The buildings account for more than 30% of energy consumption for cooling and day lighting in India. This paper presents the thermal performance of buildings with various double glazing window glass material combinations in four different climatic zones of India such as moderate (Bangalore), composite (Hyderabad) hot and dry (Jodhpur) and warm and humid (Vishakhapatnam) climatic zones. In this study, four double glazing window material combinations such as clear-clear, bronze-clear, green-clear and grey-clear were selected. An unventilated air space of 10 mm is maintained between the two glass layers. The spectral optical properties of four glass materials were measured experimentally using UV 3600 Shimadzu spectrophotometer from wavelengths ranging from 300 nm-2500 nm. Total sixty four building models were designed using Design builder 4.3.0.039 and thermal analysis was carried out using Energy plus 8.1 simulation tool. From the results, it is observed that concrete buildings with double grey-clear glass window were found to be energy efficient from the least heat gain point of view among sixty four building models studied in four climatic zones of India. The results of the study help in selecting the best combination of double glazing window glass material for reducing cooling loads in buildings of four different climatic zones of India. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd.