City comparison
Austin, TX is about 950 miles (1,500 km) from Tampa, FL in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,200 miles, or about 19 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 Tampa, FL takes about 1 h 52 min, covering roughly 950 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 Tampa, FL is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 1 p.m. in Tampa, 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 388,768 in Tampa — about 2.5× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 115 sq mi for Tampa.
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 | Tampa | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,422/mo | 8.9% higher in Austin |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $333,200 | 38.5% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $66,802 | 29.6% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 95.8 | 1.7% higher in Tampa |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 89.1 | 7.1% higher in Tampa |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 97.8 | 1.2% higher in Tampa |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 97.3 | 1.2% higher in Tampa |
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 $102,770 in Tampa to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 2.7% cheaper overall than Tampa, FL, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 3% higher in Tampa than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $82,216 in Tampa to keep the same standard of living.