REWALTO / DATA STUDY
Quick commerce beyond the metros: dark stores by city tier
As of 8 November 2026, 60% of the 13,789 quick-commerce dark stores Rewalto counts in India are outside the 8 metro cities. 5,017 are in tier 2 cities and 3,199 in tier 3. JioMart has the most outside the metros, 77% of its stores; BigBasket the fewest, 42%.
Key facts
| Dark stores with a known city tier | 13,789counted 8 Nov 2026 |
|---|---|
| Outside the metros | 60% (8,216) |
| Tier 1 Metro | 5,573 stores (40%) in 8 cities |
| Tier 2 | 5,017 stores (36%) in 89 cities |
| Tier 3 | 3,199 stores (23%) in 588 cities |
| Tier 3 cities served by one app only | 264 of 588 |
| Tiers from | Ministry of Finance house rent allowance classes X, Y and Z |
How much of each app is outside the metros
- 40% of the stores are in the 8 metro cities. The other 60% are spread over 677 cities: 89 tier 2 cities with 5,017 stores, and 588 tier 3 cities with 3,199.
- JioMart has 77% of its stores outside the metros. Flipkart Minutes, Zepto and BigBasket have most of theirs in the metros.
- In 264 of the 588 tier 3 cities with a store, only one app has a store there; in 219 of them that app is JioMart.
Each app by city tier
| App | Stores | Metro | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Outside the metros |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blinkit | 5,225 | 1,894 | 2,114 | 1,217 | 64% |
| JioMart | 3,109 | 714 | 1,025 | 1,370 | 77% |
| Flipkart Minutes | 1,618 | 869 | 574 | 175 | 46% |
| Zepto | 1,521 | 864 | 537 | 120 | 43% |
| Swiggy Instamart | 1,348 | 666 | 462 | 220 | 51% |
| BigBasket | 923 | 532 | 299 | 92 | 42% |
| DMart | 45 | 34 | 6 | 5 | 24% |
| All apps | 13,789 | 5,573 | 5,017 | 3,199 | 60% |
- This counts stores, not orders or sales. A metro store can deliver far more orders than a store in a smaller city.
- JioMart's count includes Reliance stores that fulfil JioMart orders, which is why so many of its stores are in smaller cities.
- 16 stores have no city Rewalto could place in a tier, and are left out of the shares.
- A suburb or satellite town with its own name counts in its own tier, not the metro's.
- The tier classes come from a 2015 government order based on the 2011 Census, so a fast-growing city can sit in a lower tier than its size today.
Tier 2 cities with the most dark stores
Tier 3 cities with the most dark stores
| City | Dark stores | Apps with a store |
|---|---|---|
| Thane | 127 | 7 |
| Greater Noida | 100 | 6 |
| Navi Mumbai | 81 | 7 |
| Panaji | 38 | 3 |
| Patiala | 38 | 4 |
What the tiers are
- Tier 1 Metro: Cities of house rent allowance class X: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.
- Tier 2: Cities of house rent allowance class Y, as the order names them (Jaipur, Lucknow, Gurugram, Noida, Chandigarh, Kochi and others), with the cities its para 6 gives Y rates (Mohali, Panchkula, Shillong, Port Blair).
- Tier 3: Every other city (house rent allowance class Z).
Source: Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure, O.M. No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 07.07.2017 (Seventh CPC), Annexure: the X/Y/Z cities of O.M. No. 2/5/2014-E.II(B) dated 21.07.2015 (Census 2011), effective 1 July 2017.
How Rewalto counts
Rewalto finds dark stores by checking which store each app assigns to a pin code, across every pin code it covers, every week. A store is counted once however many pin codes it serves. Each store's city is then sorted into the tier core publishes for it. Tier 1 metro, tier 2 and tier 3 are the house rent allowance classes X, Y and Z of the Ministry of Finance order named below. Rewalto does not make the tiers up or move a city between them. Counts are what the apps show to shoppers, so they are a floor, not a census, and they are not figures from the companies. See how Rewalto counts dark stores.
Rewalto is not affiliated with any of these apps. Apps are data sources.
Get the store records
The records behind these counts are on dark stores in India: one record per store, with its app, city, pin codes, status and dates. API: GET /v1/data/dark-stores, filtered by cityGroup for one tier. AI agents (MCP): list_dark_stores.
Questions people ask
- How many quick commerce dark stores are outside the metros?
- 8,216 of the 13,789 Rewalto counted on 8 November 2026, or 60%. 5,017 are in tier 2 cities and 3,199 in tier 3.
- Which quick commerce app has the most stores in tier 2 and tier 3 cities?
- By share of its own stores, JioMart: 77% are outside the metros. By count: Blinkit 3,331, JioMart 2,395 and Flipkart Minutes 749.
- Which tier 2 city has the most dark stores?
- Gurugram, with 425 stores on 6 apps on 8 November 2026, then Lucknow (282) and Ghaziabad (235).
- Which tier 3 city has the most dark stores?
- Thane, with 127 stores on 7 apps on 8 November 2026, then Greater Noida (100) and Navi Mumbai (81).
- What are tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India?
- Rewalto uses the classes in the Ministry of Finance order on house rent allowance. Tier 1 Metro: Cities of house rent allowance class X: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune. Tier 2: Cities of house rent allowance class Y, as the order names them (Jaipur, Lucknow, Gurugram, Noida, Chandigarh, Kochi and others), with the cities its para 6 gives Y rates (Mohali, Panchkula, Shillong, Port Blair). Tier 3: Every other city (house rent allowance class Z).
- Does a store outside the metros mean the same sales?
- No. This is a count of stores. It does not say how many orders each store delivers or what it sells.
- How often is this updated?
- Every week, from the same count as the dark-store pages. The page shows the date of the latest count, 8 November 2026.
- How does Rewalto count dark stores by city tier?
- Rewalto finds dark stores by checking which store each app assigns to a pin code, across every pin code it covers, every week. A store is counted once however many pin codes it serves. Each store's city is then sorted into the tier core publishes for it. Tier 1 metro, tier 2 and tier 3 are the house rent allowance classes X, Y and Z of the Ministry of Finance order named below. Rewalto does not make the tiers up or move a city between them. Counts are what the apps show to shoppers, so they are a floor, not a census, and they are not figures from the companies.