# South America time zones

Lists the time zones of South America with the local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in each, for any time and date.

- Page: https://www.acalculator.org/days/south-america-time-zones
- JSON spec: https://www.acalculator.org/days/south-america-time-zones.json
- Version: 389917c8bd23

## Default answer

Example with the default inputs (Time 12:00, In São Paulo, Brasília (Brazil), Date October 19, 2026) on the example date Monday, October 19, 2026: At 12:00 PM on October 19, 2026 in São Paulo, Brasília (Brazil), South America has 5 time zones and 5 UTC offsets in use.

## Inputs

| Key | Label | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| at | Time | A clock time in the zone chosen below; the table shows that moment in every zone. |
| zone | In | The time zone of the time above (IANA name). |
| on | Date | The date of that time in that zone. Today, unless you change it. |

## Outputs

| Key | Label | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| zones | Time zones | The number of different standard UTC offsets among the zones listed for South America. |
| inUse | UTC offsets in use at that moment | The number of different UTC offsets the listed zones show at that moment, daylight saving included. |
| galapagos | Galápagos Islands (Ecuador) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in Pacific/Galapagos at that moment. |
| easter | Easter Island (Chile) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in Pacific/Easter at that moment. |
| bogota | Bogotá (Colombia) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Bogota at that moment. |
| lima | Lima (Peru) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Lima at that moment. |
| guayaquil | Quito, Guayaquil (Ecuador) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Guayaquil at that moment. |
| rio_branco | Rio Branco (Acre, Brazil) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Rio_Branco at that moment. |
| caracas | Caracas (Venezuela) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Caracas at that moment. |
| la_paz | La Paz (Bolivia) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/La_Paz at that moment. |
| guyana | Georgetown (Guyana) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Guyana at that moment. |
| manaus | Manaus (Amazonas, Brazil) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Manaus at that moment. |
| santiago | Santiago (most of Chile) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Santiago at that moment. |
| asuncion | Asunción (Paraguay) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Asuncion at that moment. |
| buenos_aires | Buenos Aires (Argentina) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires at that moment. |
| montevideo | Montevideo (Uruguay) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Montevideo at that moment. |
| sao_paulo | São Paulo, Brasília (Brazil) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Sao_Paulo at that moment. |
| paramaribo | Paramaribo (Suriname) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Paramaribo at that moment. |
| cayenne | Cayenne (French Guiana) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Cayenne at that moment. |
| punta_arenas | Punta Arenas (Magallanes, Chile) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Punta_Arenas at that moment. |
| stanley | Stanley (Falkland Islands) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in Atlantic/Stanley at that moment. |
| noronha | Fernando de Noronha (Brazil) | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in America/Noronha at that moment. |
| south_georgia | South Georgia | Local time, abbreviation, UTC offset, and daylight saving in Atlantic/South_Georgia at that moment. |

## Method

For the typed time in the chosen zone, find the instant (UTC) it names, then show each listed zone’s clock at that instant with its UTC offset, from the browser’s IANA time zone data.

## Assumptions

- The zones are IANA tzdata names from zone1970.tab (tzdata 2026a): Pacific/Galapagos, Pacific/Easter, America/Bogota, America/Lima, America/Guayaquil, America/Rio_Branco, America/Caracas, America/La_Paz, America/Guyana, America/Manaus, America/Santiago, America/Asuncion, America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires, America/Montevideo, America/Sao_Paulo, America/Paramaribo, America/Cayenne, America/Punta_Arenas, Atlantic/Stanley, America/Noronha, Atlantic/South_Georgia. The browser supplies each zone's offsets and daylight saving rules, so a rule change arrives with a browser update.
- “Time zones” counts the different standard offsets among the listed zones. A zone’s standard offset in a year is the lower of its offsets at 00:00 UTC on January 1 and July 1 of that UTC year.
- “UTC offsets in use” counts the different offsets the listed zones show at that moment.
- Each zone shows its local time, the abbreviation from the browser’s Unicode CLDR English names (left out when CLDR has none), the date as “Tue, Sep 29”, the offset as UTC+hh:mm or UTC−hh:mm, and “daylight saving” when the offset is ahead of the standard offset, “standard time” when the zone’s January 1 and July 1 offsets differ but it is on the standard offset, or “no daylight saving” when they are the same. Because the rule compares January 1 and July 1, a zone that moves its offset for good during a year (Cancún in 2015, Novosibirsk in 2016), or whose January 1 falls in Morocco’s Ramadan change (Casablanca in 2030 to 2033), shows the later offset as “daylight saving” for that year.
- A time that does not exist in the chosen zone (skipped when clocks spring forward) has no answer. A time that occurs twice (when clocks fall back) shows both moments, earlier first, where they differ.
- Dates from 2000 to 2040 work.

