City comparison
Austin, TX is about 1,400 miles (2,200 km) from Great Falls, MT in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,700 miles, or about 29 hours (about 3 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 Great Falls, MT takes about 2 h 47 min, covering roughly 1,400 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 Great Falls, MT is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 11 a.m. in Great Falls, 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 60,373 in Great Falls — about 15.9× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 23 sq mi for Great Falls.
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 | Great Falls | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $828/mo | 87.1% higher in Austin |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $223,700 | 106.3% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $58,272 | 48.5% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 96.7 | 2.7% higher in Great Falls |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 77.7 | 7.0% higher in Austin |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 99.3 | 2.7% higher in Great Falls |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 99.2 | 3.2% higher in Great Falls |
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 $90,207 in Great Falls to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Great Falls, MT is about 9.8% cheaper overall than Austin, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 28% higher in Austin than in Great Falls. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $72,165 in Great Falls to keep the same standard of living.