Here, the study analyses altitudinal dependency of precipitation in the high-altitude Indus basin by combining most of the available station data with the indirect precipitation estimates at the accumulation zones of major glaciers. It uses Kriging with External Drift (KED) interpolation scheme with elevation as a predictor to appraise spatio-temporal distribution of mean monthly, seasonal and annual precipitation for the period 1998–2012. Results show clear non-linear increases in precipitation with altitude. The estimated precipitation is much higher compared to previous studies and gridded products. The gridded precipitation products are unsuitable to force hydrological models in upper Indus.