## Worked examples

1. at = 12:00, zone = America/Sao_Paulo, on = 2026-01-15 gives zones = 5, inUse = 5, galapagos = 9:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−06:00 · no daylight saving, easter = 10:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−05:00 · daylight saving, bogota = 10:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, lima = 10:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, guayaquil = 10:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, rio_branco = 10:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, caracas = 11:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, la_paz = 11:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, guyana = 11:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, manaus = 11:00 AM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, santiago = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · daylight saving, asuncion = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, buenos_aires = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, montevideo = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, sao_paulo = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, paramaribo = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, cayenne = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, punta_arenas = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, stanley = 12:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, noronha = 1:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−02:00 · no daylight saving, south_georgia = 1:00 PM · Thu, Jan 15 · UTC−02:00 · no daylight saving. Source: IANA Time Zone Database, tzdata 2026a (https://www.iana.org/time-zones).
2. at = 12:00, zone = America/Sao_Paulo, on = 2026-07-15 gives zones = 5, inUse = 5, galapagos = 9:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−06:00 · no daylight saving, easter = 9:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−06:00 · standard time, bogota = 10:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, lima = 10:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, guayaquil = 10:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, rio_branco = 10:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−05:00 · no daylight saving, caracas = 11:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, la_paz = 11:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, guyana = 11:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, manaus = 11:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−04:00 · no daylight saving, santiago = 11:00 AM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−04:00 · standard time, asuncion = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, buenos_aires = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, montevideo = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, sao_paulo = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, paramaribo = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, cayenne = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, punta_arenas = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, stanley = 12:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−03:00 · no daylight saving, noronha = 1:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−02:00 · no daylight saving, south_georgia = 1:00 PM · Wed, Jul 15 · UTC−02:00 · no daylight saving. Source: IANA Time Zone Database, tzdata 2026a (https://www.iana.org/time-zones).

## FAQ

### How many time zones does South America have?

The places in the table use 5 standard offsets in 2026: UTC−06:00, UTC−05:00, UTC−04:00, UTC−03:00, and UTC−02:00. The westernmost, UTC−06:00, is kept by Galápagos Islands (Ecuador) and Easter Island (Chile); the easternmost, UTC−02:00, by Fernando de Noronha (Brazil) and South Georgia.

### Which places change their clocks?

In 2026, Easter Island (Chile) and Santiago (most of Chile) do. Most of mainland Chile moves its clocks 1 hour ahead in September and back in April, for the southern summer. Magallanes (Punta Arenas) and Aysén keep UTC−03:00 all year: Magallanes since August 2016 and Aysén since September 2024. Brazil ended daylight saving time in 2019, and Paraguay has kept UTC−03:00 all year since October 2024.

### Is Brazil on one time zone?

No. Brazil uses 4 standard offsets: UTC−05:00 in Acre and western Amazonas; UTC−04:00 in the rest of Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rondônia, and Roraima; UTC−03:00 (Brasília time) in the rest of the country, including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília; and UTC−02:00 on Fernando de Noronha and other Atlantic islands. None of them changes for summer.

### How far ahead of New York is São Paulo?

As of Monday, October 19, 2026, São Paulo is 1 hour ahead of New York: 1 hour while New York is on daylight saving time and 2 hours in the northern winter, because Brazil keeps UTC−03:00 all year.

### What time zone are Colombia and Peru in?

UTC−05:00 all year, with no daylight saving time: the same as New York in the northern winter (Eastern Standard Time) and 1 hour behind it in summer. Mainland Ecuador keeps the same time, and the Galápagos Islands are 1 hour behind it.

## Sources

- IANA Time Zone Database, tzdata 2026a (https://www.iana.org/time-zones)
- United Nations Statistics Division, Standard country or area codes (M49): the countries and areas of South America (https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/)
- Decreto nº 9.772, de 25 de abril de 2019: ends daylight saving time in Brazil (https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2019/decreto/d9772.htm)