Accra is the same time UTC in winter and the same time UTC in summer — on the same time as UTC in winter. Its standard offset is UTC+00:00, and it does not observe daylight saving, so the difference never changes. This page explains the difference, shows it month by month, and gives the conversion tables in both directions.
Try the tool: UTC Converter — convert any time between UTC and Accra, with the offset for the date you pick.
How far is Accra from UTC?
The difference between Accra and UTC is the offset: UTC+00:00 in standard time. Accra is on the same time as UTC in winter, so noon in Accra is noon at Greenwich. The sign matters: a positive offset means ahead of UTC (east of Greenwich), a negative offset means behind it (west of Greenwich).
In practical terms, the difference means that the working day in Accra (09:00–17:00 local) is 09:00–17:00 UTC in January and 09:00–17:00 UTC in July. A team that schedules in UTC needs to know both numbers, because a meeting set for 15:00 UTC is 15:00 in Accra in January and 15:00 in July — and one of those may be outside the working day even when the other is inside it.
Accra vs UTC through the year
The offset on the 15th of each month in 2026. If the table shows one value all year, Accra does not observe daylight saving. If it shows two values, the change between them is the clock change.
| Month | Offset from UTC |
|---|---|
| January | UTC+00:00 |
| February | UTC+00:00 |
| March | UTC+00:00 |
| April | UTC+00:00 |
| May | UTC+00:00 |
| June | UTC+00:00 |
| July | UTC+00:00 |
| August | UTC+00:00 |
| September | UTC+00:00 |
| October | UTC+00:00 |
| November | UTC+00:00 |
| December | UTC+00:00 |
The clock changes are: in 2026, none; in 2027, none. For the full story, see the Accra DST 2026 page and the daylight saving checker.
Conversion tables
UTC to Accra, for eight hours of the day:
| UTC | Accra (January) | Accra (July) |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 00:00 | 00:00 |
| 03:00 | 03:00 | 03:00 |
| 06:00 | 06:00 | 06:00 |
| 09:00 | 09:00 | 09:00 |
| 12:00 | 12:00 | 12:00 |
| 15:00 | 15:00 | 15:00 |
| 18:00 | 18:00 | 18:00 |
| 21:00 | 21:00 | 21:00 |
Accra to UTC, for the same eight hours:
| Accra local | UTC (January) | UTC (July) |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 00:00 | 00:00 |
| 03:00 | 03:00 | 03:00 |
| 06:00 | 06:00 | 06:00 |
| 09:00 | 09:00 | 09:00 |
| 12:00 | 12:00 | 12:00 |
| 15:00 | 15:00 | 15:00 |
| 18:00 | 18:00 | 18:00 |
| 21:00 | 21:00 | 21:00 |
Two things to watch in these tables. First, the date: a UTC time in the evening is the next day in Accra when the offset is positive — 21:00 UTC is 21:00 the next day in Accra in January — and a Accra time early in the morning is the previous day in UTC when the offset is positive. Second, the season: the January and July columns are identical, because the offset never changes. The UTC to Accra page has the full 24-hour table.
Daylight saving and the difference
Accra does not observe daylight saving, so the difference from UTC is constant: UTC+00:00 on every day of the year. Ghana sits just north of the equator, where day and night are close to 12 hours all year, so daylight saving has never been adopted. That constancy is an advantage for scheduling — the difference never moves — but it also means the difference between Accra and any place that does observe daylight saving moves twice a year, when the other place changes its clocks. The difference between Accra and New York, for example, is 5 hours ahead in January and 4 hours ahead in July.
What the difference means for scheduling
For a team that works in UTC — software, aviation, science — the difference is the number you add to every UTC time to get Accra time, and the number you subtract from every Accra time to get UTC. The mistake is to use one number all year when there are two. The safe habit is to put the UTC time in every invitation as well as the local time, and to let the calendar do the conversion: a calendar event set in UTC moves correctly when daylight saving changes, and an event set in local time does not always.
For comparison, two other major cities: London is the same time UTC in January and 1 hour ahead UTC in July, and Tokyo is 9 hours ahead UTC all year. Accra's difference of the same time (January) sits between them in the sense that matters for scheduling: a meeting at 14:00 UTC is 14:00 in Accra, 14:00 in London and 23:00 in Tokyo in January. The time in Accra page has the working-hours tables, and the meeting planner finds the overlap for any pair of cities.
Accra vs UTC: the numbers at a glance
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Standard offset | UTC+00:00 |
| Daylight saving offset | — does not observe daylight saving |
| Offset in January 2026 | UTC+00:00 |
| Offset in July 2026 | UTC+00:00 |
| Difference from UTC in January | the same time |
| Difference from UTC in July | the same time |
| IANA time zone | Africa/Accra |
| Country | Ghana |
Adjusting to the difference — travel and jet lag
Travelling to Accra from London means no adjustment at all in January — the two places are on the same time. That is the easiest kind of travel: there is no jet lag from the clock, only the tiredness of the journey itself. In July, when London is on British Summer Time (UTC+01:00) and Accra is on UTC+00:00, the difference is 1 hour behind, so the adjustment is small either way.
The same arithmetic applies to remote work. If you are in Accra and your team works in UTC, your working day of 09:00–17:00 local time is 09:00–17:00 UTC in January — so a stand-up at 09:00 UTC is 09:00 for you, and a stand-up at 16:00 UTC is 16:00. If those times are outside your working day, the meeting is in the wrong place in the day, and the fix is to move the UTC time, not to ask one person to work at midnight. The meeting time finder finds the hours that work for a whole team, and the time in Accra page has the working-hours tables.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours is Accra ahead of UTC?
Accra is the same time UTC in January and the same time UTC in July. The difference is the same all year.
Is Accra ahead of or behind UTC?
Accra is on the same time as UTC in winter (offset UTC+00:00).
Does the time difference between Accra and UTC change?
No. Accra does not observe daylight saving, so the difference of the same time never changes.
What is Accra's UTC offset?
Accra's standard offset is UTC+00:00, all year. Its IANA time zone is Africa/Accra.
When it is midnight UTC, what time is it in Accra?
It is 00:00 in January and 00:00 in July.
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, via Node.js Intl (
Intl.DateTimeFormatwithtimeZone) — offsets, daylight saving dates and local times in this article were worked out from the IANA database, not typed from memory. - TimeFlow's own time-zone data (
data/cities.ts,data/dst.ts), computed from the IANA database. - TimeFlow's UTC converter and world clock — the live tools behind the numbers on this page.
- