Vienna Time Now

What this page shows

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

Vienna changes its clocks twice a year

Here is the part worth knowing about Vienna time. Vienna 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 Vienna 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 Vienna is in, and why the clock matches the sun

Vienna 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 whole of Austria keeps this clock.

Here is something neat about Vienna in particular. Central European Time is built on the meridian at 15 degrees east, and Vienna sits almost exactly on it. That means the clock and the sun very nearly agree here, in a way they do not across much of the zone. In winter, on CET, the sun is at its highest at close to 12 noon by the clock. Compare that with Spain, where the clock runs well over an hour ahead of the sun, and Vienna turns out to be about as honest a match between clock time and sun time as Central Europe offers.

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

Vienna changes its clocks on two Sundays a year, and across the European Union those dates are fixed by law, Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements. Every member state changes together:

• Spring forward. On the last Sunday of March, the clocks jump ahead one hour. CET becomes CEST, and Vienna 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, Vienna 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 Vienna to other cities

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

A few quick examples

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

Say it is 12 noon in Vienna. 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. Austria 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 Vienna in winter, so a 9 in the morning start in Vienna is already 5 in the evening in Tokyo. The overlap between Austria and Japan is narrow, so those calls tend to sit early in the Vienna morning.

A couple of things about Vienna time

Vienna sits at about 48 degrees north, so the length of the day swings a good deal across the year. Around midsummer there are roughly sixteen hours between sunrise and sunset, with the light lasting well into the evening, while around midwinter that drops to a little over eight hours.

The quirk worth repeating is the close match between clock and sun. Because Vienna sits almost exactly on the meridian Central European Time is defined from, winter clock noon and solar noon land at nearly the same moment. In summer, on CEST, the clock runs an hour ahead of the sun, like the rest of the zone, which is part of why the warm evenings stretch so late.

Other places on the same time

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

• Berlin time now
• Zurich time now
• Rome time now
• Paris 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 Vienna right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. Just remember that Vienna 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 Vienna time.

Is Vienna on CET or CEST right now?

Go by the dates. Vienna 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.

What time zone is Vienna in?

Central European Time, one hour ahead of UTC, in the winter, and Central European Summer Time, two hours ahead, in the summer. The whole of Austria keeps the same clock, as do Germany, France, and Italy.

How many hours ahead of London is Vienna?

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

Does the clock match the sun in Vienna?

Closely, in winter. Vienna sits almost exactly on the meridian Central European Time is built on, so on CET the sun is at its highest near 12 noon by the clock. In summer, on CEST, the clock runs an hour ahead of the sun.

What is the IANA name for Vienna time?

It is Europe/Vienna 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/Vienna identifier. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. Directive 2000/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on summer-time arrangements, which sets the last Sundays of March and October as the change dates across the EU. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2000/84/oj
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