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Time in Afghanistan — regions, cities and time zones

Afghanistan uses a single time zone, Afghanistan Time, set to UTC+4:30. Kabul, the capital, shares that time with the whole country. There is no daylight saving, so the offset stays the same all year.

Flag of Afghanistan Afghanistan

Capital Kabul · Asia · ISO AF / AFG

Kabul, Afghanistan

Friday, 4 September 2026

UTC+4:30 · Asia/Kabul

Time and sun data for Kabul, Afghanistan

The sun in Kabul

Sunrise 05:30 Solar noon 11:54 Sunset 18:18 Daylight 12 h 49 min Night 11 h 11 min Civil twilight 05:04 – 18:44

States and regions (34)

Current time in Kabul

Afghanistan uses a single time zone, Afghanistan Time, set to UTC+4:30. Kabul, the capital, shares that time with the whole country. There is no daylight saving, so the offset stays the same all year.

The half-hour that trips everyone up

Most of the world runs on whole-hour offsets from UTC. Afghanistan does not. Its offset is four and a half hours ahead of UTC, which puts it thirty minutes off from almost every neighbour on either side.

That quirk matters in practice. If you schedule a call and mentally round Kabul to the nearest hour, you will be early or late by half an hour — reliably, and in the wrong direction each time. Type the offset out rather than guessing it.

A thirty-minute offset is not a rounding error you are allowed to fix on someone else's behalf.

Regions and cities

Afghanistan is a landlocked country in South and Central Asia, and its administrative divisions are provinces. Whatever the province, the clock is the same. A few of the better-known population centres:

Kabul — the capital, in the east of the country Kandahar — in the south Herat — in the west, near the Iranian border Mazar-i-Sharif — in the north Jalalabad — east, on the route towards the Khyber Pass

Because there is only one zone, internal travel never changes your watch. A journey from Herat in the far west to Jalalabad in the far east crosses a great deal of ground and no time boundary at all.

Daylight saving

Afghanistan does not observe daylight saving time. The offset from UTC is fixed at +4:30 in January and in July alike. This has a pleasant consequence for anyone coordinating across borders: the gap between Kabul and your own city only changes when your city changes. If you are in a place that shifts its clocks in spring and autumn, the difference to Kabul will move by an hour twice a year, and it will be your end that moved, not theirs.

Working across the Kabul offset

A short checklist for anyone whose calendar has to reach Afghanistan: Write the zone as UTC+4:30, with the minutes, every time. Let software do the arithmetic. Half-hour zones are where mental maths fails.

Check whether the shift you are seeing came from your own daylight saving change. Remember the working week may not match yours; confirm the day, not just the hour.

Questions and answers
What time zone is Afghanistan in?
A single zone at UTC+4:30, known as Afghanistan Time. It covers the entire country, including Kabul.
Does Afghanistan change its clocks for summer?
No. There is no daylight saving time, so the UTC+4:30 offset applies year-round.
Is the time in Kandahar or Herat different from Kabul?
No. Afghanistan has one time zone, so every province keeps the same clock as the capital.

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