Oslo Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in Oslo right now. Maybe you have a call with someone in Norway, 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 Oslo 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 Oslo and keeps itself right on its own, even across the days when the clocks change. Whether Oslo is on its winter or its summer setting at the time, the clock shows the correct local time.

Oslo changes its clocks twice a year

Here is the part worth knowing about Oslo time. Oslo does not stay on the same clock all year. It uses Central European Time, CET, through the winter, and moves an hour ahead to Central European Summer Time, CEST, for the summer.

So there are two settings behind Oslo time:

• CET, Central European Time. One hour ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 1. The winter setting, from late October to late March.
• CEST, Central European Summer Time. Two hours ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 2. The summer setting, from late March to late October.

The clock above follows whichever one is in force, so you do not have to track it yourself. The section further down spells out the dates if you ever need to work it out for a particular day.

What time zone Oslo is in

Oslo runs on Central European Time, the same zone as Germany, France, and Italy, one hour ahead of UTC in winter and two hours ahead in summer. The southern and central parts of Norway, where most people live, keep this clock.

Norway is a little like Switzerland in one respect: it is not a member of the European Union, yet it keeps the same clock and changes it on the same days as its neighbours, so it never drifts out of step with the rest of the zone. What really sets Oslo apart, though, is not the clock but the sky. The city sits far to the north, near 60 degrees of latitude, and that makes for some of the most dramatic daylight of any European capital, as its facts below explain.

How to tell if Oslo is on CET or CEST right now

Oslo changes its clocks on two Sundays a year. Norway sits outside the European Union, but it keeps the same change dates as its neighbours, the ones the EU sets, so the country never falls out of step:

• Spring forward. On the last Sunday of March, the clocks jump ahead one hour. CET becomes CEST, and Oslo goes from UTC plus 1 to UTC plus 2.
• Fall back. On the last Sunday of October, the clocks drop back one hour. CEST becomes CET again, at UTC plus 1.

So the rule is short. From the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October, Oslo is on CEST. The rest of the year, late October round to late March, it is on CET. Place today between those two Sundays and you have your answer.

Time difference from Oslo to other cities

The cities that share Europe's daylight saving schedule stay a fixed distance from Oslo all year, while the ones that do not change their clocks can shift by an hour between Oslo's winter and summer. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon in Oslo.

A few quick examples

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

Say it is 12 noon in Oslo. London is an hour behind all year, so 11 in the morning there. In the winter, New York is six hours behind, making it 6 in the morning on the US East Coast, while Mumbai is four and a half hours ahead at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Now a call to New York, which has one small catch. Norway and the US both change their clocks, but not on the same dates, so for a couple of short windows in spring and autumn the usual six hour gap briefly narrows to five. For anything that has to land exactly in those weeks, trust the live clock over the rule of thumb.

And one for Asia. Tokyo is eight hours ahead of Oslo in winter, so a 9 in the morning start in Oslo is already 5 in the evening in Tokyo. The overlap between Norway and Japan is narrow, so those calls tend to sit early in the Oslo morning.

A couple of things about Oslo time

Oslo sits very far north, near 60 degrees of latitude, and that gives it some of the most dramatic daylight of any capital in Europe. Around midsummer there are close to nineteen hours between sunrise and sunset, and even at midnight the sky never goes fully dark, the famous light summer nights. Around midwinter that flips, with only about six hours of daylight and dusk arriving in the middle of the afternoon. Further north still, beyond the Arctic Circle, parts of Norway get the true midnight sun in summer, when the sun never sets at all, and a polar night in winter, when it never rises.

On the clock-against-sun question, Oslo sits west of the meridian Central European Time is built on, so the sun reaches its highest a little after 12 noon by the clock in winter. But at this latitude the clock matters far less than the season, which swings the day length around so hard that a fixed offset tells you very little about whether it is light outside.

Other places on the same time

Plenty of cities keep the same time as Oslo on Central European Time. Here are a few to jump to:

• Berlin time now
• Paris time now
• Amsterdam time now
• Rome time now

And if it is the time zone itself you are reading up on rather than the city, the summer side is at CEST Time Now, and the global reference it is measured from at UTC Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in Oslo right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. Just remember that Oslo changes its clocks, so it shows CET through the winter and CEST through the summer, switching over on its own. Either way, the time shown is the correct Oslo time.

Is Oslo on CET or CEST right now?

Go by the dates. Oslo is on CEST from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. The rest of the year, from late October round to late March, it is on CET. Find where today falls between those two Sundays and you will know.

Does Norway change its clocks even though it is not in the EU?

Yes. Norway is outside the European Union, but it keeps the same clock and the same change dates as its neighbours, so it springs forward and falls back on the same two Sundays.

What time zone is Oslo in?

Central European Time, one hour ahead of UTC, in the winter, and Central European Summer Time, two hours ahead, in the summer. It is the same zone as Germany, France, and Italy.

How many hours ahead of London is Oslo?

One hour ahead, all year. Oslo and London both change their clocks, but on the same dates, so the one hour gap between them never changes.

What is the IANA name for Oslo time?

It is Europe/Oslo in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. It carries both the CET and CEST offsets along with the rule for switching between them, 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 Europe/Oslo identifier. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. Justervesenet, the Norwegian Metrology Service, which keeps and disseminates the official time of Norway. https://www.justervesenet.no
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference Central European Time is measured from. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time