Cairo, Egypt Β· UTC+2
Convert time from Cairo
Cairo, the Arab worldβs largest city, runs on Africa/Cairo: UTC+2, year-round. Egypt abolished daylight saving time in 2011 and has kept fixed UTC+2 since. The decision ended years of inconsistent DST application that included suspending the clock change during Ramadan in some years, then reapplying it, creating genuine confusion.
At 30 degrees north, Cairo sits in the subtropics. Daylight variation is moderate: June sunsets arrive around 7:50pm, December around 5pm. The fixed UTC+2 keeps solar noon close to 12pm in winter, slightly later in summer.
The city that never stops
Cairo has more than 20 million people in its metropolitan area, making it one of the worldβs largest cities. The city operates around the clock. Cairoβs traffic famously runs at near-constant intensity from early morning until well past midnight. The street food culture, the coffee shops, the late-night commerce of Khan el-Khalili, all of these resist the idea of business hours with hard stops.
The absence of DST reinforces a kind of temporal stability. The cityβs rhythm is not disrupted twice a year by clock changes. This matters more than it might seem in a city where so many people work in shifts, commute by informal microbus systems, and structure their days around prayers, markets, and the rhythms of informal commerce rather than corporate schedules.
Ramadan time
Egyptβs Islamic calendar creates significant seasonal shifts in daily rhythms. During Ramadan, Cairo essentially operates on a different schedule: pre-dawn meals (suhoor) bring commercial activity alive around 3am to 4am. Iftar (breaking the fast at sunset) triggers one of the cityβs biggest daily commerce surges. Restaurants fill, family gatherings happen, and the cityβs social life runs until very late. The fixed UTC+2 clock stays constant while the social clock rotates around it.
The time conversion from Cairo to London is two hours ahead in winter, one hour in summer when the UK observes BST.
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Questions about time in Cairo
- What timezone is Cairo in?
- Cairo uses the IANA timezone
Africa/Cairo. The UTC offset is UTC+2 in winter (standard time) and UTC+3 during daylight saving time (summer). - Does Cairo observe daylight saving time?
- Yes. Cairo observes daylight saving time. In 2026, clocks spring forward one hour on Friday, April 24 and fall back one hour on Friday, October 30. During DST, the UTC offset shifts from UTC+2 to UTC+3.
- What is the current UTC offset for Cairo?
- Cairo is currently at UTC+2. It is not currently observing daylight saving time.
- What is the time difference between Cairo and New York?
- Cairo is currently 6 hours ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Cairo and London?
- Cairo is currently 1 hour ahead of London.
- What is the time difference between Cairo and Los Angeles?
- Cairo is currently 9 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Cairo and Tokyo?
- Cairo is currently 7 hours behind Tokyo. Tokyo does not observe daylight saving time, so this gap changes by 1 hour when Cairo transitions to/from DST.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Cairo?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Cairo is
Africa/Cairo. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Africa/Cairo' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Africa/Cairo')`), or any IANA-compatible library.