Bangkok
UTC+7Thailand · ICT
Thu, 13 Aug 2026
Timezone Guide
Bangkok, Thailand runs on UTC+7. This time zone stays fixed year-round at UTC+7 — daylight saving time is not observed. There is a 11-hour difference between Bangkok and New York. Standard working hours don't overlap at all with New York, so meetings need an early or late slot on one side. There is a 6-hour difference between Bangkok and London. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 3 hours a day with London. A good time to connect: 15:00–18:00 in Bangkok lines up with 09:00–12:00 in London. There is a 2-hour difference between Bangkok and Tokyo. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 7 hours a day with Tokyo. A good time to connect: 09:00–16:00 in Bangkok lines up with 11:00–18:00 in Tokyo. This timezone is also shared with cities such as Jakarta. Keeping these offsets in mind makes it easier to schedule calls or travel to and from Bangkok.
Practical Info
Bangkok (Thailand) is home to roughly 17.6M people. Today brings about 12.8 hours of daylight: sunrise at 05:54, sunset at 18:42. This time zone stays fixed year-round at UTC+7 — daylight saving time is not observed. It sits in the Northern Hemisphere, about 14° north of the equator. Traffic drives on the left.
Flag
Thailand
Capital
Bangkok 👑
Continent
Asia
Time Zone
ICT · Asia/Bangkok
Coordinates
13.75°N, 100.52°E
Currency
THB (฿)
Calling Code
+66
Driving Side
Left
Hemisphere
Northern
Language
Thai
Measurement System
Metric
Did You Know?
In Thailand It Is Currently the Year 2569
Thailand is the only country in the world that uses the Buddhist Era as its official calendar. The epoch is the parinibbāna of the Buddha, traditionally placed at 543 BCE — so Thai years run 543 ahead of Gregorian ones.
The Gregorian year 2026 is 2569 BE in Thailand.
This is not decorative. Government documents, legal communications, Thai-language newspapers and official forms are dated in BE. Full dates carry the marker พ.ศ. (Buddhist Era) or ค.ศ. (Anno Domini) so nobody has to guess which system a date belongs to — though with 543 years between them, confusion is rare.
The structure underneath is Gregorian: same twelve months, same leap year rules. Only the number of the year differs. That combination was assembled in stages. King Chulalongkorn introduced the solar framework in 1888. King Rama VI formalised Buddhist Era numbering for government use in 1912. And New Year's Day moved from 1 April to 1 January in 1941, under Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram, to line Thailand up with international practice.
So within living memory of that generation, the Thai year began in April.
Alongside all this, Thailand keeps a traditional lunisolar calendar for religious festivals — twelve lunar months of 29 or 30 days, roughly 354 days a year, with a thirteenth intercalary month inserted every two to three years to stop it drifting from the seasons. Buddhist holy days and festival dates are set by that calendar, not the solar one.
The clock: and for telling the time, everyday Thai speech does not necessarily use the twenty-four hour clock at all. Alongside the official 24-hour system there is the Thai six-hour clock, which divides the day into four blocks of six hours rather than two blocks of twelve.
Which means a resident of Bangkok can, entirely correctly, be living in the year 2569, celebrating a New Year that used to fall in April, observing festivals set by the moon, and telling you the time in a system with four cycles a day instead of two.
Every one of those is the official or ordinary answer. They are just answers to different questions.
Sources
- Wikipedia, *Thai calendar* ve *Date and time notation in Thailand* (2026 AD = 2569 BE; พ.ศ. / ค.ศ. işaretleri; altı saatlik sistem)
- Grokipedia, *Date and time notation in Thailand* (1888 Chulalongkorn reformu; 1912 Rama VI; 1941'de yılbaşının 1 Nisan'dan 1 Ocak'a taşınması)
- My Sakon Nakhon, *The Buddhist Era: How to Read Thai Dates* (Tayland'ın tek ülke olması)
- Grokipedia, *Thai calendar* (ay-güneş takviminin yapısı ve ek ay)
Annual Daylight
Working Hours
5h overlap