Delhi AQI October 2026: Capital Breathes Its Cleanest October Air in Eight Years as Average Reading Falls to 166

A city used to hazy October mornings just got a rare piece of good news. Delhi’s air in October 2026 was the cleanest for the month in eight years, according…

By Reetam Bodhak

November 1, 2026

2 min read

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A city used to hazy October mornings just got a rare piece of good news. Delhi’s air in October 2026 was the cleanest for the month in eight years, according to the Union Environment Ministry. Here’s what the numbers say and why it happened.

Delhi AQI Headline Numbers

Delhi’s average Air Quality Index for October was 166, the lowest October reading in eight years. For context, a lower AQI means cleaner air.

October	Average AQI
2026	166
2025	223
2024	234
2023	219
2022	210

That’s a drop of about 57 points from last October, a big jump for a single year.

Year-to-Date Picture (January to October)

The improvement shows up over the longer stretch too. The city’s average AQI for the first ten months of 2026 was 167, compared with 170 in 2025 and 184 in 2024. Only 2020, the pandemic year, was lower at 156.

Year	Jan to Oct average AQI
2026	167
2025	170
2024	184
2023	172
2022	187
2021	179
2020	156
2019	192
2018	201

What Helped? Mostly the Rain

Weather played a starring role. Delhi received 61.4 mm of rain in the 24 hours ending 8:30 am on Friday, making it the wettest October day in four years and the sixth wettest since 1951. Safdarjung alone recorded 123.3 mm, against a monthly normal of just 15.1 mm.

The result was dramatic. On October 30, the city’s AQI fell to 60, the cleanest reading since October 10, 2022.

Cleaner Days, Fewer Bad Ones

The year’s tally of better air days stands out as well:

220 days in the “Good to Moderate” range from January to October, the most since 2018 (leaving out 2020).
84 days in the “Poor to Severe+” range this year, down from 104 in both 2025 and 2024.
In October itself: 22 moderate days, 5 poor days and 3 satisfactory days.

Another notable shift: this is the first time since 2015 that the city’s air slipped into the “poor” category only in the second half of October. In earlier years pollution usually worsened sooner.

Should We Celebrate Yet?

Cautiously. The rain gave the city a big helping hand, and the colder months are when Delhi’s air traditionally gets tougher to breathe. The trend over the year is encouraging, but a few clean weeks don’t mean the problem is solved.

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