Search for "Mumbai PIN code" and you will find many answers, which is confusing if you expected one. The reason is simple: a PIN code identifies a delivery post office, not a city. A big city needs many delivery offices, so it has many codes.
Counting from India Post’s directory (data.gov.in, 2021 snapshot) with the city limits used on this site: Delhi has 97 codes, Bengaluru 108, Mumbai 89, Chennai 83 and Kolkata 73.
One postman can only cover so much
A delivery office has a fixed set of beats, each walked or ridden by a postman every day. When a neighbourhood grows past what one office can handle, India Post opens another office and splits the area, and the new office gets its own code. That is why fast-growing suburbs tend to have newer, higher-numbered codes than the old city centre.
How a city’s codes are laid out
All codes in a city usually share the same first three digits, which identify the sorting district. Every Delhi code starts with 110, every Mumbai city code with 400, Bengaluru with 560 and Chennai with 600. The last three digits then pick out the delivery office. The numbers are allocated as offices open rather than strictly by geography, so two consecutive codes are not always next to each other on the map. (Our guide on what each digit means covers this in more detail.)
The first three digits do not always stop at the city boundary. In Mumbai, for example, codes in the 4006xx and 4007xx range belong to Thane and Navi Mumbai, which is why this site counts only offices that are both inside the city’s postal districts and inside its sorting range.
Why the GPO code is not the city code
People often write a city’s best-known code — 110001 for Delhi, 400001 for Mumbai, 560001 for Bengaluru — on any address in that city. Those are the codes of the central business district around the GPO. Mail with the wrong code still gets there in most cases, because sorting staff read the locality, but it can be sent to the wrong delivery office first and lose a day or more.
How to find the code for your street
- Open your city’s list — for example Mumbai, Bengaluru or Delhi — and look for your locality’s post office.
- If you are at the address, detect the code from your location.
- Check a recent bill, bank statement or delivered parcel for the same address.
- For official forms, confirm on indiapost.gov.in.
Does a city ever get new PIN codes?
Yes. When a new delivery office opens, its area gets a code, and nearby addresses can move to it. The old code keeps working for a while, but it is worth re-checking a code you have used for years, especially in a fast-growing suburb.
The short answer to "what is the PIN code of my city?" is that there is no single one. There is a code for your delivery area, and that is the one to use.
FAQ
Which PIN code should a business use on its letterhead?
The code of the delivery area where the office actually is. Using the GPO code of the city because it looks more "central" makes incoming mail slower, not faster.
Do neighbouring cities share codes?
They can share the first three digits when they fall in the same sorting district — parts of Thane and Mumbai do, for example — but each delivery office still has its own full six-digit code.