Air quality in Kuala Lumpur right now
Highest station AQI
85Unusually sensitive people should consider limiting long outdoor exertion.
- Measured at
- Batu Muda,Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
- Reading taken
- 12:00 pm
- Stations reporting
- 3 of 3
- Latest day vs previous
- Down 45 from 153
As of 28 Oct, 12:00 pm MYT, the highest reporting monitoring station in Federal Territories recorded a US EPA Air Quality Index of 85, which is Moderate. The reading came from Batu Muda,Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia, with 3 of 3 stations in the region reporting. This is not Malaysia's official Air Pollutant Index.
Kuala Lumpur’s recent air quality
Built from our own archive of hourly readings, so it shows what actually happened here rather than only what is happening now.
Highest station reading in Kuala Lumpur each hour, on the US EPA AQI scale. A break in the line is an hour with no reporting station, not a reading of zero.
The highest reading recorded in Kuala Lumpur on each day, Malaysian time. Days with no reporting station are absent rather than shown as zero.
The worst reading we hold for Kuala Lumpur is 500 on Thursday, 22 October 2026. In the last 13 days, 13 days have had at least one hour at 101 or above.
Our archive for this region starts Friday, 16 October 2026 and now covers 13 days.
Show the last 13 days as a table
| Date | Peak | Band | Mean of hourly peaks | Hours at 101+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, 28 October 2026 | 108 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 88 | 1 of 13 |
| Tuesday, 27 October 2026 | 153 | Unhealthy | 89 | 1 of 23 |
| Monday, 26 October 2026 | 151 | Unhealthy | 80 | 1 of 24 |
| Sunday, 25 October 2026 | 155 | Unhealthy | 109 | 10 of 24 |
| Saturday, 24 October 2026 | 175 | Unhealthy | 163 | 24 of 24 |
| Friday, 23 October 2026 | 176 | Unhealthy | 162 | 24 of 24 |
| Thursday, 22 October 2026 | 500 | Hazardous | 180 | 24 of 24 |
| Wednesday, 21 October 2026 | 169 | Unhealthy | 160 | 24 of 24 |
| Tuesday, 20 October 2026 | 213 | Very Unhealthy | 181 | 24 of 24 |
| Monday, 19 October 2026 | 223 | Very Unhealthy | 188 | 24 of 24 |
| Sunday, 18 October 2026 | 193 | Unhealthy | 178 | 24 of 24 |
| Saturday, 17 October 2026 | 254 | Very Unhealthy | 192 | 24 of 24 |
| Friday, 16 October 2026 | 183 | Unhealthy | 174 | 23 of 23 |
Monitoring stations in Federal Territories
Every station inside the state boundary that has published recently. The headline figure above is the highest of these, never an average.
| Station | AQI | Band | Reading taken |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batu Muda,Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia | 85 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| Kuala Lumpur | 64 | Moderate | 11:00 am |
| Cheras,Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia | 57 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| Putrajaya, W.p. Putrajaya, Malaysia | 57 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| Labuan, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia | 44 | Good | 12:00 pm |
US EPA AQI scale (WAQI)
- Good 0–50
- Moderate 51–100
- Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups 101–150
- Unhealthy 151–200
- Very Unhealthy 201–300
- Hazardous 301+
- No current data
What drives air quality in Kuala Lumpur
Why this state’s readings move the way they do.
Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan are grouped here because they are administered as federal territories, but they sit in three very different places and rarely read alike. KL is a dense, traffic-heavy basin ringed by hills that can hold still air in place; Putrajaya is low-rise and green but sits in the same Klang Valley airshed; Labuan is an island off Sabah, several hundred kilometres away and on a different weather system entirely.
Main local sources
- Heavy vehicle traffic through the Klang Valley, concentrated at morning and evening peaks
- Industry and port activity in neighbouring Selangor, which shares KL’s airshed
- Still, windless evenings that let the basin’s own emissions settle rather than disperse
- Transboundary haze arriving from the west during the southwest monsoon
How the year runs here
The Klang Valley tends to see its worst air in the June–September haze window and during dry spells, and its cleanest after heavy rain. Labuan follows Sabah’s pattern rather than the peninsula’s.
Readings on this page cover Kuala Lumpur, Cheras, Batu Muda, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya and Labuan, to the extent that stations in those areas are reporting. Each figure is named with the station it came from, so you can judge how close it is to you.
Jerebu and haze in Kuala Lumpur
When the air here crosses into unhealthy territory, we write it up.
We publish a dated bulletin for every day on which any Malaysian state reaches AQI 101 or above — the point at which health advice starts naming who should stay indoors. The bulletins are built from the same hourly archive as the charts above, so they record what the stations actually read rather than restating a headline.
Kuala Lumpur has had 13 such days in the last 13.
Read the haze bulletins →Eating out in Kuala Lumpur
Places we have written up in this part of the country.
Air quality in Kuala Lumpur: common questions
Asked about this state specifically.
Why are Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan shown together?
They are Malaysia’s three federal territories, so they share a card on the national map. Each still keeps its own reading — they are measured separately and are never averaged together, which matters because Labuan is off the coast of Sabah and has nothing to do with the Klang Valley’s air.
Is air quality in Kuala Lumpur worse than in the rest of Malaysia?
Not reliably. KL has the country’s densest traffic, which raises its baseline, but during a haze episode the states nearest the fires — often on the west coast or in Sarawak — can read considerably higher. The live figures on this page are the only way to tell on any given day.
Why does Putrajaya sometimes read differently from Kuala Lumpur?
They are about 25 km apart and are measured by different stations. Local traffic, rainfall and wind at each station can differ over that distance, and this page shows the highest reporting station in each territory rather than a blended regional figure.
For how the index is calculated, why it differs from Malaysia’s official API, and where the data comes from, see the national air quality page.
Air quality elsewhere in Malaysia
Live readings for every other state and territory.
Readings from the World Air Quality Index project, on the US EPA scale. This is not Malaysia’s official Air Pollutant Index — for that, see APIMS from the Department of Environment. State boundaries from geoBoundaries (ADM1, CC BY 4.0).