EAT — East Africa Time
EAT is East Africa Time, 3 hours ahead of UTC. It is a fixed offset: unlike a time zone, it does not change with the season — the zones that use it switch to a different abbreviation instead.
Current time in EAT
10:46
Sunday, 2 August 2026
EAT = UTC+3 · 3 hours ahead of UTC
Shown for 2 Aug 2026 07:46 UTC. The clock goes live as soon as scripts load.
UTC offset
UTC+3
Type
Standard time
Seasonal counterpart
None
The zones using it do not change their clocks
Meanings
1
Unambiguous
Is EAT 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 EAT now
- Africa/Nairobi — Nairobi
- Africa/Addis_Ababa — Addis Ababa
- Africa/Dar_es_Salaam — Dar es Salaam
- Africa/Kampala — Kampala
Using a different abbreviation
- Every zone listed here was on EAT.
Convert EAT to other time zones
City clocks reflect whatever their zone is doing; where a city observes daylight saving time, its difference from EAT changes twice a year. Use the time zone converter for a specific date.
Time zones and cities that use EAT
East Africa Time · UTC+3
Why EAT is not an identifier
EAT 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 what makes codes like IST and CST unusable without context.
For anything a machine will read — a calendar invitation, a database column, an API response — use the IANA identifier of the zone (Africa/Nairobi, for example) or an explicit UTC offset alongside the date. The identifier survives a change in the law; EAT and its 3 hours offset do not.
Abbreviations on the same clock
Frequently asked questions
What does EAT stand for?
EAT stands for East Africa Time. It is 3 hours ahead of UTC, written UTC+3.
What is EAT in UTC?
EAT is UTC+3. To convert an EAT time to UTC, subtract 3 hours.
Which time zone should I use instead of EAT?
Use an IANA identifier — Africa/Nairobi, Africa/Addis_Ababa and Africa/Dar_es_Salaam and 1 more for East Africa 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.