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Distance between Indianapolis and Chicago

Driving non-stop from Indianapolis to Chicago

How far is Chicago from Indianapolis? Here's the quick answer if you drive this relatively short distance without making any stops.

Nonstop drive: 184 miles or 296 km

Driving time: 2 hours, 56 minutes

Even though you can drive this distance straight through, it might be more interesting to stop along the way. You can scroll down to calculate how many hours it would take if you drive with stops.


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Flying non-stop from Indianapolis to Chicago

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Indianapolis, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.

Flight distance: 165 miles or 265 km

Flight time: 37 minutes

The straight line flight distance is 19 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.1x of the flight distance.

Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/3th of the time it would take to drive.

This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination. Scroll down to see a more realistic calculation that takes into account all these factors to get a more accurate estimate of your actual flight time.





Indianapolis to Chicago road trip

Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Chicago, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Road trip: 1 day of driving

With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.

Travel time: 4.5 hours on the road


Itinerary

Start in Indianapolis.

Drive for about 1 hour, then stop at Monster Mini Golf and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 47 minutes then stop in Remington and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 60 minutes then stop in Cedar Lake (Indiana) and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 45 minutes then stop in Gary and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 37 minutes then stop at Millennium Park and stay for 1 hour.

Finally, drive for about 5 minutes and arrive in Chicago.


To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:





Indianapolis to Chicago airports and flights

In the quick calculation above, we assumed you had a private plane and just wanted to know the time in the air from city to city. But for most of us, we're going to be flying on a commercial airline (whether it's first class or coach). So that means we really need to account for all the extra travel time getting to the airport, waiting for our flight, and making it to the destination.

To give you a better estimate of real-life travel, we've put together a flight itinerary with actual airports. Eventually you'll be able to customize this plan, choosing your own airports and flights. But for now, here's an example we've selected to give you an idea of how traveling might work between airports.

Departure airport: Indianapolis International Airport (IND)

Arrival airport: Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)

With the airports selected, we can estimate the travel time to and from the airport, based on how far the airport is from downtown.

Getting to the airport: 24 minutes

Getting to your destination: 48 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an actual flight from IND to ORD and figure out how long it would take to fly including take-off and landing, and time to taxi on the runway.

Commercial flight time: 53 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Indianapolis to Chicago including time spent getting to/from the airports, an estimated wait time of 2 hours at the airport for TSA security lines and waiting at the gate, and the actual flight itself.

Total travel time: 4 hours


To see the details on this flight plan, including recommended airports, airline, and route, check out the flight planner:





Plan a trip to Chicago

Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Chicago, Illinois. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Chicago, or find out how many days in Chicago to visit. If you're looking for a place to stay, you might want to check out The James Chicago Hotel. A great place to eat might be Lou Malnati's Pizzeria. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Chicago like Millennium Park. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Chicago like What is your favorite restaurant in Chicago?. Click the button below to explore Chicago in detail.





How far is it the other way?

The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Chicago to Indianapolis, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.

If you happen to know Indianapolis, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Indianapolis!





At a Glance
without making any stops
total driving distance is 184 miles
driving time of 2 hours, 56 minutes
flight distance is 165 miles
flight time of 37 minutes
Chicago is 1 hour behind Indianapolis
60 Indianapolis travel answers
337 Chicago travel answers








   
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