Convert SAST to IST
IST is 3 hours 30 minutes ahead of SAST. SAST is UTC+2 and IST is UTC+5:30.
Right now: SAST · IST
Which IST is this?
IST names more than one zone. This page reads it as India Standard Time at UTC+5:30, which is the reading most converters take. There are others: Israel Standard Time at UTC+2, used in Israel in winter; Irish Standard Time at UTC+1, used in Ireland in summer.
The letters on a meeting invitation do not say which one is meant. If yours is not India Standard Time, the answer above is wrong, and not by a little:
| If IST means | Then |
|---|---|
| India Standard Time — assumed on this page | IST is 3.5 hours ahead of SAST |
| Israel Standard Time | IST is the same time as SAST |
| Irish Standard Time | IST is 1 hour behind SAST |
The large converter sites disagree about this as well: search for a IST 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 5 hours: 9:00 AM–2:00 PM SAST (12:00 PM–5:00 PM IST). Schedule meetings inside that window.
| SAST | IST | Suitable? |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 12:30 PM | working hours |
| 10:00 AM | 1:30 PM | working hours |
| 11:00 AM | 2:30 PM | working hours |
| 12:00 PM | 3:30 PM | working hours |
| 1:00 PM | 4:30 PM | working hours |
| 2:00 PM | 5:30 PM | outside 9–5 |
| 3:00 PM | 6:30 PM | outside 9–5 |
| 4:00 PM | 7:30 PM | outside 9–5 |
| 5:00 PM | 8:30 PM | outside 9–5 |
SAST to IST conversion table
| SAST | IST |
|---|---|
| 12:00 AM | 3:30 AM |
| 1:00 AM | 4:30 AM |
| 2:00 AM | 5:30 AM |
| 3:00 AM | 6:30 AM |
| 4:00 AM | 7:30 AM |
| 5:00 AM | 8:30 AM |
| 6:00 AM | 9:30 AM |
| 7:00 AM | 10:30 AM |
| 8:00 AM | 11:30 AM |
| 9:00 AM | 12:30 PM |
| 10:00 AM | 1:30 PM |
| 11:00 AM | 2:30 PM |
| 12:00 PM | 3:30 PM |
| 1:00 PM | 4:30 PM |
| 2:00 PM | 5:30 PM |
| 3:00 PM | 6:30 PM |
| 4:00 PM | 7:30 PM |
| 5:00 PM | 8:30 PM |
| 6:00 PM | 9:30 PM |
| 7:00 PM | 10:30 PM |
| 8:00 PM | 11:30 PM |
| 9:00 PM | 12:30 AM (next day) |
| 10:00 PM | 1:30 AM (next day) |
| 11:00 PM | 2:30 AM (next day) |
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 IST
India Standard Time (IST) is UTC+5:30. It is used in all of India and Sri Lanka, on a half-hour offset.
India Standard Time is UTC+5:30 — one of the handful of zones offset by half an hour, which breaks any code that assumes whole-hour offsets and any mental arithmetic that does the same. India has no daylight saving and one time zone for the entire country, despite spanning nearly 30 degrees of longitude. The abbreviation is also used for Irish Standard Time and Israel Standard Time, both of which are entirely different offsets.
Does this gap change with the seasons?
Neither SAST nor IST shifts with the seasons, so this 3.5-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
What time is 9:00 AM SAST in IST?
9:00 AM SAST is 12:30 PM IST.
Is IST ahead of SAST?
IST is 3 hours 30 minutes ahead of SAST.
Which time zone does this use?
SAST is UTC+2 and IST is UTC+5:30. Both abbreviations denote a single fixed offset, so this conversion never shifts with daylight saving — what changes is which abbreviation a place is using at the time.