Time zone · Africa
CVST
Cape Verde Standard Time
Cape Verde Standard Time sits at UTC−01:00 year-round, with no daylight saving clock changes. That puts the islands one hour behind Senegal and other West African countries on UTC+00:00.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Current offset
UTC-01:00
Standard · -01
Daylight saving
Not observed
Year-round standard time
IANA zones
1
None observe daylight saving
DST offset
—
No summer variant
About CVST
A fixed, year-round offset.
Cape Verde Standard Time sits at UTC−01:00 year-round, with no daylight saving clock changes. That puts the islands one hour behind Senegal and other West African countries on UTC+00:00.
IANA zones · the technical identifiers
The zone that resolve to CVST.
For software, always store the IANA identifier — never the abbreviation alone. The database keeps these zones distinct because their rules can, and historically did, diverge.
Cities across CVST
Local time, city by city.
1 city
Where CVST is used
One country.
Same offset · UTC-01:00
Other zones at UTC-01:00 right now.
These named zones share CVST's offset today. When daylight saving rules differ, they drift apart for part of the year.
Convert
CVST to the world's clocks.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about CVST, daylight saving, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- Why does Cape Verde use UTC−01:00 with almost no one else?
- Cape Verde lies about 23–25° west of Greenwich, so a negative offset fits its sun time. It used UTC−02:00 until 1975, then moved to UTC−01:00. The Azores also use UTC−01:00 in winter.
- Do clocks ever change in Cape Verde?
- No. Cape Verde last used daylight saving time in 1945 and has kept UTC−01:00 all year since November 1975.
- When was the current offset last established?
- Cape Verde moved from UTC−02:00 to UTC−01:00 on 25 November 1975 and has stayed there since.
- How does Cape Verde’s time relate to the rest of Africa?
- It’s one hour behind countries like Senegal and a full two hours behind parts of West Africa on UTC+01:00.
- Is Cape Verde the only location using this zone?
- Yes. Cape Verde Standard Time is used only on the Cape Verde islands.
- Is this zone good for global calls?
- Cape Verde is one to four hours behind European countries, depending on the country and season, so its working day overlaps most of Europe's; its afternoons overlap with the morning on the US East Coast.
- Does Cape Verde plan future clock changes?
- There are no announced daylight‑saving transitions, so the offset is expected to remain steady.
- Can Cape Verde’s time cause travel confusion?
- Sometimes travelers expect Cape Verde to match mainland Africa time, but the one‑hour difference is consistent and easy to adjust to.
Source: IANA tzdb2026d · Reviewed
Free · Developer API
This time zone, as JSON.
Its defining offset, DST status and member counts, from one endpoint.
Also in the API: time zones by coordinates, conversions that flag daylight saving gaps, and abbreviations decoded.
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