It is found in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

The cinnamon-breasted tit was described by the German ornithologist Anton Reichenow in 1885 based on a specimen collected at Kakoma in the Tabora Region of Tanzania.

[2] The specific epithet combines the Latin pallidus "pale" and venter, ventris "belly".

It was moved to the resurrected genus Melaniparus based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013.

[4][5] The genus Melaniparus had been introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850.