The commercial and residential buildings consume about 33% of energy for cooling and day lighting in India. This paper presents the thermal performance of buildings constructed with various building and window glass materials in five different climatic zones of India such as hot and dry (Ahmedabad), moderate (Bangalore), cold (Guwahati), warm and humid (Madras) and composite (New Delhi) climatic zones. In this study, four building materials such as laterite stone, dense concrete, burnt brick and mud brick were selected and four window glass materials such as clear, bronze, green and bronze-reflective glasses were selected. The spectral optical properties of four glass materials were measured experimentally using Perkin-Elmer lambda 950 spectrophotometer from wavelengths ranging from 300 nm- 2500 nm. Total eighty building models were designed using Design builder 4.3.0.039 and thermal analysis was carried out in Energy plus 8.1 simulation tool. From the results, it is observed that mud brick with bronze-reflective glass window buildings were found to be energy efficient from the least heat gain point of view among eighty building models studied in five climatic zones of India. The results of the study help in selecting the best combination of building and window glass materials for reducing cooling loads in buildings of five different climatic zones of India. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd.