AKST — Alaska Standard Time
Current time, offset and daylight saving status for Alaska Standard Time.
Current time in AKST
06:12:26
Alaska Standard Time · UTC-09:00
About AKST
Alaska uses AKST in winter and AKDT (UTC-8) in summer.
Working with AKST
Clocks in this zone change twice a year: UTC-09:00 outside daylight saving and UTC-08:00 during it. Because AKST names only one of those two states, a time labelled AKST is ambiguous until you also know the date it refers to.
When it is noon UTC, Alaska Standard Time reads 03:00; midnight UTC is 15:00 here. AKST runs 9 h behind UTC, so its calendar day begins after the reference clock’s does.
No other zone in this directory keeps UTC-09:00 as its standard offset. One hour to the west of AKST in this directory sits HST (UTC-10:00); one hour to the east, PST (UTC-08:00).
Clock changes in AKST
AKST follows the North American rule: clocks go forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November, at 02:00 local time.
| Date | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|
| November 1, 2026 | Clocks go back one hour on Nov 1, 2026 at 01:30, moving from UTC-08:00 to UTC-09:00. | UTC-09:00 |
| March 14, 2027 | Clocks go forward one hour on Mar 14, 2027 at 03:15, moving from UTC-09:00 to UTC-08:00. | UTC-08:00 |
Of the reference zones in the table below, New York, London, Berlin, Sydney and Los Angeles observe daylight saving, so their difference from AKST shifts twice a year; UTC, Dubai, Kolkata, Singapore and Tokyo stay fixed.
Where AKST is used
In this directory one city keeps AKST: Anchorage. Between them they cover United States.
Where AKST stands today
AKST is currently UTC-08:00. The next change is on November 1, 2026, 23 days from the day this page was generated, when clocks move to UTC-09:00. Until then any time expressed as AKST carries the offset shown above; after it, the same wall-clock reading corresponds to a different instant. This is the reason a difference against another zone is only reliable when you attach a date to it.
Summer time is in force now, so the offset shown is the seasonal one rather than this region's standard time.
A working day on AKST
Taking Anchorage as the reference point for AKST, and a working day as 09:00 to 17:00:
- New York overlaps for only 4 hours, from 09:00 to 13:00 Anchorage time — late in the day at one end and early at the other.
- London has no overlap at all: when it is 09:00 there, it is already 00:00 in Anchorage, so a call means an early start or a late finish for someone.
- Tokyo has no overlap at all: when it is 09:00 there, it is already 16:00 in Anchorage, so a call means an early start or a late finish for someone.
On the June solstice the sun rises in Anchorage at about 04:20 and sets at about 23:42; on the December solstice it rises at about 10:14 and sets at about 15:41.
How AKST compares with other zones
Right now AKST runs behind every reference zone in the table: UTC, New York, London, Berlin, Dubai, Kolkata, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney and Los Angeles.
| Zone | UTC offset | Difference from AKST |
|---|---|---|
| UTC | UTC+00:00 | 8h behind |
| New York | UTC-04:00 | 4h behind |
| London | UTC+01:00 | 9h behind |
| Berlin | UTC+02:00 | 10h behind |
| Dubai | UTC+04:00 | 12h behind |
| Kolkata | UTC+05:30 | 13h 30m behind |
| Singapore | UTC+08:00 | 16h behind |
| Tokyo | UTC+09:00 | 17h behind |
| Sydney | UTC+11:00 | 19h behind |
| Los Angeles | UTC-07:00 | 1h behind |
Larger places currently keeping AKST: United States.
Cities using AKST
Convert AKST to another zone
Related time zones
Time zone rules: IANA tz database release 2026c, applied when this page was generated on 2026-10-09.
Frequently asked questions
What is AKST?
Alaska Standard Time, AKST, is UTC-09:00. Alaska uses AKST in winter and AKDT (UTC-8) in summer.
What is the IANA identifier for AKST?
America/Anchorage — the entry that covers Anchorage in the tz database. Use it rather than AKST in software: AKST names one season, America/Anchorage names the rules for every date.
Does AKST change for daylight saving?
Yes — Alaska Standard Time changes its clocks (standard UTC-09:00, summer UTC-08:00), as do New York, London, Berlin, Sydney and Los Angeles among the zones compared on this page.
How do I convert AKST to my local time?
One hour to the west of AKST in this directory sits HST (UTC-10:00); one hour to the east, PST (UTC-08:00). For anything beyond that, the converter applies the rules of America/Anchorage for the date you give it rather than a remembered figure.
Which cities use AKST?
In this directory one city keeps AKST: Anchorage. Between them they cover United States. The boundary is legal rather than geographic: it follows the borders of United States, not a line of longitude.
What should I put in a configuration file for AKST?
America/Anchorage, never AKST. That entry carries the rules Anchorage actually follows, including when daylight saving starts and ends, so software using it stays correct through a change that a stored offset would miss.