City comparison
Austin, TX is about 1,700 miles (2,700 km) from Cambridge, MA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 2,100 miles, or about 35 hours (about 4 days at 10 h/day) behind the wheel at highway speeds.
Driving distance is a rough estimate (great-circle × 1.25); driving time assumes a 60 mph blended average. Real trips run 10–20% longer with stops.
A direct flight from Austin, TX to Cambridge, MA takes about 3 h 23 min, covering roughly 1,700 miles in a straight line. Connecting itineraries with a layover typically add 1–3 hours.
Block-to-block estimate at ~500 mph cruise, including taxi, climb, and descent — what an airline would publish, not pure airborne time.
Austin, TX is on Central Time and Cambridge, MA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 1 p.m. in Cambridge, which puts Austin 1 hours behind.
Standard-time offsets. Daylight saving applies in both cities for most of the year (exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona), and the gap between the two stays the same.
Austin has a population of 958,202, vs 117,962 in Cambridge — about 8.1× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 6.4 sq mi for Cambridge.
Population from US Census ACS. Land area from the Census Gazetteer (city proper, excluding inland water).
Cost indices by category, with the US city average (100) marked.
Index: 100 = US city average. Lower is more affordable.
Side-by-side costs, salaries, and sub-category indices.
| Metric | Austin | Cambridge | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $2,628/mo | 69.7% higher in Cambridge |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $997,600 | 116.2% higher in Cambridge |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $121,539 | 40.4% higher in Cambridge |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 100.1 | 6.3% higher in Cambridge |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 147.4 | 77.1% higher in Cambridge |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 102.2 | 5.8% higher in Cambridge |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 106.4 | 10.7% higher in Cambridge |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Austin, you'd need $121,957 in Cambridge to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 18% cheaper overall than Cambridge, MA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 28% higher in Cambridge than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $97,565 in Cambridge to keep the same standard of living.