Karad is a town in Satara district of Indian state of Maharashtra. It is located 302 km (180.19 miles) from Mumbai, 74 km from Sangli and 162 km from Pune. It lies at the confluence of Koyna River and the Krishna River known as the "Pritisangam". The two rivers originate at Mahabaleshwar, which is around 100 km from Karad. Karad is well known for sugar production and is known as the sugar bowl of Maharashtra owing to the presence of many sugar factories in and around Karad. It is considered an important educational hub in Western Maharashtra due to the presence of many prestigious educational institutes. Karad is resting place of the first chief minister of Maharashtra Yashwantrao Chavan situated at the confluence of the Krishna and Koyana rivers. It is ranked as the cleanest town in Swachh Survekshan 2020 in the category of population with less than 1 lakh.

Satara district is a district of Maharashtra state in western India with an area of 10,480 km2 (4,050 sq mi) and a population of 3,003,741 of which 14.17% were urban. Satara is the capital of the district and other major towns include Medha, Wai, Karad, Malkapur, Koregaon, Rahimatpur, Dahiwadi, Koynanagar, Phaltan, Lonand, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani, Vaduj and Mhaswad. This district comes under Pune Administrative Division along with Pune, Sangli, Solapur and Kolhapur. The district of Pune bounds it to the north, Raigad bounds it to the north-west, Solapur the east, Sangli to the south, and Ratnagiri to the west.