What time is it in Nepal?
GMT+5:45 · Asia/Kathmandu
Back to NepalNow in Kathmandu
GMT+5:45 UTC+05:45
UTC+05:45
all yearNepal Time
Nepal keeps a single time zone, Nepal Standard Time, 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of UTC, and the clocks never change for summer. The odd quarter hour comes from geography: the standard meridian runs through the peak of Gaurishankar, about 100 kilometres east of Kathmandu, which sets the country 15 minutes ahead of India. Only two other zones use a 45-minute offset, one of them unofficial.
Today
Daylight in Kathmandu today
DayLive
12:00
- Sunrise
- 05:55First light 05:32
- Sunset
- 17:52Last light 18:15
- Day length
- 11 h 56 min−2 min on yesterday
- Solar noon
- 11:53Sun at 60°, its highest
Plan a call
Find an hour that works in Nepal and elsewhere
The two rows are the same day, hour for hour. Pick a city, then an hour, and the line between the rows marks the office hours both sides share.
Time difference
How far Nepal is from other places
Neighbours
- ChinaBeijing+2:15 h
- IndiaNew Delhi−0:15 h
Around the world
- London−4:45 h
- New York−9:45 h
- Los Angeles−12:45 h
- São Paulo−8:45 h
- Moscow−2:45 h
- Dubai−1:45 h
- Tokyo+3:15 h
- Sydney+4:15 h
Clock changes
Nepal does not change its clocks
Nepal has no record of summer time. Until the end of 1919 the country ran on local solar time, which in Kathmandu stood 5 hours, 41 minutes and 16 seconds ahead of UTC. On 1 January 1920 it moved to Indian Standard Time, 5 hours 30 minutes ahead, and stayed there for 66 years. At midnight on 1 January 1986 the clocks went forward 15 minutes to the present offset, an approximation of Kathmandu mean time. A 2003 article in the Nepali Times dated the first Nepal Standard Time to 1956; the time zone database and timeanddate both place the change at the start of 1986.
Daylight
Sunrise and sunset through the year in Kathmandu
- Sunrise
- 05:55
- Sunset
- 17:52
- Daylight
- 11 h 56 min
- Change
- −2 min
Longest day of 2026: 18 June, 13 h 54 min.
Computed for 27.71, 85.32 at sea level with the NOAA solar equations, to the nearest minute, taking no account of hills.
Writing the time
- Clock
- 24-hour
- Short date
- २६/३/५
- Long date
- २०२६ मार्च ५
- Week starts
- Sunday
- Zone names
- GMT+5:45
- Time zone database
- Kathmandu
History
How the clocks in Nepal got here
- 1890
- To 1919.Local mean time, UTC+05:41, before the standard zone.
- 1920
- To 1985.UTC+05:30 all year.
- 1986
- To today.UTC+05:45 all year, no summer time.
From the IANA time zone database, Asia/Kathmandu, as the build machine carries it.
Common questions
Questions about the time in Nepal
What time zone is Nepal in?
Nepal Standard Time, abbreviated NPT, which runs 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of UTC. The same time applies across the whole country, from the plains of the Terai to the Himalaya, and the time zone database lists it as Asia/Kathmandu. There is no summer offset, so the gap to UTC is the same in every month of the year.
Why is Nepal 15 minutes ahead of India?
Nepal sets its clock by a meridian of its own, which passes through the summit of Gaurishankar about 100 kilometres east of Kathmandu, while India's standard meridian lies further west. The Nepali Times wrote in 2003 that Gaurishankar was chosen over Everest because it lay closer to the centre of the country. The paper also described the resulting quarter of an hour as a grace period that Nepalis add to every appointment.
Does Nepal change its clocks for daylight saving time?
No. Nepal has never observed summer time, and timeanddate lists no clock change in Kathmandu in any year from 2020 to 2029. The only changes on record are changes of zone: from local solar time to Indian Standard Time in 1920, and from Indian Standard Time to the present quarter-hour offset in 1986. With nothing to track, the gap to UTC holds all year.
Which other places use a 45-minute offset?
Two others, by the count Wikipedia gives. The Chatham Islands keep Chatham Island Standard Time at 12 hours and 45 minutes ahead of UTC, and Australian Central Western Time, which is unofficial, sits at 8 hours and 45 minutes ahead. Nepal Standard Time completes the three, and of them it is the one kept as the standard time of a whole country.
How was time kept in Kathmandu before clocks?
In the Malla period the city told time with water. According to the Nepali Times, anyone who needed the exact hour went to a pond near Hanuman Dhoka, where an official reported how many pala had sunk since dawn. Each pala had a tiny hole and filled in exactly 24 minutes, so the count gave the time of day in steps of that length.