HRA Metro Status Checker
Check whether your city is a metro for HRA exemption (50% vs 40%) for FY 2025-26 or the expanded 8-city FY 2026-27 rule.
Formula last reviewed 4 August 2026 · How we verify our calculators
Bangalore for HRA (FY 2026-27)
Metro — 50% exemption
- HRA exemption cap (% of basic)
- 50.0%
Updates live as you type
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the year. For FY 2025-26 Bangalore is non-metro (40% exemption) under the old 4-city rule. From FY 2026-27 it becomes a metro (50% exemption) under the expanded 8-city rule.
Eight: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai (the original four) plus Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. All allow 50% of basic as the HRA exemption cap.
No. Despite being part of the NCR, Gurugram is not on the 8-city list, so it remains non-metro at 40% — a common and costly misconception.
The HRA exemption is the least of three amounts, one of which is 50% of basic for metros versus 40% for non-metros. Metro status therefore raises the potential exemption and your take-home.
This tool only resolves metro status. For the full exemption (the least-of-three calculation using your rent, HRA and basic), use our Old vs New regime calculator under Tax, which applies the HRA math.
Same city, two different answers depending on which year you're asking
Check Bangalore for FY 2026-27 and this tool returns "Metro — 50% exemption." Check the identical city for FY 2025-26 instead, and the answer flips to "Non-metro — 40% exemption." Nothing about Bangalore changed between those two checks — what changed is that the HRA metro list itself expanded, and the year you're filing for determines which version of the rule applies to you.
The rule change behind that flip
Effective FY 2026-27, the HRA metro list grew from four cities to eight. The original four — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai — are now joined by Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad, all newly eligible for the 50% exemption cap. FY 2025-26 filings still fall under the old four-city rule, which is exactly why this checker asks for the financial year before answering rather than treating "metro status" as a fixed, permanent fact about a city.
The exclusion that trips people up
Gurugram is the one that catches people out most often: despite being a major NCR hub sitting right next to Delhi, it is not on the 8-city list and remains non-metro at 40%. "Major city" and "HRA metro" are not the same category, and assuming otherwise is a costly mistake at filing time.
Why a ten-point swing matters, and what this tool doesn't do
That gap between 50% and 40% of basic salary is a real, direct swing in how much HRA can be claimed tax-free — not a rounding difference. This tool resolves metro status only; the actual exemption is the least of three amounts (actual HRA received, rent paid minus 10% of basic, and 50%/40% of basic), so the Old vs New regime calculator under Tax is where to compute the real figure once metro status is settled. If you're relocating, pair this with the salary equivalent calculator to see how the move affects both cost of living and tax together.