City comparison
Charleston, SC is about 1,100 miles (1,800 km) from San Antonio, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,400 miles, or about 23 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 Charleston, SC to San Antonio, TX takes about 2 h 14 min, covering roughly 1,100 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.
Charleston, SC is on Eastern Time and San Antonio, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Charleston, it's 11 a.m. in San Antonio, which puts Charleston 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.
San Antonio has a population of 1,445,662, vs 149,960 in Charleston — about 9.6× larger by population. By land area, San Antonio covers about 500 sq mi vs 115 sq mi for Charleston.
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 | Charleston | San Antonio | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,517/mo | $1,189/mo | 27.6% higher in Charleston |
| Median home value | $438,900 | $198,000 | 121.7% higher in Charleston |
| Median household income | $83,891 | $59,593 | 40.8% higher in Charleston |
| Groceries index | 96.5 | 94.2 | 2.5% higher in Charleston |
| Utilities index | 88.8 | 83.3 | 6.6% higher in Charleston |
| Transportation index | 98.5 | 96.6 | 1.9% higher in Charleston |
| Healthcare index | 98.0 | 96.1 | 1.9% higher in Charleston |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Charleston, you'd need $88,554 in San Antonio to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
San Antonio, TX is about 11.4% cheaper overall than Charleston, SC, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 27% higher in Charleston than in San Antonio. If you earn $80,000 in Charleston, you'd need about $70,843 in San Antonio to keep the same standard of living.