This species has a broad range extending from the eastern Indo-Australian archipelago to New Guinea, north Australia and western Oceania. It has been recorded in Indonesia, where it is known from Sulawesi and Talaud, the Moluccan islands Morotau, Ternate, Halmahera, Obi, Buru, Ambon, Haruku and Seram and New Guinea and its offshore islands (Salawati, Waigeu, Biak, Japen, Hermit and Normanby). Records from Timor are now considered to be in error; repeated surveys on the island have failed to record this species, and it is not a difficult species to find in surveys where it is present (M. O'Shea pers. comm. 2014, 2015). From Indonesian New Guinea it ranges east into Papua New Guinea, including the Bismarck archipelago islands (New Britain and Duke of York) and the Solomon Islands (all except for the far eastern Santa Cruz group and a few small outliers such as Ontong Java), and south to Australia (northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and the Torres Strait islands Muralug, Mua, Dauan, Boigu, Iama, Erub, Mer and Ugar). It is thought to have been introduced to the Caroline, Marshall, Marianes and the three southernmost atolls (Ettal, Lukunor, Satawan) in the Mortlock islands (see Taxonomic Note). A historical record from Bonin Islands (Japan) is probably erroneous.

To date the species has been recorded from sea level up to 200 m asl (Böhme 2003, Wilson and Swan 2003, Kraus and Allison 2004, McCoy 2006, Buden 2007, Ziegler et al. 2007); however, occurrence at higher elevations appears likely (A. Koch, pers. comm.).

Australian records have recently been reviewed, and confirm the occurrence of this species in Cape York and the Northern Territory, where Varanus doreanus also occurs (Natusch and Lyons 2017), as well as the Torres Strait (W. Weijola unpubl. data; A. Koch pers. comm.). Although records from the Queensland Museum have been assigned to V. doreanus (Weijola et al. 2016), true V. indicus has been recorded from coastal areas (Natusch and Lyons 2017).