Onion thrips,Thrips tabaciLindeman, an economically important onion pest in India, poses a severe threat to the domestic and export supply of onions. Therefore, it is important to study the distribution of this pest in order to assess the possible crop loss, which it may inflict if not managed in time. In this study, MaxEnt was used to analyze the potential distribution ofT. tabaciin India and predict the changes in the suitable areas for onion thrips under two scenarios, SSP126 and SSP585. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values of 0.993 and 0.989 for training and testing demonstrated excellent model accuracy. The true skill statistic value of 0.944 and 0.921, and the continuous Boyce index of 0.964 and 0.889 for training and testing, also showed higher model accuracy. Annual Mean Temperature (bio1), Annual Precipitation (bio12) and Precipitation Seasonality (bio15) are the main variables that determined the potential distribution ofT. tabaci,with the suitable range of 22–28 °C; 300–1000 mm and 70–160, respectively.T. tabaciis distributed mainly in India's central and southern states, with 1.17 × 106km2, covering 36.4% of land area under the current scenario. Multimodal ensembles show that under a low emission scenario (SSP126), low, moderate and optimum suitable areas ofT. tabaciis likely to increase, while highly suitable areas would decrease by 17.4% in 2050 20.9% in 2070. Whereas, under the high emission scenario (SSP585), the high suitability is likely to contract by 24.2% and 51.7% for 2050 and 2070, respectively. According to the prediction of the BCC-CSM2-MR, CanESM5, CNRM-CM6-1 and MIROC6 model, the highly suitable area forT. tabaciwould likely contract under both SSP126 and SSP585. This study detailed the potential future habitable area forT. tabaciin India, which could help monitor and devise efficient management strategies for this destructive pest.