City comparison
Austin, TX is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from Orlando, FL in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,300 miles, or about 21 hours (about 2 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 Orlando, FL takes about 2 h, covering roughly 1,000 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 Orlando, FL is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 1 p.m. in Orlando, 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 307,738 in Orlando — about 3.1× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 110 sq mi for Orlando.
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 | Orlando | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,509/mo | 2.7% higher in Austin |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $332,700 | 38.7% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $66,292 | 30.6% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 96.5 | 2.4% higher in Orlando |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 87.9 | 5.6% higher in Orlando |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 99.0 | 2.5% higher in Orlando |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 98.5 | 2.5% higher in Orlando |
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 $102,484 in Orlando to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 2.4% cheaper overall than Orlando, FL, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 2% higher in Orlando than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $81,987 in Orlando to keep the same standard of living.