Cotonou, Benin · UTC+1
Convert time from Cotonou
Cotonou is the largest city in Benin and its economic center, but the country’s official capital is Porto-Novo, a short distance to the east. The IANA timezone for both cities is Africa/Porto-Novo, reflecting the administrative capital rather than the commercial one. Both use West Africa Time, UTC+1, year-round, with no daylight saving.
Benin sits between roughly 6 and 12 degrees north latitude. In Cotonou, close to the coast at 6 degrees, sunrise runs from about 6:00am to 6:40am across the year and sunset from 6:20pm to 7:00pm. The modest variation makes year-round consistency practical and sensible.
Named for the capital, based in the commercial city
The IANA identifier Africa/Porto-Novo is one of several African timezone names that reference a lesser-known capital over the more prominent city. Similar to how Douala and Dar es Salaam are larger than their respective capitals, Cotonou is the city where business gets done while Porto-Novo holds the formal title. The clocks, at least, are identical.
Convert 9am Cotonou time to London
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database
- Agence Nationale de la Météorologie du Bénin (METEO-BENIN)
- Decalo, Samuel. Historical Dictionary of Benin. Scarecrow Press, 1995.
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Questions about time in Cotonou
- What timezone is Cotonou in?
- Cotonou uses the IANA timezone
Africa/Porto-Novo. The UTC offset is always UTC+1 — this timezone does not observe daylight saving time. - Does Cotonou observe daylight saving time?
- No. Cotonou does not observe daylight saving time. The UTC offset remains UTC+1 all year round.
- What is the current UTC offset for Cotonou?
- Cotonou is currently at UTC+1.
- What is the time difference between Cotonou and New York?
- Cotonou is currently 5 hours ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Cotonou and Los Angeles?
- Cotonou is currently 8 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Cotonou and Tokyo?
- Cotonou is currently 8 hours behind Tokyo.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Cotonou?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Cotonou is
Africa/Porto-Novo. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Africa/Porto-Novo' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Africa/Porto-Novo')`), or any IANA-compatible library.