Asia · Southern Asia · Sovereign state
Current time in Bangladesh
A single time zone at UTC+06:00.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
About Bangladesh's time
A single time zone.
Bangladesh uses Bangladesh Standard Time (BST), which is exactly UTC+6. The country does not observe daylight saving time, keeping things simple with a single, consistent time zone year-round.
Major cities
Cities of Bangladesh.
History
How Bangladesh keeps time.
Bangladesh inherited its time zone from its colonial past as part of British India. Until 1941, the region kept Calcutta local mean time (UTC+05:53:20), based on the longitude of Calcutta. In 1941 Dhaka moved to UTC+06:30, apart from a few months on Indian Standard Time (UTC+05:30) in 1942, and kept UTC+06:30 through partition in 1947. In 1951 East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) set its clocks back 30 minutes to UTC+06:00, the offset now called Bangladesh Standard Time. After independence in 1971, this UTC+06:00 offset became the permanent national standard. Bangladesh trialed Daylight Saving Time once in 2009 during a severe energy crisis to conserve electricity; clocks were advanced by one hour to UTC+07:00 from June 19 to December 31 that year. However, the policy was widely unpopular and was discontinued after just a few months, and standard UTC+06:00 remains the official time.
Did you know?
Things about Bangladesh's time.
Bangladesh has a striking solar noon misalignment — in the far western districts like Rangpur and Rajshahi (around UTC+05:53 in solar terms), the sun culminates about 10 to 15 minutes before it does in eastern areas like Chittagong or Sylhet. This means sunrises and sunsets feel noticeably different across the narrow country, even though the same clock time applies everywhere. The 2009 daylight saving experiment is a curiosity in the region — Bangladesh joined a handful of Asian countries, such as Sri Lanka, that have tried and abandoned DST for energy reasons. Clocks jumped to UTC+07:00 from June to December, directly during the monsoon season, which confused farmers, disrupted prayer schedules, and was ultimately scrapped after public fatigue. For remote workers, Bangladesh’s single timezone and lack of DST means the country is reliably six hours ahead of UTC year-round, making it straightforward for scheduling with partners in East and Southeast Asia.
Convert
Bangladesh to the world's clocks.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Bangladesh's time zone, daylight saving rules, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- What time zone is Bangladesh in?
- Bangladesh uses Bangladesh Standard Time (BST), which is UTC+06:00 year-round with no daylight saving time.
- Does Bangladesh observe daylight saving time?
- No, Bangladesh does not observe daylight saving time. After a brief trial in 2009, it has permanently returned to UTC+06:00.
- Is there only one time zone in Bangladesh?
- Yes, Bangladesh has a single time zone, Bangladesh Standard Time (UTC+06:00), covering the entire country.
- What time did Bangladesh use before 1951?
- Until 1941 the region kept Calcutta local mean time (UTC+05:53:20). From 1941 it used UTC+06:30, apart from a few months on UTC+05:30 in 1942, and in 1951 it set its clocks back 30 minutes to UTC+06:00.
- Did Bangladesh ever try daylight saving time?
- Yes, in 2009 Bangladesh briefly advanced clocks by one hour to UTC+07:00 to conserve energy during a crisis, but the policy was unpopular and was discontinued after a few months.
- What is solar noon like across Bangladesh?
- Because Bangladesh uses a single time zone, solar noon occurs about 10 minutes earlier in western districts like Rangpur than in eastern areas like Chittagong, despite the uniform clock time.
Source: IANA tzdb2026d · Reviewed
Free · Developer API
This country, as JSON.
Its default time zone, zone and city counts and DST summary, from one endpoint.
Also in the API: time zones by coordinates, conversions that flag daylight saving gaps, and abbreviations decoded.
Moving off WorldTimeAPI? Our drop-in replacement needs no key.