The fair place to meet is Las Vegas, NV — the city closest to the midpoint of Phoenix and San Jose. From the farther side that’s about 8 hr 1 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Las Vegas, NV
From Phoenix
5 hr 22 min
256 mi to Las Vegas
From San Jose
8 hr 1 min
382 mi to Las Vegas
Phoenix has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 2 hr 39 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Phoenix and San Jose are about 614 miles apart.
Phoenix and San Jose are about 614 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Las Vegas, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 5 hr 22 min of driving on the Phoenix side and 8 hr 1 min on the San Jose side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
That's a half-day drive from each side, so Las Vegas suits an overnight or a weekend rather than a quick coffee — long enough to want a reason to stay, short enough to drive.
If Las Vegas doesn't have what you're after, Los Angeles and San Diego are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Phoenix and San Jose.
Las Vegas, colloquially shortened to Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. It is the 24th-most populous city in the United States, with 641,903 residents at the 2020 census. Read more →
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, Phoenix is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous state capital. Read more →
San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, and the 13th-most populous in the United States, with an estimated 989,814 residents as of 2025. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.