Kathmandu Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in Kathmandu right now. Maybe you have a call with someone in Nepal, a flight to catch, a match kicking off on local time, or someone to reach before their evening is over. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in Kathmandu and ticks forward every second, so there is nothing for you to work out by hand.

Wherever in the world you are reading this from, the clock tracks Kathmandu and keeps itself right on its own. And Kathmandu time is simple to follow, because it never changes through the year, as the next section explains.

Kathmandu does not change its clocks

Here is one easy thing about Kathmandu time. Nepal does not use daylight saving. There is no spring forward and no fall back, so Kathmandu stays on the same clock all year round, Nepal Time, five hours and forty-five minutes ahead of UTC.

So there are no change dates to track here. Whenever you look, Kathmandu is at UTC plus 5:45, and the clock above simply shows that time. The interesting part of Kathmandu time is not whether it changes, but that unusual three-quarter-hour offset itself, which the next section gets into.

What time zone Kathmandu is in

Kathmandu runs on Nepal Time, five hours and forty-five minutes ahead of UTC, and it holds that offset every day of the year. That offset is one of the most unusual in the world. Almost every country keeps a whole hour, or at most a half hour, ahead of or behind UTC. Only a small handful use a quarter-hour offset, and UTC plus 5:45 belongs to Nepal alone.

The most striking thing about it is what it does next to India. Nepal sits fifteen minutes ahead of its large neighbour, which keeps UTC plus 5:30. So when it is 12 noon in Kathmandu, it is a quarter to twelve just across the border. Nepal settled on this offset in 1986, having until then kept the same clock as India. It moved fifteen minutes ahead to a line referenced to Gaurishankar, a Himalayan peak east of Kathmandu, giving the country a time of its own.

Time difference from Kathmandu to other cities

Kathmandu never changes its clocks, and because of the quarter-hour offset, the gap to most places lands on a fifteen or forty-five. The places that do use daylight saving, like London and New York, shift by an hour against Kathmandu between their winter and summer. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon in Kathmandu.

A few quick examples

Let us run a few, so you can see how this works.

Say it is 12 noon in Kathmandu. Just across the border, India is fifteen minutes behind at a quarter to twelve. Singapore is two and a quarter hours ahead at 2:15 in the afternoon, and Tokyo three and a quarter hours ahead at 3:15.

Now the long hauls west. In the winter, London is five hours and forty-five minutes behind Kathmandu, so 12 noon here is a quarter past six in the morning in London, and New York, ten and three quarter hours behind, is at a quarter past one in the morning. The quarter-hour offset is why these all land on a fifteen rather than on the hour.

Because those places use daylight saving and Nepal does not, the gap shifts by an hour in their summer. London moves to four and three quarter hours behind and New York to nine and three quarter. So for a call that has to land just right, check the live clock rather than the rule of thumb.

A couple of things about Kathmandu time

Kathmandu sits at about 28 degrees north, in the hills below the high Himalaya, so the length of the day swings a fair amount across the year. Around midsummer there are roughly fourteen hours between sunrise and sunset, while around midwinter that drops to a little over ten. One thing the mountains add is that the sun can clear the eastern peaks well after it has technically risen, and slip behind the western ridges before it has truly set, so the felt hours of daylight in the valley can be shorter than the clock suggests.

On the clock-against-sun question, Kathmandu comes out remarkably true. The whole point of the quarter-hour offset is that it fits Nepal's actual position rather than rounding to a neighbour's clock. Nepal Time is referenced to a meridian close to Kathmandu's own, so the sun reaches its highest within a few minutes of 12 noon by the clock. Round the offset to India's UTC plus 5:30 and the fit would be worse; the odd-looking 5:45 is the one that keeps the clock honest here.

Other places to compare

Nepal keeps its own unique offset, so nowhere else shares it exactly. For the country as a whole and the close-but-not-quite neighbour, here are a couple to jump to:

• Nepal time now, the country as a whole
• New Delhi time now, fifteen minutes behind
• India time now, also fifteen minutes behind

And if it is the global reference Kathmandu is measured from that you are after, see UTC Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in Kathmandu right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. Nepal does not use daylight saving, so Kathmandu stays on the same time all year, and the time shown is always correct.

Why is Nepal on a 45-minute offset?

Nepal keeps UTC plus 5:45 because that fits its true position. It moved to this offset in 1986, referenced to a meridian near the peak of Gaurishankar, which set the country fifteen minutes ahead of India and gave it a clock of its own.

What is the time difference between Kathmandu and India?

Nepal is fifteen minutes ahead of India, all year. So when it is 12 noon in Kathmandu, it is a quarter to twelve in Delhi or Mumbai.

What time zone is Kathmandu in?

Nepal Time, five hours and forty-five minutes ahead of UTC, held all year. It is a unique offset, used by Nepal alone.

What is the time difference between Kathmandu and London?

London is normally five hours and forty-five minutes behind Kathmandu, or four hours and forty-five minutes when London is on summer time. The gap shifts because London uses daylight saving and Nepal does not.

What is the IANA name for Kathmandu time?

It is Asia/Kathmandu in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. It holds a steady UTC plus 5:45, and it is what drives the live clock on this page.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), home of the Asia/Kathmandu identifier and its UTC plus 5:45 offset. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM), the national standards body of Nepal. https://www.nbsm.gov.np
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference Nepal Time is measured from. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time