Time in Chennai
It is 07:56 on Thursday, 17 September 2026 in Chennai. Chennai is in India. Civil time uses the IANA zone Asia/Kolkata at +05:30 from UTC (not in effect). Use the live clock below for the current local time, then jump to a difference or conversion when you need meeting math.
Chennai keeps Asia/Kolkata at UTC+05:30 with no daylight saving. Southern India’s commercial calendar still uses the same civil clock as the rest of the country.
Office hours commonly fall near 09:30–18:00. Middle East partners overlap cleanly; US West Coast collaboration usually means early Chennai mornings or late nights.
Chennai port and IT parks publish notices in IST. If a liner schedule says “local,” it means this clock, not Tamil Nadu solar time.
Chennai time zone
- UTC offset
- UTC+05:30
- Abbreviation
- IST
- IANA
- Asia/Kolkata
- DST
- not in effect
Daylight saving in Chennai
Chennai is currently on its standard offset. Chennai does not change its clocks. The offset stays +05:30 all year, so the gap to other cities only moves when the other side changes.
Daylight in Chennai today
The sun rises at 05:58 and sets at 18:08, giving 12 h 11 m of daylight. Solar noon falls at 12:03, 3 minutes after the clock reads twelve, because Chennai sits west of the 82.5° E meridian its current offset is built on.
- Sunrise
- 05:58
- Sunset
- 18:08
- Daylight
- 12 h 11 m
- Solar noon
- 12:03Solar noon is when the sun sits highest in the sky. It drifts from clock noon across a time zone, which is why one clock can span very different days.
Best time to call Chennai
Overlap between a 09:00–17:00 working day in Chennai and the same hours in other major cities.
Same clock as Chennai
These cities share Asia/Kolkata, so they show the same civil time as Chennai right now. Compare them with cities in other zones for a real time difference.
Popular time differences
More in India
Related guides
About Chennai
- Population
- 6,599,000The administrative city figure recorded by Wikidata. The surrounding urban area is larger.
- Region
- Tamil Nadu
- Coordinates
- 13.0825° N, 80.2750° ELatitude is what drives the sunrise and sunset times above.
- Currency
- Indian Rupee (INR)
- Calling code
- +91Dial this after your international access prefix, and check the overlap table above before you call.
- Languages
- Tamil and English
- Airports
- MAAChennai InternationalArrival and departure boards at these airports quote Chennai local time, not the time where you booked.
Frequently asked questions about time in Chennai
- What time is it in Chennai right now?
- It is 07:56 in Chennai as this page was generated, and the clock above keeps ticking in your browser. Chennai uses the IANA zone Asia/Kolkata, currently +05:30.
- Which time zone is Chennai in?
- Chennai is in the IST time zone (Asia/Kolkata), currently +05:30. Always store the identifier rather than the offset — the offset changes with daylight saving, the identifier does not.
- Does Chennai observe daylight saving time?
- No. Chennai stays on +05:30 all year. Any change in the gap to another city comes from that city changing its own clocks.
- Is Chennai ahead of or behind UTC?
- Chennai is currently at +05:30. When it is 12:00 UTC, the local time in Chennai is 17:30.
Well-known places in Chennai
If you are checking the time in Chennai because you are heading there, these are the most widely documented places to see.
- San Thome BasilicaRead more on Wikipedia
- Fort St. GeorgeRead more on Wikipedia
- Kapaleeshwarar TempleRead more on Wikipedia