Smart governance has emerged as a critical framework for addressing the complex urban challenges of metropolises like Tehran, which faces severe issues including traffic congestion, environmental degradation, inefficient resource management, inadequate service delivery, and limited citizen engagement. This research aims to identify and validate the factors affecting smart governance for future Tehran in the horizon of 2050, providing a comprehensive framework to guide urban transformation. This study employed a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative document analysis with a quantitative Delphi technique. Through purposive sampling, 22 experts with advanced degrees in management and minimum 5-10 years of relevant experience participated in semi-structured interviews until theoretical saturation was reached at 16 interviews. Subsequently, a two-round Delphi survey was conducted to validate the identified factors, with Kendall’s coefficient used to measure expert consensus. Results revealed three primary dimensions of smart governance: political vision (8 main themes, 38 sub-themes including legal considerations, smart planning, and political governance integration), economic vision (8 main themes, 51 sub-themes covering optimal capacity building, revenue integration, and smart cost management), and socio-cultural vision (7 main themes, 39 sub-themes focusing on citizen participation, electronic education, and accountability). A Kendall’s coefficient of 0.507 confirmed strong expert consensus on these dimensions. The highest rated factors included leadership at the head of urban affairs (8.91), improvement of urban spaces (8.94), and smart budgeting for economic planning (8.68). The findings provide a comprehensive framework that can guide Tehran’s transformation toward smart urban governance by 2050, emphasizing that successful implementation requires integration of technological systems with governance structures and human factors. The study demonstrates that smart governance must address political, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions simultaneously to be effective in Tehran’s context. Future research should examine implementation challenges across different urban contexts in Iran and develop quantitative metrics to measure smart governance effectiveness in developing metropolises.