The city is administered by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), whose titular head is the Mayor of Hyderabad who has few executive powers. In the past, the mayor was chosen by the legislative body of the corporation, but just before the last elections, the state government modified the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, 1955, to stipulate that the mayoral election be held directly and simultaneously with the corporation elections. The real executive power of the corporation is vested in the Municipal Commissioner, an IAS officer appointed by the Andhra Pradesh state government. The Mayor and the Corporation legislative body can and have been in the past dismissed by the state government. For several years elections had not been held for the corporation. Recently the corporation completed its full term and elections are due to the GHMC and for the post of Mayor.

A large part of the twin city Secunderabad and some parts of Hyderabad itself come under the jurisdiction of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) owing to a large presence of military units. It provides basic infrastructure like roads, parks, water and other municipal needs to the public residing here.

The city is divided by the state police into Hyderabad Police and Cyberabad Police which come under the state Home Ministry and are headed by Police Commissioners, who are IPS officers. Basheerbagh, houses important government offices such as the Police Commissioner's office, Police Control room, Income tax Commissioner's office, Central Excise and customs office, Central Reservation office etc. The city is divided into five police zones, each headed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police. The Traffic Police is a semi-autonomous body under the Hyderabad and Cyberabad commissionerates.

The GHMC is in charge of the civic needs and the infrastructure of the city. Hyderabad is divided into 150 municipal wards, each overseen by a corporator. The corporators of the administration are elected through popular vote, and almost all the political parties field candidates.The municipal limits of Hyderabad covers three districts, Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medak. The administration of each district is headed by a District Collector who is in charge of property records and revenue collection for the Central government. The district collectors also oversees the elections held in the city.

Hyderabad sends three members to the Lok Sabha and 23 members to the Assembly, with in municipal limits, in respect to the delimitation of constituencies coming into force w.e.f. 2009 general elections. In below cited 23 segments, 3 segments were demarcated into adjacent Lok Sabha segments to attain population balance, thus giving Hyderabad 3 complete and 2 partial Lok Sabha constituencies.

The new Assembly segments and their respective Lok Sabha segments are: Amberpet, Jubilee Hills, Khairatabad, Musheerabad, Nampally, Sanathnagar, Secunderabad under Secunderabad LS seat; Bahadurpura, Chandrayanagutta, Charminar, Goshamahal, Karwan, Malakpet, Yakutpura under Hyderabad LS seat; Kukatpally, Lal Bahadur Nagar (LB Nagar), Malkajgiri, Quthbullapur, Secunderabad Cantonment, Uppal under Malkajgiri LS seat; Rajendranagar and Serilingampally under Chevella (partially) LS seat and Patancheru under Medak LS seat.