Kaunas, Lithuania Β· UTC+3
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Kaunas is in the Europe/Vilnius timezone (EET/UTC+2 in winter, EEST/UTC+3 in summer), following EU daylight saving transitions shared with all of Lithuania.
Kaunas was Lithuaniaβs provisional capital from 1920 to 1939, while Vilnius remained under Polish administration. The city developed a dense interwar modernism during those years, a distinct architectural identity built quickly and confidently on the assumption that Kaunas would matter. It still does. Today itβs Lithuaniaβs second city, running on the same clock as Vilnius: Eastern European Time, UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 during daylight saving.
rivers, trade routes, and seasonal extremes
Lithuania sits at about 55 degrees north, where the seasonal daylight difference is significant. Kaunas summers see sunrise around 5am and sunset past 10pm. December delivers less than 8 hours of light. The DST switch in late March and late October is felt here more sharply than in southern Europe.
The Nemunas and Neris rivers meet at Kaunas, and the Old Town at their confluence has been a trading point for centuries. Medieval merchants here had to reconcile local solar time with the clocks of KΓΆnigsberg, Riga, and Warsaw. Modern Kaunas simply uses EU standard time like its neighbors.
Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004, which synchronized its DST transitions with the EU-wide schedule. There has been EU-level discussion about abolishing daylight saving entirely, but as of 2026, the clocks still move twice a year.
9am in Kaunas is 7am in London in winter, and 8am during EU summer time.
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Questions about time in Kaunas
- What timezone is Kaunas in?
- Kaunas uses the IANA timezone
Europe/Vilnius. The UTC offset is UTC+2 in winter (standard time) and UTC+3 during daylight saving time (summer). - Does Kaunas observe daylight saving time?
- Yes. Kaunas observes daylight saving time. In 2026, clocks spring forward one hour on Sunday, March 29 and fall back one hour on Sunday, October 25. During DST, the UTC offset shifts from UTC+2 to UTC+3.
- What is the current UTC offset for Kaunas?
- Kaunas is currently at UTC+3. It is currently observing daylight saving time.
- What is the time difference between Kaunas and New York?
- Kaunas is currently 7 hours ahead of New York.
- What is the time difference between Kaunas and London?
- Kaunas is currently 2 hours ahead of London.
- What is the time difference between Kaunas and Los Angeles?
- Kaunas is currently 10 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Kaunas and Tokyo?
- Kaunas is currently 6 hours behind Tokyo. Tokyo does not observe daylight saving time, so this gap changes by 1 hour when Kaunas transitions to/from DST.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Kaunas?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Kaunas is
Europe/Vilnius. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Europe/Vilnius' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Europe/Vilnius')`), or any IANA-compatible library.