, 4:20 AMAir Quality (AQI) โ All India
LiveShowing 201โ269 of 269 monitored locations
- Patna ยท Bihar 488 Severe
- Pimpri-Chinchwad ยท Maharashtra 444 Severe
- Pithampur ยท Madhya Pradesh 137 Moderate
- Pratapgarh ยท Rajasthan 382 Very Poor
- Prayagraj ยท Uttar Pradesh 450 Severe
- Puducherry ยท Puducherry 71 Satisfactory
- Pune ยท Maharashtra 488 Severe
- Purnia ยท Bihar 23 Good
- Raebareli ยท Uttar Pradesh 456 Severe
- Raipur ยท Chhattisgarh 469 Severe
- Rairangpur ยท Odisha 371 Very Poor
- Rajamahendravaram ยท Andhra Pradesh 463 Severe
- Rajgir ยท Bihar 450 Severe
- Rajkot ยท Gujarat 200 Moderate
- Rajsamand ยท Rajasthan 341 Very Poor
- Ramanagara ยท Karnataka 388 Very Poor
- Ratlam ยท Madhya Pradesh 180 Moderate
- Rishikesh ยท Uttarakhand 34 Good
- Rohtak ยท Haryana 14 Good
- Rourkela ยท Odisha 481 Severe
- Rupnagar ยท Punjab 481 Severe
- Sagar ยท Madhya Pradesh 475 Severe
- Saharsa ยท Bihar 431 Severe
- Samastipur ยท Bihar 15 Good
- Sangli ยท Maharashtra 300 Poor
- Sasaram ยท Bihar 300 Poor
- Satara ยท Maharashtra 431 Severe
- Satna ยท Madhya Pradesh 365 Very Poor
- Sawai Madhopur ยท Rajasthan 347 Very Poor
- Shamli ยท Uttar Pradesh 469 Severe
- Shillong ยท Meghalaya 438 Severe
- Shivamogga ยท Karnataka 229 Poor
- Sikar ยท Rajasthan 400 Very Poor
- Silchar ยท Assam 92 Satisfactory
- Siliguri ยท West Bengal 419 Severe
- Singrauli ยท Madhya Pradesh 469 Severe
- Sirohi ยท Rajasthan 286 Poor
- Sirsa ยท Haryana 353 Very Poor
- Sitamarhi ยท Bihar 147 Moderate
- Sivasagar ยท Assam 431 Severe
- Siwan ยท Bihar 237 Poor
- Solapur ยท Maharashtra 365 Very Poor
- Sonipat ยท Haryana 54 Satisfactory
- Sri Ganganagar ยท Rajasthan 444 Severe
- Srinagar ยท Jammu and Kashmir 28 Good
- Suakati ยท Odisha 229 Poor
- Surat ยท Gujarat 55 Satisfactory
- Talcher ยท Odisha 326 Very Poor
- Tensa ยท Odisha 400 Very Poor
- Thane ยท Maharashtra 419 Severe
- Thiruvananthapuram ยท Kerala 329 Very Poor
- Thoothukudi ยท Tamil Nadu 382 Very Poor
- Tirumala ยท Andhra Pradesh 74 Satisfactory
- Tirupati ยท Andhra Pradesh 329 Very Poor
- Tonk ยท Rajasthan 481 Severe
- Tumidih ยท Chhattisgarh 376 Very Poor
- Udaipur ยท Rajasthan 359 Very Poor
- Ujjain ยท Madhya Pradesh 469 Severe
- Ulhasnagar ยท Maharashtra 456 Severe
- Vadodara ยท Gujarat 65 Satisfactory
- Varanasi ยท Uttar Pradesh 388 Very Poor
- Vatva ยท Gujarat 359 Very Poor
- Vijayapura ยท Karnataka 45 Good
- Vijayawada ยท Andhra Pradesh 394 Very Poor
- Virar ยท Maharashtra 438 Severe
- Visakhapatnam ยท Andhra Pradesh 374 Very Poor
- Vrindavan ยท Uttar Pradesh 313 Very Poor
- Yadgir ยท Karnataka 312 Very Poor
- Yamuna Nagar ยท Haryana 450 Severe
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a single 0โ500 score used by India's Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to describe how polluted the air is right now, combining PM2.5, PM10, NOโ, SOโ, CO and Oโ into one number. India's official bands run 0โ50 Good, 51โ100 Satisfactory, 101โ200 Moderate, 201โ300 Poor, 301โ400 Very Poor, and 400+ Severe. Anything above 200 is generally considered unsafe for prolonged outdoor activity, especially for children, older adults, and anyone with respiratory or heart conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good AQI value?
0-50 is Good, 51-100 is Satisfactory, 101-200 is Moderate, 201-300 is Poor, 301-400 is Very Poor, and 401-500 is Severe, per India's National AQI scale. Above 200, sensitive groups should start limiting prolonged outdoor exertion.
How often does AQI data update on this page?
AQI readings refresh through the day as fresh data lands from monitoring stations across India; each city card shows when it was last updated so you can tell how current a specific reading is.
Why is AQI worse in winter than summer?
Cooler air traps pollutants closer to the ground instead of letting them rise and disperse, and winter in North India adds crop-stubble burning and Diwali fireworks on top of that, which is why October to January is consistently the worst stretch and the monsoon months are the cleanest.
What is PM2.5 and why does it matter more than other pollutants?
PM2.5 refers to particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres, small enough to pass deep into the lungs and bloodstream, which is why it's the single pollutant most health guidance and AQI calculations weight most heavily.
What is AQI & Why Does It Matter?
