BST — 2 time zones
BST is used for 2 unrelated time zones. Each one is listed below with its own clock — an BST timestamp with no region attached cannot be converted safely.
Current time in BST
British Summer Time
08:46
Sunday, 2 August 2026
BST = UTC+1 · 1 hour ahead of UTC
Bangladesh Standard Time
13:46
Sunday, 2 August 2026
BST = UTC+6 · 6 hours ahead of UTC
Shown for 2 Aug 2026 07:46 UTC. The clock goes live as soon as scripts load.
UTC offsets
UTC+1 / UTC+6
Type
Mixed
Standard time in one region, daylight saving in another
Seasonal counterpart
GMT
The letters the same zones use for the other half of the year
Meanings
2
Ambiguous — always state a region
What BST can mean
Time zone abbreviations were never registered or coordinated, so the same letters were adopted independently in different parts of the world. These are the meanings in civil use, ordered by how many cities on this site use them.
| Meaning | UTC | Where |
|---|---|---|
| British Summer Time | UTC+1 | United Kingdom |
| Bangladesh Standard Time | UTC+6 | Bangladesh |
Is BST in force right now?
A zone only carries this abbreviation for part of the year. This is which of them were on it at 2 Aug 2026 07:46 UTC; the list is re-derived against your own clock when scripts load.
On BST now
- Europe/London — London
- Asia/Dhaka — Chattogram
Using a different abbreviation
- Every zone listed here was on BST.
British Summer Time (UTC+1) alternates with GMT across the year.
Writing “BST” for a date in the other half of the year is the most common time zone mistake in meeting invitations.
Convert BST to other time zones
British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Bangladesh Standard Time (UTC+6)
City clocks reflect whatever their zone is doing; where a city observes daylight saving time, its difference from BST changes twice a year. Use the time zone converter for a specific date.
Time zones and cities that use BST
British Summer Time · UTC+1
Europe/London
United Kingdom · changes clocks (GMT ↔ BST)
London Belfast Birmingham Bristol Cardiff Edinburgh Glasgow Leeds Liverpool Manchester
Bangladesh Standard Time · UTC+6
Why BST is not an identifier
BST is shorthand, not a standard. There is no registry of time zone abbreviations, no authority that assigns them, and nothing preventing two regions from adopting the same three letters — which is exactly what happened here: British Summer Time, Bangladesh Standard Time all answer to BST.
For anything a machine will read — a calendar invitation, a database column, an API response — use the IANA identifier of the zone (Europe/London, for example) or an explicit UTC offset alongside the date. The identifier survives a change in the law; BST and its 1 hour offset do not.
Abbreviations on the same clock
Frequently asked questions
What does BST stand for?
BST has 2 meanings in civil use: British Summer Time at UTC+1; Bangladesh Standard Time at UTC+6. Which one is meant depends entirely on context, which is why BST should not be used where the reader cannot infer the region.
What is BST in UTC?
It depends on the meaning: British Summer Time is UTC+1, Bangladesh Standard Time is UTC+6. An BST timestamp with no region attached cannot be converted safely.
What is the difference between BST and GMT?
BST as British Summer Time is the daylight saving form and GMT the standard form of the same zones. The two are one hour apart and only one is ever in force at a time, so a recurring meeting written "BST" shifts by an hour when the clocks change.
Which time zone should I use instead of BST?
Use an IANA identifier — Europe/London for British Summer Time — or state the UTC offset with the date. Abbreviations are not identifiers: they are not unique, they are not registered anywhere, and half of them change with the season. Calendar software resolves this automatically when you pick a city rather than typing letters.