City comparison
Austin, TX is about 850 miles (1,400 km) from Scottsdale, 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 Scottsdale, AZ takes about 1 h 43 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 Scottsdale, AZ is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 11 a.m. in Scottsdale, 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 240,537 in Scottsdale — about 4.0× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 185 sq mi for Scottsdale.
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 | Scottsdale | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,768/mo | 14.1% higher in Scottsdale |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $651,800 | 41.2% higher in Scottsdale |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $104,197 | 20.4% higher in Scottsdale |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 95.8 | 1.7% higher in Scottsdale |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 96.2 | 15.6% higher in Scottsdale |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 104.1 | 7.7% higher in Scottsdale |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 104.0 | 8.2% higher in Scottsdale |
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 $104,635 in Scottsdale to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 4.4% cheaper overall than Scottsdale, AZ, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 2% higher in Scottsdale than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $83,708 in Scottsdale to keep the same standard of living.