The Stout-billed Cinclodes is distributed in the central Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. There is a distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found in rocky páramo and wet meadows usually near water and between 3,200 and 5,200 metres.

Its nest is at the end of a tunnel excavated in a steep bank and it may be that the Stout-billed Cinclodes is linked mainly to volcanic areas for the ease of excavating such tunnels.