Search Indian PIN codes by area, city, or post office
PIN stands for Postal Index Number. Introduced on August 15, 1972, the Indian PIN code system is a 6-digit code used by India Post to identify every delivery post office in the country. India has over 1,55,000 post offices - the largest postal network in the world.
Each digit of the 6-digit PIN code has a meaning:
| Zone | Digit | States Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Northern | 1 | Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, HP, J&K, Chandigarh |
| Northern | 2 | UP, Uttarakhand |
| Western | 3 | Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman & Diu, Dadra |
| Western | 4 | Maharashtra, Goa, MP, Chhattisgarh |
| Southern | 5 | Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka |
| Southern | 6 | Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep |
| Eastern | 7 | West Bengal, Odisha, NE States, A&N Islands |
| Eastern | 8 | Bihar, Jharkhand |
| Army | 9 | Army Post Offices (APO/FPO) |
Writing the correct PIN code on your mail ensures faster delivery. Without a PIN code or with an incorrect one, mail may be delayed by days or even returned. For online shopping, the PIN code determines delivery availability, shipping charges, and estimated delivery time. Many e-commerce companies and courier services check PIN code serviceability before accepting orders.
| First digit | Zone | States and territories |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northern | Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh |
| 2 | Northern | Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand |
| 3 | Western | Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli |
| 4 | Western | Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa |
| 5 | Southern | Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka |
| 6 | Southern | Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep |
| 7 | Eastern | West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Andaman & Nicobar |
| 8 | Eastern | Bihar, Jharkhand |
| 9 | Army Postal Service | Field Post Offices and Army Post Offices, wherever the unit is posted |
Decoding 400001
4 — Western zone, covering Maharashtra, MP, Chhattisgarh and Goa
40 — the Maharashtra circle
400 — the Mumbai sorting district
001 — the specific delivery office, Mumbai GPO
400001 is Mumbai GPO, Fort. The same logic reads 110001 as New Delhi GPO and 700001 as Kolkata GPO.
| Prefix | Sorting district | Prefix | Sorting district |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | New Delhi | 600 | Chennai |
| 122 | Gurugram | 682 | Kochi |
| 201 | Ghaziabad / Noida | 695 | Thiruvananthapuram |
| 302 | Jaipur | 700 | Kolkata |
| 380 | Ahmedabad | 751 | Bhubaneswar |
| 400 | Mumbai | 781 | Guwahati |
| 411 | Pune | 800 | Patna |
| 500 | Hyderabad | 826 | Dhanbad |
| 560 | Bengaluru | 834 | Ranchi |
The Postal Index Number was introduced on 15 August 1972 by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar, then an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Communications. Before it, mail to a city with several places of the same name — and in several scripts — had to be sorted by a human who knew the geography. The six-digit code let sorting be mechanised and made addresses unambiguous without depending on how the sender spelled the place name. India Post today runs roughly 19,100 PIN codes covering more than 154,000 post offices, the largest postal network in the world.
The first digit is the postal zone, the first two together give the sub-zone or state circle, the first three identify the sorting district, and the last three identify the individual delivery post office within that district.
It belongs to the Army Postal Service — a Field Post Office or Army Post Office. These codes follow the unit rather than a fixed location, so the usual geographic reading of the digits does not apply.
On 15 August 1972, devised by Shriram Bhikaji Velankar of the Ministry of Communications, to let mail sorting be mechanised and to remove ambiguity between similarly named places.
Roughly 19,100 PIN codes serve more than 154,000 post offices. The number grows as districts are subdivided and new townships come on to the network.
Two different towns can share a code if they are served by the same delivery post office, which is common in rural areas. Conversely a large city has many codes — Mumbai alone uses the whole 400xxx range.
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