AST
Atlantic Standard Time
GMT -4
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm
SAST
South Africa Standard Time
GMT +2
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm

Quick answers

AST is 6 hours behind SAST. AST uses GMT -4, and SAST uses GMT +2 for this comparison.

For example, 8:00 am AST is 2:00 pm SAST. Use the converter above to adjust the date or time and create a shareable meeting link.

Best meeting overlap: 9am-11am AST, which is 3pm-5pm SAST.

Compare AST time with SAST time, including current local time, UTC offsets, time difference, daylight saving changes, working hours, and shareable meeting times.

Time Difference

Atlantic Standard Time is 6 hours behind South Africa Standard Time
8:00 am08:00 in AST is 2:00 pm14:00 in SAST

AST to SAST call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 9am-11am in AST which corresponds to 3pm-5pm in SAST

8:00 am08:00 Atlantic Standard Time (AST). Offset UTC -4:00 hours
2:00 pm14:00 South Africa Standard Time (SAST). Offset UTC +2:00 hours

8:00 am08:00 AST / 2:00 pm14:00 SAST

ASTSAST
12am (midnight)6am
1am7am
2am8am
3am9am
4am10am
5am11am
6am12pm (noon)
7am1pm
8am2pm
9am3pm
10am4pm
11am5pm
12pm (noon)6pm
1pm7pm
2pm8pm
3pm9pm
4pm10pm
5pm11pm
6pm12am (midnight)
7pm1am
8pm2am
9pm3am
10pm4am
11pm5am
00:0006:00
01:0007:00
02:0008:00
03:0009:00
04:0010:00
05:0011:00
06:0012:00
07:0013:00
08:0014:00
09:0015:00
10:0016:00
11:0017:00
12:0018:00
13:0019:00
14:0020:00
15:0021:00
16:0022:00
17:0023:00
18:0000:00
19:0001:00
20:0002:00
21:0003:00
22:0004:00
23:0005:00

Atlantic Standard Time

Offset: AST is 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in North America

Countries using this time zone: Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, St Barthelemy, Bermuda, Caribbean NL, Canada, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Greenland, Guadeloupe, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Martin (French), Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St Maarten (Dutch), Trinidad & Tobago, St Vincent, Virgin Islands (UK), Virgin Islands (US)

Principal Cities: The largest city in the AST time zone is Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic, with about 2.202 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Santiago de los Caballeros, Santo Domingo Oeste, San Juan, Halifax.

French: HNA - Heure Normale de l'Atlantique

Spanish: AST - Tiempo Estándar del Atlántico

AST Time Zone Geo Map
AST timezone map

Daylight Saving: This is a standard time zone. During summer, some places set clocks forward one hour for daylight saving time and observe Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT).

Daylight saving time clock moves back for one hour from 2am to 1amStart: Atlantic Standard Time (AST) started on Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 2:00 am local time and clocks were set one hour back to Sunday, November 2, 2025, 1:00 am. Standard time starts annually on the first Sunday of November.

Daylight saving time clock moves forward for one hour from 2am to 3amEnd: Atlantic Standard Time (AST) ends on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 2:00 am local time and clocks are set one hour forward to Sunday, March 8, 2026, 3:00 am local daylight time instead. Standard time ends annually on the second Sunday of March.

AST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • -04 - basic short
  • -0400 - basic
  • -04:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • -0400 - sign character (-) followed by a four digit time providing hours (04) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of four hours to the west of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Quebec - Military abbreviation for AST
  • Q - short form of 'Quebec'
IANA/Olson: Reflects AST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • America/Anguilla
  • America/Antigua
  • America/Aruba
  • America/Barbados
  • America/Blanc-Sablon
  • America/Curacao
  • America/Dominica
  • America/Glace_Bay
  • America/Goose_Bay
  • America/Grenada
  • America/Guadeloupe
  • America/Halifax
  • America/Kralendijk
  • America/Lower_Princes
  • America/Marigot
  • America/Martinique
  • America/Moncton
  • America/Montserrat
  • America/Port_of_Spain
  • America/Puerto_Rico
  • America/Santo_Domingo
  • America/St_Barthelemy
  • America/St_Kitts
  • America/St_Lucia
  • America/St_Thomas
  • America/St_Vincent
  • America/Thule
  • America/Tortola
  • America/Virgin
  • Atlantic/Bermuda
  • Canada/Atlantic
AST Abbreviation: Several time zones share AST abbreviation and it could refer to these time zones
  • Atlantic Standard Time - UTC -4
  • Arabia Standard Time - UTC +3
Time zones with the GMT -4 offset:
  • AST - Atlantic Standard Time
  • EDT - Eastern Daylight Time
  • AMT - Amazon Time
  • BOT - Bolivia Time
  • CDT - Cuba Daylight Time
  • CLT - Chile Standard Time
  • FKT - Falkland Island Time
  • GYT - Guyana Time
  • HLV - Hora Legal de Venezuela
  • PYT - Paraguay Time
  • Q - Quebec Time Zone
  • VET - Venezuelan Standard Time

South Africa Standard Time

Offset: SAST is 2 hours ahead Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in Africa

Countries using this time zone: Lesotho, Eswatini (Swaziland), South Africa

Principal Cities: The largest city in the SAST time zone is Cape Town in South Africa, with about 3.433 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Durban, Johannesburg, Soweto, Pretoria.

Daylight Saving: Clocks in South Africa Standard Time (SAST) do not change for daylight saving time, so SAST stays the same throughout the year. Other time zones may set clocks forward in summer and back in winter.

SAST Time Zone Geo Map
SAST timezone map

SAST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +02 - basic short
  • +0200 - basic
  • +02:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0200 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (02) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of two hours to the east of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Bravo - Military abbreviation for SAST
  • B - short form of 'Bravo'
IANA/Olson: Reflects SAST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Africa/Johannesburg
  • Africa/Maseru
  • Africa/Mbabane
Time zones with the GMT +2 offset:
  • CEST - Central European Summer Time
  • EET - Eastern European Time
  • MESZ - Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit
  • B - Bravo Time Zone
  • CAT - Central Africa Time
  • IST - Israel Standard Time
  • SAST - South Africa Standard Time
  • WAST - West Africa Summer Time