Saudi Arabia · AST
Tue, 15 Sept 2026
Timezone Guide
Mecca, Saudi Arabia runs on UTC+3. This time zone stays fixed year-round at UTC+3 — daylight saving time is not observed. There is a 7-hour difference between Mecca and New York. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 2 hours a day with New York. A good time to connect: 16:00–18:00 in Mecca lines up with 09:00–11:00 in New York. There is a 2-hour difference between Mecca and London. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 7 hours a day with London. A good time to connect: 11:00–18:00 in Mecca lines up with 09:00–16:00 in London. There is a 6-hour difference between Mecca and Tokyo. Standard 9-to-6 working hours overlap for about 3 hours a day with Tokyo. A good time to connect: 09:00–12:00 in Mecca lines up with 15:00–18:00 in Tokyo. This timezone is also shared with cities such as Moscow, Athens, Istanbul. Keeping these offsets in mind makes it easier to schedule calls or travel to and from Mecca.
Practical Info
Mecca (Saudi Arabia) is home to roughly 2.0M people. Today brings about 13.4 hours of daylight: sunrise at 05:42, sunset at 19:06. This time zone stays fixed year-round at UTC+3 — daylight saving time is not observed. It sits in the Northern Hemisphere, about 21° north of the equator. Traffic drives on the right.
Flag
Saudi Arabia
Capital
Riyadh
Continent
Asia
Time Zone
AST · Asia/Riyadh
Coordinates
21.42°N, 39.83°E
Currency
SAR (﷼)
Calling Code
+966
Driving Side
Right
Hemisphere
Northern
Language
Arabic
Measurement System
Metric
Did You Know?
The Abraj Al Bait clock face is about 43 metres across — the largest clock face in the world — mounted roughly 400 metres up on a tower over 600 metres tall. It is visible from around 17 km away.
The clock: Mecca keeps UTC+3. Saudi Arabia proposed in 2010 that Mecca Mean Time replace GMT as the world's reference; the proposal did not advance.
Annual Daylight
Working Hours
9h overlapSame timezone as your location.