Thailand is on UTC+7 all year round, often called Indochina Time, and it never changes its clocks for daylight saving. When the time difference to your home country changes during the year, it is because your country moves its clocks, not Thailand.
The official time is kept by the National Institute of Metrology Thailand (NIMT), which runs Thailand's standard time, UTC(NIMT), from caesium atomic clocks compared against world time by the international bureau of weights and measures. In daily life that means one simple fact: Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket share one time, and there is only one zone in the whole country.
Thai time at a glance (November 2026)
- Time zone
- UTC+7, the same all year
- Daylight saving
- None
- Zones within Thailand
- One for the whole country
- Official timekeeper
- National Institute of Metrology Thailand (NIMT)
- Public time servers
- time1.nimt.or.th to time5.nimt.or.th
- Same time as
- Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam
The difference to London, Oslo, New York and Sydney
The table shows how many hours Thailand is ahead of (or behind) four common home cities. The two columns are the two halves of the year in that city, not in Thailand.
| City | Their winter time | Their summer time |
|---|---|---|
| London (GMT / BST) | Thailand 7 h ahead | Thailand 6 h ahead |
| Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen (CET / CEST) | Thailand 6 h ahead | Thailand 5 h ahead |
| New York (EST / EDT) | Thailand 12 h ahead | Thailand 11 h ahead |
| Sydney (AEST / AEDT) | Sydney 3 h ahead of Thailand | Sydney 4 h ahead of Thailand |
On the day this page was checked, 9 November 2026, Europe and the US were on winter time and Sydney on summer time. So noon in Bangkok was 05:00 in London, 06:00 in Oslo, 00:00 (midnight) in New York and 16:00 in Sydney.
When the clocks change at home
Because the difference moves with your country's switch, the dates matter more than the hours. These are the official rules and the next dates.
- UK: clocks go forward one hour at 01:00 on the last Sunday in March and back at 02:00 on the last Sunday in October (GOV.UK). In 2027 that is Sunday 28 March and Sunday 31 October.
- Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the EU: the switch happens on the same Sundays as in the UK, at 01:00 UTC, so London and Oslo stay one hour apart all year.
- United States: daylight saving runs from 02:00 on the second Sunday in March to 02:00 on the first Sunday in November (NIST). In 2026 it ended on Sunday 1 November; in 2027 it runs from Sunday 14 March to Sunday 7 November. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not change.
- Sydney (New South Wales): daylight saving began on Sunday 4 October 2026 and ends on Sunday 4 April 2027 (NSW Government). Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not use it, and Perth is one hour ahead of Thailand all year.
Late March and late October shift your calls by an hour. If you have a weekly video call home or with a client, recheck it the Monday after each switch. The US changes on different Sundays from Europe, so for a few weeks each spring and autumn New York is one hour closer to London than usual.
Neighbors: who shares Thai time and who does not
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam keep the same time as Thailand, so a border crossing to Vientiane, Phnom Penh or Hanoi needs no change to your watch. Myanmar is half an hour behind Thailand (UTC+6:30), although whether you can cross into Myanmar overland at all is a bigger question than the clock. Malaysia and Singapore are one hour ahead (UTC+8), as are mainland China and Hong Kong, so a 09:00 flight from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore lands earlier on the clock than its flight time suggests. If you are coming from the region, our page on flying in from Singapore, Malaysia and China covers the routes.
Thailand's calendar year is a separate question. Dates are written in the Buddhist Era, 543 years ahead of the Western year, and the explainer on Thai Buddhist Era dates shows how to read them on receipts, visa stamps and expiry dates.
Arriving after a night flight from Europe
Flying east from Europe, you lose five to seven hours on the clock on top of the hours in the air. On an overnight flight that means a short night: you take off in the evening by your body's time and land when Thailand's day is already well under way. Check the local arrival time printed on your ticket, not the departure time plus the flight length, and decide in advance whether you need a first night near the airport. Our guide to flights from Scandinavia lists the direct routes from Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki.
Flying home works the other way: you gain the hours back, so the clock at your arrival airport shows much less time passing than you spent on board. For tiredness on arrival, the simplest step is to live on Thai time from the first morning, with daylight and meals at local hours. If you have a medical condition or take medicine on a strict schedule, ask your doctor how to adjust it across the time change.
Working remotely across the time gap
For remote workers, the gap decides the shape of the day. A Bangkok afternoon overlaps with a European morning, but a full US East Coast working day falls in the Thai night. Our older article on working as a digital nomad in Thailand mentions time zones as one of the practical challenges; the table above gives you the hours to plan around.
Thai offices keep local hours. Ordinary bank branches usually open on weekday working hours, and the page on when Thai banks are open explains which branches stay open in the evening and at weekends. Government offices take a lunch break, as our guide to Thai government office hours explains.
Flight schedules shown in UTC
Thailand's aeronautical information publication (AIP), published by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, says that air traffic services use UTC, not local time. That is why some flight-tracking and airline operations documents show times seven hours earlier than the clock at the airport. Tickets, boarding passes and departure boards show local Thai time.
Frequently asked questions
Does Thailand use daylight saving time?
No. Thailand stays on UTC+7 all year and never moves its clocks forward or back. The time difference to Europe, North America and southern Australia changes only because those countries switch between winter and summer time.
Is Thailand the same time as Singapore and Malaysia?
No. Singapore and Malaysia are on UTC+8, one hour ahead of Thailand. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam share Thai time, while Myanmar is half an hour behind at UTC+6:30.
What time is it in Thailand when it is noon in London?
It is 19:00 in Thailand during UK winter time (late October to late March) and 18:00 during British Summer Time. Remember to check the UK switch dates if you are calling home around the end of March or October.
What is a good time to call home from Thailand?
For Europe, a Thai afternoon or early evening reaches people in their morning or lunch hour. For the US East Coast, early morning or late evening in Thailand works best. Our page on Thai phone numbers explains how to dial out and keep a Thai SIM working.
Sources
- National Institute of Metrology Thailand (NIMT) – Thailand standard time, UTC(NIMT) (checked November 2026)
- National Institute of Metrology Thailand (NIMT) – Time servers (checked November 2026)
- GOV.UK – When do the clocks change? (checked November 2026)
- NIST – Daylight Saving Time (checked November 2026)
- NSW Government – Daylight saving (checked November 2026)
- Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand – AIP GEN 2.1, Measuring system and time (checked November 2026)