Check Lahore's Air Quality Live on Punjab's Official AQI Site, Free

To check Lahore's air quality, open aqi.punjab.gov.pk, the Punjab Environmental Protection Agency's own live dashboard, and pick Lahore. It is free, needs no login, and shows a reading for each monitoring station in the city. When we checked at 1:00 am on 3 October 2026, Lahore read AQI 233, which Punjab's scale calls "Unhealthy".

Smog season is starting, and a lot of AQI numbers will be shared on WhatsApp over the next three months. Most of them come from private sensors or foreign apps. The official reading, the one the government uses when it changes school timings or orders restrictions, is on the EPA's site. Here is how to read it, and what each band means for your day.

Punjab's official AQI dashboard is free and needs no login

The Punjab EPA runs a public dashboard at aqi.punjab.gov.pk. It shows a live Air Quality Index for 33 cities, a reading for every station in Lahore, a 24 hour forecast and a health advisory for each band. The EPA's own website links to it under "AQI Punjab".

An Air Quality Index, or AQI, is a single number that turns several pollutants into one score. The higher the number, the worse the air. Punjab's dashboard builds it from six pollutants: PM2.5 and PM10 (fine and coarse dust particles), carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ozone.

We opened the site from a phone browser and a laptop. Both loaded without any sign up. The Lahore page calls itself "Official Punjab EPA live data".

Check Lahore's live AQI in four steps

Open the dashboard, choose Lahore, read the city number and its colour band, then scroll to the station table to find the station nearest to you. The whole check takes under a minute and costs nothing beyond your mobile data.

1. Open aqi.punjab.gov.pk in any browser. Type the address yourself rather than tapping a forwarded link.
2. Pick Lahore from the city list, or open the Lahore tab at the top. The big number is the city reading. Under it you see the time of the last update and the reading at the same hour yesterday.
3. Read the band name, not just the number. "Unhealthy" or "Very Unhealthy" tells you what to do. The table further down explains each band.
4. Scroll to "Current AQI in Lahore by Area". Find the station closest to your home, school or office. That reading describes your area better than the city average.

On Android there is also an official app. The dashboard links to "AQI Punjab" on Google Play, and lists real time updates, push alerts, health advisories and home screen widgets. We did not install it, so we cannot say how well the alerts work.

Punjab's AQI bands run from Good to Hazardous

Punjab's dashboard uses seven bands. Good is 0 to 50, Satisfactory 51 to 100, Moderate 101 to 150, Unhealthy for sensitive groups 151 to 200, Unhealthy 201 to 300, Very Unhealthy 301 to 400 and Hazardous 401 to 500.

The advice column is copied from the dashboard's health advisory page, in shorter words. It has a second column of advice for "vulnerable groups", meaning children, older people and anyone with heart or lung disease. That advice is stricter at every level.

One warning. Foreign apps often use a different scale with the same band names at different numbers. So "Unhealthy" on one app and "Unhealthy" on Punjab's site may not mean the same reading. Compare numbers only within one source.

Station readings in Lahore can differ by hundreds of points

Lahore's city figure is an average across its stations, and one area can be far worse than another. At 1:00 am on 3 October 2026, Multan Road read 500 while Wagha Border read 127, both inside the same city.

Here is what the station table showed when we checked:

The page also said its reading was based on 10 government certified stations, and in the same block said "11 of 10 stations" were reporting. We noted the mismatch; the table itself listed 10. Station readings change every hour, so treat these as a snapshot, not a forecast.

Lahore was not the worst city that night. Gujranwala was first in the EPA's city ranking at 234, Lahore second at 233, and Rajanpur last of 33 at 112.

Set an AQI alert and read the forecast before you go out

The dashboard lets you set a browser alert for your district when the AQI goes above or below a level you choose. It also shows an hourly forecast for the next 24 hours, which is the most useful part for planning a school run.

To set an alert, scroll to "Set AQI Alert", allow browser notifications, pick your district from the list of 36, choose "When AQI goes above", and pick a level such as 200. The alert works in the browser you set it in.

The forecast at 1:00 am on 3 October showed Lahore easing from 214 at 2 am to 185 by 8 am. In a letter dated 26 September 2025, the EPA said its forecasting system combines its own stations with weather and satellite data, and that a seven day hourly forecast is reviewed every Friday.

In smog season, early morning is often the worst time, because cold, still air holds the pollution near the ground. The EPA's own order moving school opening to 8:45 am last winter gave that as the reason. The smog season in Punjab explainer covers why it happens.

Report a pollution source to EPA Punjab on 1373

If the reading near you is high and you can see the cause, such as rubbish being burnt, a smoking factory or a kiln, report it to the EPA helpline 1373. The dashboard and the EPA website both list it. You can also use the Green Punjab app or the Pakistan Citizen Portal.

For a burning field, the steps and fines are set out in crop burning rules in Punjab. For a smoky car or rickshaw, the rule behind the fine sits with the car fitness certificate requirement.

Common questions

What is Lahore's AQI today?

It changes every hour. Check aqi.punjab.gov.pk/lahore for the live figure. At 1:00 am on 3 October 2026 it was 233, Unhealthy, against 241 at the same hour the day before.

Which AQI source is official in Punjab?

The Punjab Environmental Protection Agency's dashboard at aqi.punjab.gov.pk. The EPA's website links to it, and the EPA uses its readings when it issues smog orders.

Why does my app show a different number?

Apps use different stations, private sensors and sometimes a different scale. Compare like with like, and when two sources disagree, act on the worse one.

Is there an official AQI app for Punjab?

Yes, for Android. The dashboard links to "AQI Punjab" on Google Play. We have not tested it.

What AQI is dangerous for children?

Punjab's advisory tells vulnerable groups, including children, to start taking care from 101, and to keep children indoors from 151. Above 300 it says stay indoors.

Does the dashboard cover cities other than Lahore?

Yes. Its ranking showed 33 cities on 3 October 2026, from Gujranwala and Lahore at the top to Rajanpur at the bottom.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Last checked at 1:00 am PKT on 3 October 2026. We read the Punjab EPA's AQI dashboard at aqi.punjab.gov.pk, its Lahore page and its health advisory page for the bands, the advice, the station readings and the forecast. We read the EPA website at epd.punjab.gov.pk for the 1373 helpline and the link to the dashboard, and the EPA's letter No. 350 of 26 September 2025 on its forecasting system. Readings are hourly snapshots and will have changed by the time you read this. We did not install or test the Android app or the alert feature.