Qatar uses Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3). No DST observed. IANA: Asia/Qatar.
Key facts about time in Qatar
- Timezone: Arabia Standard Time (AST)
- UTC offset: +03:00
- DST: No
- IANA identifier:
Asia/Qatar - Capital: Doha
Qatar is a peninsula roughly the size of Connecticut, jutting into the Persian Gulf from the northeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Population: about 3 million, of whom roughly 85 percent are foreign workers. GDP: one of the highest per capita in the world, driven by natural gas exports. The clock: UTC+3, year-round, no daylight saving.
The IANA identifier is Asia/Qatar.
UTC+3 in context
Qatar sits at roughly 51 degrees East longitude. Solar noon occurs around 09:36 UTC, meaning UTC+3 puts local noon at 12:36. It is a good geographic match.
Qatar shares UTC+3 with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, and (with more complications) Turkey and Moscow. The offset is standard across much of the Gulf.
No Gulf state observes daylight saving time. The reasons are climatic and practical: summer is brutally hot, and nobody is eager to add extra evening daylight to 45-degree afternoons.
Al Jazeera and media time
Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network founded in 1996, broadcasts in Arabic and English to a global audience. It operates on Doha time (UTC+3) but schedules programming for audiences across multiple continents.
The launch of Al Jazeera English in 2006 repositioned Qatar as a media capital. News anchors in Doha coordinate with correspondents in Washington, London, and elsewhere across a time difference that requires, for the 0600 Washington feeding to the 1300 Doha afternoon programs, exactly the kind of timezone arithmetic that international broadcasting has managed since shortwave radio.
For developers
- IANA timezone:
Asia/Qatar - UTC offset: +03:00 year-round
- No DST transitions
- Shares UTC+3 with neighboring Gulf states
