Macau Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in Macau right now. Maybe you have a call with someone there, a flight to catch, a show starting on local time, or someone to reach before their evening is over, whenever that may be in a city like this one. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in Macau 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 Macau and keeps itself right on its own. And Macau time is simple, because it never changes through the year, as the next section explains.

Macau does not change its clocks

Here is the part worth knowing about Macau time, and it makes things easy. Macau does not use daylight saving. There is no spring forward and no fall back, so it stays on the same clock all year round, eight hours ahead of UTC.

Macau did use daylight saving on and off in the past, but it stopped after 1979, the same year as neighbouring Hong Kong, and has not used it since. So there are no change dates to track here. Whenever you look, Macau is at UTC plus 8, and the clock above simply shows that time.

What time zone Macau is in

Macau runs on the UTC plus 8 clock, eight hours ahead of UTC, held every day of the year. It sits just across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong, and both keep the same offset, so the two read exactly the same time, as does mainland China all around them.

There is a fitting twist to time in Macau. It is the gaming capital of the world, a city of round-the-clock casinos where a great deal of life runs through the night, so the hour on the clock matters less to its rhythm than almost anywhere else. The time is the same steady UTC plus 8 as Hong Kong next door, but Macau, like its fellow casino city Las Vegas, keeps its own hours regardless.

Time difference from Macau to other cities

Macau never changes its clocks, so the gap to other fixed-offset places stays the same all year. The places that do use daylight saving, like London and New York, shift by an hour against Macau between their winter and summer. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon in Macau.

A few quick examples

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

Say it is 12 noon in Macau. Hong Kong across the delta reads the same, 12 noon, as does Shenzhen. Tokyo and Seoul are an hour ahead at 1 in the afternoon, while Mumbai is two and a half hours behind at 9:30 in the morning.

Now the long hauls west. In the winter, London is eight hours behind Macau, so 12 noon here is 4 in the morning in London, and New York, thirteen hours behind, is still at 11 the previous evening. Midday in Macau lands in the small hours across Europe and the Americas.

Because those places use daylight saving and Macau does not, the gap shifts by an hour in their summer. London moves to seven hours behind and New York to twelve. 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 Macau time

Macau sits well to the south, at about 22 degrees north, just inside the subtropics, so the length of the day stays fairly even through the year. Around midsummer there are roughly thirteen and a half hours between sunrise and sunset, and around midwinter still close to eleven, a gentle swing compared with cities further north.

On the clock-against-sun question, Macau runs a little behind the sun. The UTC plus 8 clock fits the line of longitude through the east of China, and Macau sits some way west of it, so the sun reaches its highest a little after 12 noon by the clock, at around half past twelve in the middle of the year. Not that the casinos pay it much attention, given how much of the city's day and night runs on its own schedule.

Other places on the same time

A good few places keep the same time as Macau on UTC plus 8. Here are some to jump to:

• Hong Kong time now, across the delta
• Shenzhen time now, nearby on the mainland
• Singapore time now, also UTC plus 8

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

Questions people ask

What time is it in Macau right now?

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

Does Macau change its clocks for daylight saving?

No. Macau used daylight saving on and off in the past but stopped after 1979. It has stayed on UTC plus 8 ever since, with no seasonal change.

Is Macau the same time as Hong Kong?

Yes. Both are on UTC plus 8 and neither uses daylight saving, so Macau and Hong Kong always read the same clock, just across the delta from each other.

What time zone is Macau in?

UTC plus 8, eight hours ahead of UTC, held all year. It is the same offset as Hong Kong, mainland China, and Singapore.

What is the time difference between Macau and New York?

New York is normally thirteen hours behind Macau, or twelve when New York is on summer time. The gap shifts because New York uses daylight saving and Macau does not.

What is the IANA name for Macau time?

It is Asia/Macau in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. It holds a steady UTC plus 8, 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/Macau identifier. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), which keeps and disseminates the standard time of Macau. https://www.smg.gov.mo
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference Macau's clock is measured from. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time