Noricella oreinos inhabits primarily boulders, screes and alpine grassland, especially alpine meadows with patchy vegetation coverage, dominated by the sedge species Carex firma, in the Northern Calcareous Alps. Its vertical distribution reaches from the lower subalpine regions to the alpine ecotone, i.e. elevations of . The distribution range reaches from Schneeberg mountain in Lower Austria to Höllengebirge in Upper Austria. Like the helicid snail Cylindrus obtusus, this species is suspected to be an ancient native East-alpine endemic, which survived the glacial times on ice-free parts of the north-eastern alpine margins.