The Air Quality Index, or AQI, turns messy pollution data into one number you can read in two seconds. Instead of tracking six different gases and dust particles separately, it rolls them into a single score from 0 to 500, where a low number means clean air and a high number means you should think twice before stepping outside. For the roughly 1.4 billion people living in India, that single number decides a lot: whether a morning jog is safe, whether a school keeps kids indoors during recess, whether someone with asthma needs an extra puff of their inhaler before leaving home. Delhi is the clearest example. Its AQI can sit near a healthy 80 during the July monsoon and cross 400 by late October, right around Diwali, when firecracker smoke stacks on top of daily traffic, construction dust and crop-stubble fires drifting in from Punjab and Haryana. Hospitals across the city report a real jump in breathing-related emergency visits every winter, timed almost exactly to those AQI spikes.
How AQI Works in India
India's AQI is set and published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the government body responsible for monitoring pollution nationwide. Monitoring stations placed in cities and towns across the country measure six pollutants around the clock: PM2.5 and PM10 (fine and coarse dust particles small enough to lodge in your lungs), nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone. Each pollutant gets its own sub-index score, and whichever pollutant is worst at that moment becomes the city's overall AQI for that hour, so a spike in just one of them, dust from a nearby construction site, say, is enough to push the whole reading into the red. This page pulls that station data directly from data.gov.in, the Government of India's open data portal, and refreshes it through the day rather than relying on one morning snapshot. Because stations aren't in every neighbourhood, a city's AQI is really a reading from its nearest station, and pollution can vary noticeably even within the same city depending on traffic density and distance from a busy road.
How to Read the AQI Numbers
CPCB splits AQI into six colour-coded bands, and treating them like a traffic light makes them easy to act on. 0 to 50 is Good and 51 to 100 is Satisfactory, both fine for any outdoor activity. 101 to 200 is Moderate, where sensitive groups, children, older adults, and anyone with asthma or a heart condition, should ease off on prolonged outdoor exertion. 201 to 300 is Poor, where even healthy people may start noticing shortness of breath during exercise outside. 301 to 400 is Very Poor, the point where a mask outdoors and staying in for sensitive groups both make sense. 400 and above is Severe, and at that level the advice is simple: skip outdoor activity altogether, since it affects even fit, healthy adults.
Best Times to Check AQI & Decision Making
AQI in most Indian cities tends to be worse early morning and late evening, when cooler air traps pollutants closer to the ground, and better in the early afternoon once the sun has warmed and lifted that layer. If you're planning a run, checking the number right before you leave beats trusting yesterday's memory, since AQI can shift by 50 points or more within a single day. Seasonally, October to January is the roughest stretch across North India: cooler air, Diwali fireworks and stubble burning from neighbouring states push AQI into Poor or worse for weeks at a time, while the monsoon months of July to September usually bring the cleanest air of the year as rain washes dust out of the atmosphere. A parent deciding whether to send a child out to play, or a runner picking a route, is better off checking today's actual number here than assuming the air is the same as it was last week.
Why AQI Matters: Health & Lifestyle Impact
Health impact: A 2020 Lancet study estimated that outdoor air pollution contributed to roughly 1.6 million deaths in India in a single year, and hospitals see the effect in real time: Delhi's chest and emergency departments report a genuine rise in asthma attacks and breathing complaints every winter, timed almost exactly to the season's AQI spikes. The risk isn't evenly spread: children's lungs are still developing, pregnant women and the elderly are more vulnerable, and anyone working outdoors for hours at a stretch, traffic police, delivery riders, street vendors, gets a far bigger daily dose than someone who steps out briefly. Once AQI crosses 300, even people with no history of lung trouble can start noticing a scratchy throat or shortness of breath during normal outdoor activity, and above 400, doctors advise against any outdoor exertion at all. If today's AQI on this page is above 200, skip the outdoor run and take it indoors; above 300, add a mask before stepping out and avoid the 8 to 10 AM and 6 to 8 PM traffic hours when street-level pollution peaks; above 400, keep children and elderly family members inside altogether.
Lifestyle impact: Delhi-NCR's Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), a real government policy, kicks in stricter restrictions as AQI worsens, including construction bans, restrictions on truck entry, and at the most severe stages, school closures or a shift to online classes. Winters that push past Severe have genuinely closed schools and halted outdoor sports days in the region. Away from policy, plenty of ordinary decisions follow the same number: whether an evening walk happens today or gets pushed to early morning, whether a family buys an air purifier before Diwali instead of after, whether a housing society keeps the building gym open as the indoor alternative to the jogging track that week. Checking this page before the school run or the evening walk, rather than going by how the sky looks or how the air smells, catches spikes that aren't always obvious to the eye.
AQI Trends (16-Day)
๐ด 24h: โ +3.8% ๐ด 7d: โ +4.8% ๐ด Since 24 Sep: โ +7.5%
Seasonal pattern: October to January is India's worst AQI stretch, cooler air, Diwali fireworks and crop-stubble burning all stack up, while July to September (monsoon) is typically the cleanest. Best time to check: right before heading out, since AQI swings most in early morning and late evening.
Air Quality by State
๐ข Good/Satisfactory ๐ก Moderate ๐ Poor ๐ด Very Poor/Severe
Cleanest & Worst Air Today (All India)
Cleanest right now
- Damoh, Madhya Pradesh 6 Good
- Rohtak, Haryana 14 Good
- Samastipur, Bihar 15 Good
- Purnia, Bihar 23 Good
- Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu 25 Good
Worst right now
- Gandhinagar, Gujarat 494 Severe
- Boisar, Maharashtra 494 Severe
- Hyderabad, Telangana 494 Severe
- Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 494 Severe
- Meerut, Uttar Pradesh 494 Severe