Time Zones in Brazil
Brazil spans one time zone (UTC-3) among the 3 cities tracked on Live Time Map. None of them observe daylight saving time, so their offsets stay the same all year. See the live local time for each city below, or use the interactive map to compare any of them against your own location.
Brazil facts
- Currency
- Brazilian real (BRL)
- Languages
- Portuguese
- Calling code
- +55
- Time zones on this site
- 1
Clock time and solar time in Brazil
A country's clocks are a political choice, not an astronomical one, so they rarely line up with its own sun. Measured against local solar time, the clock in Brasília runs 12 minutes ahead of the sun, while in Rio de Janeiro it runs 7 minutes behind the sun.
That is a spread of 19 minutes between the two ends of Brazil's tracked cities, all of it the result of longitude rather than of the clock. The wider that gap, the more one shared office schedule means genuinely different amounts of morning light depending on where you are.
How much daylight changes through the year
Daylight is governed by latitude, not by the clock. São Paulo, at 23.6° south, gets 13 hours 35 minutes of daylight on the longest day of the year and 10 hours 41 minutes on the shortest.
Brasília, at 15.8° south, gets 13 hours 4 minutes of daylight on the longest day of the year and 11 hours 11 minutes on the shortest. So the annual swing between longest and shortest day is 2 hours 54 minutes in São Paulo against 1 hour 53 minutes in Brasília, within the same country.
Cities in Brazil
Want to compare a city here against your own location? Open the interactive world time zone map to pin it live.
Frequently asked questions
How many time zones does Brazil have?
Brazil uses a single time zone among the cities tracked here: UTC-3.
Does Brazil observe daylight saving time?
No, none of the cities tracked here observe daylight saving time.
Do clocks in Brazil match the sun?
Clocks and the sun are not the same thing. In Brasília the clock runs 12 minutes ahead of local solar time, so midday on the clock is not the moment the sun is highest.
How much does daylight change through the year in Brazil?
In São Paulo, the longest day of the year has 13 hours 35 minutes of daylight and the shortest has 10 hours 41 minutes.