What time is it in Spain?
CET / CEST · Europe/Madrid
Back to SpainNow in Madrid
CET UTC+01:00
UTC+01:00
UTC+02:00 in summerCentral European Standard Time
Spain runs on two clocks. Peninsular Spain, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla keep Central European Time, UTC+1, while the Canary Islands keep Western European Time, UTC+0, an hour behind. Both halves move their clocks forward an hour on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October, so the hour between the mainland and the islands never changes. By longitude nearly all of the mainland belongs in the Greenwich zone; it has kept Central European Time since 1940.
Today
Daylight in Madrid today
DayLive
12:00
- Sunrise
- 08:07First light 07:40
- Sunset
- 20:03Last light 20:30
- Day length
- 11 h 56 min−3 min on yesterday
- Solar noon
- 14:05Sun at 48°, its highest
Plan a call
Find an hour that works in Spain 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 Spain is from other places
Neighbours
- AndorraAndorra la VellaSame time
- FranceParisSame time
- GibraltarGibraltarSame time
- MoroccoRabat−2 h
- PortugalLisbon−1 h
Around the world
- London−1 h
- New York−6 h
- Los Angeles−9 h
- São Paulo−5 h
- Moscow+1 h
- Dubai+2 h
- Delhi+3:30 h
- Beijing+6 h
- Tokyo+7 h
- Sydney+8 h
Clock changes
When the clocks change in Spain
Next change
Sunday, 25 October 2026
Clocks go back one hour: at 03:00 it becomes 02:00 CET, UTC+01:00. The night is an hour longer.
| Year | Clocks go forward | Clocks go back |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 29 March 02:00 → 03:00 | 25 October 03:00 → 02:00 |
| 2027 | 28 March 02:00 → 03:00 | 31 October 03:00 → 02:00 |
| 2028 | 26 March 02:00 → 03:00 | 29 October 03:00 → 02:00 |
| 2029 | 25 March 02:00 → 03:00 | 28 October 03:00 → 02:00 |
| 2030 | 31 March 02:00 → 03:00 | 27 October 03:00 → 02:00 |
Spain first put its clocks forward in 1918, then introduced and dropped summer time several times before 1940: it ran in 1918 and 1919, in 1924, from 1926 to 1929 and again from 1937. After the move to Central European Time in 1940 the summer offset rose to UTC+2, used from 1942 to 1946 and a last time in 1949, when summer time was abolished in the autumn. It came back in 1974 and has run every year since, on European Union dates.
The European Parliament voted on 26 March 2019 to end seasonal clock changes from 2021, leaving each member state to choose permanent summer or winter time. Spain was among the states that favoured keeping the current arrangement, but the Council of the European Union had still not approved the directive in March 2026, so both of Spain's zones keep changing twice a year.
Daylight
Sunrise and sunset through the year in Madrid
- Sunrise
- 08:07
- Sunset
- 20:03
- Daylight
- 11 h 56 min
- Change
- −3 min
Longest day of 2026: 19 June, 15 h 04 min.
Computed for 40.42, -3.70 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
- 5/3/26
- Long date
- 5 de marzo de 2026
- Week starts
- Monday
- Zone names
- CET / CEST
- Time zone database
- Madrid
History
How the clocks in Spain got here
- 1890
- To 1900.Local mean time, UTC-00:14, before the standard zone.
- 1901
- To 1917.UTC+00:00 all year.
- 1918
- To 1919.Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00 at different times of the year.
- 1920
- To 1923.UTC+00:00 all year.
- 1924
- Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00 at different times of the year.
- 1925
- UTC+00:00 all year.
- 1926
- To 1929.Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00 at different times of the year.
- 1930
- To 1936.UTC+00:00 all year.
- 1937
- Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00 at different times of the year.
- 1938
- Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00 at different times of the year.
- 1939
- To 1940.Clocks on UTC+00:00, UTC+01:00 at different times of the year.
- 1941
- UTC+01:00 all year, no summer time.
- 1942
- To 1946.UTC+01:00 in winter, UTC+02:00 in summer time.
- 1947
- To 1948.UTC+01:00 all year, no summer time.
- 1949
- UTC+01:00 in winter, UTC+02:00 in summer time.
- 1950
- To 1973.UTC+01:00 all year, no summer time.
- 1974
- To today.UTC+01:00 in winter, UTC+02:00 in summer time.
From the IANA time zone database, Europe/Madrid, as the build machine carries it.
Common questions
Questions about the time in Spain
What time zone is Spain in?
Two. Peninsular Spain, the Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are on Central European Time, UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer; the time zone database files the mainland and the Balearics as Europe/Madrid and the two North African cities as Africa/Ceuta. The Canary Islands, filed as Atlantic/Canary, are on Western European Time, UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer.
What is the time difference between Madrid and the Canary Islands?
One hour, all year: the Canary Islands are behind. Radio and television announce the hour with the phrase "una hora menos en Canarias", one hour less in the Canaries, a habit traced to the Radio Nacional de España programme Protagonistas in 1969. The islands kept mean solar time until 1 March 1922, when it emerged that the royal decree of 1900 had never covered them.
When do the clocks change in Spain in 2026?
Clocks went forward on Sunday 29 March 2026 and go back on Sunday 25 October, at the same instant in both zones: 02:00 becomes 03:00 in Madrid and 01:00 becomes 02:00 in the Canaries in March, and the move is reversed in October. In 2027 the dates are Sunday 28 March and Sunday 31 October.
Why is Spain on Central European Time?
Because of a wartime order. Spain adopted Greenwich Mean Time from 1 January 1901, under a royal decree signed at San Sebastián on 26 July 1900. An order of 7 March 1940 advanced the clocks by an hour, so that 23:00 on 16 March 1940 became midnight on 17 March. The change was made permanent in 1942, in line with German-occupied Europe. It was treated at the time as temporary, and it was never revoked.
Is Spain's time zone the reason for late meals?
The link is disputed. With clocks an hour ahead of the sun, sunrise and sunset come late, and in Vigo sunset at the summer solstice falls around 22:15. In September 2013 a Congress of Deputies subcommittee on working hours proposed a return to Greenwich Mean Time, partly to bring working and family hours closer together. Jorge Mira of the University of Santiago de Compostela argued against, expecting working hours to shift by an hour too and cancel the effect.
Is Spain on the same time as Portugal?
The mainland is not: Portugal keeps Western European Time, so clocks go back an hour on crossing the border westward, even though Galicia shares Portugal's longitude. The Canary Islands, by contrast, keep the same time as Lisbon and London all year. In summer the mainland runs two hours ahead of UTC, although by longitude most of it belongs at UTC+0.
Will Spain stop changing the clocks?
Not while the European Union rule stands. The European Parliament voted on 26 March 2019 to end the change and let each state pick permanent summer or winter time, and Spain was recorded as favouring the present system. The Council has not approved the proposal, and a parliamentary debate on 23 October 2025 produced agreement in principle but no date.
Spain has 3 zones; this page reads the capital’s. All figures