Time in Geneva
Switzerland · Europe/Zurich · latitude 46.20°
Reading your clock…
Geneva changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC+01:00 and daylight saving time is UTC+02:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Geneva and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 25 October 2026 | 03:00 → 02:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+01:00 |
| Sunday, 28 March 2027 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC+02:00 |
| Sunday, 31 October 2027 | 03:00 → 02:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+01:00 |
Same clock, different sky: Zurich share Europe/Zurich. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Geneva
Where a range is shown, the gap genuinely changes during the year. That is not rounding or hedging — it is two governments moving their clocks on different weekends.
| City | Difference now | Across the year |
|---|---|---|
| London | 1 hour behind | constant |
| New York | 6 hours behind | −6h / −5h |
| Los Angeles | 9 hours behind | −9h / −8h |
| Chicago | 7 hours behind | −7h / −6h |
| Toronto | 6 hours behind | −6h / −5h |
| Paris | the same time | constant |
| Berlin | the same time | constant |
| Dubai | 2 hours ahead | +2h / +3h |
| Mumbai | 3 hours 30 minutes ahead | +3h30 / +4h30 |
| Singapore | 6 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Hong Kong | 6 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Tokyo | 7 hours ahead | +7h / +8h |
| Sydney | 8 hours ahead | +8h / +9h / +10h |
| Auckland | 10 hours ahead | +10h / +11h / +12h |
| São Paulo | 5 hours behind | −5h / −4h |
| UTC | 2 hours behind | −2h / −1h |
Daylight in Geneva through the year
From about 8.6 hours in December to 15.8 hours in June. This is the part a plain clock leaves out: 17:00 is a bright evening in one month and long dark in another.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 07:35 | 16:47 | 9h 12m |
| February | 06:56 | 17:34 | 10h 38m |
| March | 06:04 | 18:13 | 12h 9m |
| April | 05:05 | 18:54 | 13h 49m |
| May | 04:22 | 19:32 | 15h 10m |
| June | 04:08 | 19:55 | 15h 47m |
| July | 04:28 | 19:45 | 15h 17m |
| August | 05:06 | 19:02 | 13h 56m |
| September | 05:44 | 18:02 | 12h 18m |
| October | 06:24 | 17:05 | 10h 41m |
| November | 07:09 | 16:24 | 9h 15m |
| December | 07:40 | 16:17 | 8h 37m |
Daylight length is accurate. The clock times of sunrise and sunset assume each city sits at the centre of its time zone, which can put them up to about an hour and a quarter out for places near a zone's edge — Madrid being the standard example. Day length is unaffected.
Questions
About time in Geneva
What time zone is Geneva in?
Geneva uses the IANA time zone Europe/Zurich, which is UTC+01:00 in standard time and UTC+02:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers Zurich.
Does Geneva observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Geneva move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 25 October 2026.
Why does the time difference to Geneva keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. New York is a clear example: it sits 6 hours behind, then 5 hours behind across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Geneva get?
Around 15.8 hours at the longest, in June, and about 8.6 hours at the shortest, in December. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Geneva's latitude of 46.20° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.