City comparison
Austin, TX is about 850 miles (1,400 km) from Gilbert, AZ in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,100 miles, or about 18 hours 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 Gilbert, AZ takes about 1 h 42 min, covering roughly 850 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 Gilbert, AZ is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 11 a.m. in Gilbert, which puts Austin 1 hours ahead.
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 267,267 in Gilbert — about 3.6× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 69 sq mi for Gilbert.
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 | Gilbert | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,839/mo | 18.7% higher in Gilbert |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $454,300 | 1.6% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $115,179 | 33.1% higher in Gilbert |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 95.8 | 1.7% higher in Gilbert |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 96.2 | 15.6% higher in Gilbert |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 104.1 | 7.7% higher in Gilbert |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 104.0 | 8.2% higher in Gilbert |
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 $104,844 in Gilbert to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 4.6% cheaper overall than Gilbert, AZ, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 2% higher in Gilbert than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $83,876 in Gilbert to keep the same standard of living.