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UTC
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AST
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Quick answers

Selected conversion

12:00 pm12:00 UTC (UTC+0), Oct 12, 2026 = 3:00 pm15:00 AST (UTC+3), Oct 12, 2026

UTC is 3 hours behind AST.

UTC and AST examples

These examples always use UTC (UTC+0) and AST (UTC+3). They stay the same when you change the date or time above. The selected conversion may differ when daylight saving time applies.

UTC is 3 hours behind AST.

How the time difference changes

UTC is 3 hours behind AST Arabia year-round.

Working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in UTC correspond to 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm in AST Arabia.Working hours of 09:00 to 17:00 in UTC correspond to 12:00 to 20:00 in AST Arabia.

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

Time Difference

Coordinated Universal Time is 3 hours behind Arabia Standard Time.
12:00 pm12:00 in UTC is 3:00 pm15:00 in AST

UTC to AST call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 9am-2pm09:00-14:00 in UTC which corresponds to 12pm-5pm12:00-17:00 in AST

12:00 pm12:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Offset UTC 0:00 hours
3:00 pm15:00 Arabia Standard Time (AST). Offset UTC +3:00 hours

12:00 pm12:00 UTC / 3:00 pm15:00 AST

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Hourly time comparison
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Coordinated Universal Time

Offset: UTC is the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the world time standard that regulates clocks and time. It is the successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). For casual use, UTC is the same as GMT, but UTC is the standard the scientific community uses.
UTC has been the time standard commonly used across the world since 1972. It is used in many technical fields, such as aviation and meteorology, and to synchronize time across internet networks.

Map of the areas on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
UTC all year UTC part of the year

Today some of the lighter areas are on UTC+1 (British Summer Time, Irish Standard Time, WEST).

UTC representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • Z - is the zone designator for the zero UTC/GMT offset, also known as 'Zulu' time
  • +00 - basic short
  • +0000 - basic
  • +00:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0000 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (00) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates the zero UTC/GMT offset.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Zulu - Military abbreviation for UTC
  • Z - short form of 'Zulu'
IANA/Olson: Reflects UTC time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Etc/UCT
  • Etc/UTC
  • Etc/Universal
  • Etc/Zulu
  • UCT
  • UTC
  • Universal
  • Zulu
Time zones with the GMT +0 offset:
  • EGST - Eastern Greenland Summer Time
  • GMT - Greenwich Mean Time
  • WET - Western European Time
  • AZOST - Azores Summer Time
  • UTC - Coordinated Universal Time
  • WT - Western Sahara Standard Time
  • Z - Zulu Time Zone

Arabia Standard Time

Offset: AST is 3 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: Saudi Arabia

Principal Cities: The largest city in the AST time zone is Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, with about 4.697 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Dammam.

Daylight Saving: Clocks in Arabia Standard Time (AST) do not change for daylight saving time, so AST stays the same throughout the year. Other time zones may set clocks forward in summer and back in winter; see upcoming clock changes worldwide.

AST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +03 - basic short
  • +0300 - basic
  • +03:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0300 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (03) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of three hours to the east of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Charlie - Military abbreviation for AST
  • C - short form of 'Charlie'
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 +3 offset:
  • EEST - Eastern European Summer Time
  • MSK - Moscow Standard Time
  • AST - Arabia Standard Time
  • C - Charlie Time Zone
  • EAT - Eastern Africa Time
  • FET - Further Eastern European Time
  • IDT - Israel Daylight Time
  • TRT - Turkey Time