Objective: This study assessed whether serum adiponectin could be used as a biochemical marker to differentiate type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among young Asian Indians. Research Design and Methods: We recruited age-and sex-matched individuals with physician-diagnosed T1DM (n = 70) and T2DM (n = 72). All were 12-27 years of age with a duration of diabetes of >2 years, at a large tertiary-care diabetes center in Chennai, southern India. Age-and sex-matched individuals with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) (n = 68) were selected from an ongoing population study. NGT was defined using World Health Organization criteria. Serum total adiponectin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to identify adiponectin cut points for discriminating T1DM from T2DM. Results: Adiponectin levels were higher in T1DM and lower in T2DM compared with the NGT group (9.89, 3.88, and 6.84 lg/ mL, respectively; P < 0.001). In standardized polytomous regression models, adiponectin was associated with T1DM (odds ratio [OR] = 1.131 per SD; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.025-1.249) and T2DM (OR = 0.628 per SD; 95% CI, 0.504-0.721) controlled for age, gender, waist circumference, body mass index, hypertension, glycated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, family history of T2DM, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Using ROC analysis, an adiponectin cut point of 5.1 lg/mL had a C statistic of 0.886 (95% CI, 0.836-0.953), sensitivity of 80.6%, and specificity of 80.6% to differentiate T1DM from T2DM. Using the 5.1 lg/mL cut point, 80.6% of T1DM and 81.8% of T2DM would be correctly classified. Conclusions: Serum adiponectin is a useful biochemical marker for differentiating T1DM and T2DM among young Asian Indians.