Convert SAST to AST

AST is 6 hours behind SAST. SAST is UTC+2 and AST is UTC−4.

Which AST is this?

AST names more than one zone. This page reads it as Atlantic Standard Time at UTC−4, which is the reading most converters take. There is one other: Arabia Standard Time at UTC+3, used in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Yemen.

The letters on a meeting invitation do not say which one is meant. If yours is not Atlantic Standard Time, the answer above is wrong, and not by a little:

The large converter sites disagree about this as well: search for a AST conversion and some of the results answer for one reading and some for another, none of them saying which they chose. Where it matters, ask which country the sender is in rather than which letters they typed.

Best time to schedule a meeting

Standard 9–5 working hours overlap for 2 hours: 3:00 PM–5:00 PM SAST (9:00 AM–11:00 AM AST). Schedule meetings inside that window.

SAST to AST conversion table

About SAST

South Africa Standard Time (SAST) is UTC+2. It is used in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini.

South Africa Standard Time is UTC+2 with no daylight saving, unchanged since 1903 apart from two wartime years. The whole country keeps it, and so do Lesotho and Eswatini. Against the UK it is two hours ahead in winter and one in summer, which is the shift that catches London–Johannesburg standing calls every March and October.

About AST

Atlantic Standard Time (AST) is UTC−4. It is used in Halifax, Puerto Rico and the eastern Caribbean in winter.

Atlantic Standard Time is UTC−4, one hour ahead of Eastern. It covers Canada's Atlantic provinces, Puerto Rico and much of the eastern Caribbean, and it is the reason a call from Halifax to Toronto is an hour out from what either party expects. The abbreviation is also used for Arabia Standard Time at UTC+3, seven hours away in the other direction, which is a genuinely dangerous collision in scheduling.

Does this gap change with the seasons?

Neither SAST nor AST shifts with the seasons, so this 6-hour difference holds all year. That is unusual enough to be worth relying on: most cross-continental gaps move twice a year.

This is the reason scheduling systems store an IANA zone such as Region/City rather than an offset or an abbreviation: the zone knows its own rules and the offset does not.

Frequently asked questions

Other SAST conversions

• SAST to UTC
• SAST to GMT
• SAST to EST
• SAST to EDT
• SAST to CST
• SAST to CDT
• SAST to MST
• SAST to MDT
• SAST to PST
• SAST to PDT
• SAST to AKST
• SAST to HST
• SAST to BRT
• SAST to BST
• SAST to CET
• SAST to EEST

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