Time ZonesAbout this time zone
All of Botswana keeps one time. Computers and phones know it by the zone name Africa/Gaborone. Its time is UTC+2, which means it is 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) all year round. The short name used for this time is CAT. Compared with India (IST), it is 3 hours 30 minutes behind India.
Clock changes in 2026 and 2027
Botswana does not change its clocks in 2026 or 2027. The time stays at UTC+2 all year, so there is no daylight saving time to remember.
Time difference with major cities
| When it is 12:00 noon in Botswana, it is | In January 2026 | In July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| India | 3:30 pm3 hours 30 minutes ahead | 3:30 pm3 hours 30 minutes ahead |
| United Kingdom | 10:00 am2 hours behind | 11:00 am1 hour behind |
| France | 11:00 am1 hour behind | 12:00 pmsame time |
| New York, United States | 5:00 am7 hours behind | 6:00 am6 hours behind |
| Chicago, United States | 4:00 am8 hours behind | 5:00 am7 hours behind |
| Los Angeles, United States | 2:00 am10 hours behind | 3:00 am9 hours behind |
| United Arab Emirates | 2:00 pm2 hours ahead | 2:00 pm2 hours ahead |
| Singapore | 6:00 pm6 hours ahead | 6:00 pm6 hours ahead |
| Japan | 7:00 pm7 hours ahead | 7:00 pm7 hours ahead |
| Sydney, Australia | 9:00 pm9 hours ahead | 8:00 pm8 hours ahead |
The table uses the offsets in force in mid January and mid July 2026. Use the converter for any other date.
Clock time and sun time in Botswana
A time zone is an agreement, and the sun does not follow it exactly. Gaborone, the largest city in this zone, lies at about 25.9° east. Each degree of longitude is worth four minutes, so by the sun alone its time would be about 1 hour 44 minutes ahead of UTC. The clock is set to UTC+2. The sun is therefore highest in the sky at about 12:16 pm by the clock, not at 12:00. The clock runs ahead of the sun here, which means later sunrises and lighter evenings than the map alone would give. Other places in the zone, to the east or west of Gaborone, see the sun peak a little earlier or later. Through the year the figure also drifts by up to a quarter of an hour either way.
How long the day is
Gaborone is about 24.6° south of the equator. On the longest day of the year, around 21 December, the sun is up for about 13 hours 40 minutes. On the shortest, around 21 June, for about 10 hours 36 minutes. The difference between summer and winter is about 3 hours 4 minutes, and the clocks stay the same all year.
Office hours shared with other places
If both sides work from 9 am to 6 pm, these are the hours when a call falls inside the working day at both ends. Times are for Botswana.
- With India, all year: 9:00 am to 2:30 pm here, which is 12:30 pm to 6:00 pm in India (5 hours 30 minutes shared).
- With London, in January: 11:00 am to 6:00 pm here, which is 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in London (7 hours shared). In July: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm here, which is 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in London (8 hours shared).
- With New York, in January: 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm here, which is 9:00 am to 11:00 am in New York (2 hours shared). In July: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm here, which is 9:00 am to 12:00 pm in New York (3 hours shared).
How many people keep this time
The GeoNames list has 25 towns and cities of 15,000 people or more in this zone area, with about 1.3 million people between them. People in villages and smaller towns are not in that count, so the true number on this clock is higher.
Cities that keep this time
The largest cities in this zone: Gaborone, Francistown, Mogoditshane, Maun, Molepolole, Serowe, Tlokweng, Palapye, Mochudi, Mahalapye, Kanye, Selebi-Phikwe, Letlhakane, Ramotswa.
Places with exactly the same time
These zones show the same time as Botswana through the whole year: Blantyre, Malawi, Bujumbura, Burundi, Harare, Zimbabwe, Johannesburg, South Africa, Juba, South Sudan, Khartoum, Sudan, Kigali, Rwanda, Lubumbashi, DR Congo, Lusaka, Zambia, Maputo, Mozambique, Maseru, Lesotho, Mbabane, Eswatini, Tripoli, Libya, Windhoek, Namibia.
The clock above uses your device's clock and the time zone rules built into your browser. Rules on this page: IANA time zone database 2026f. See About and data sources.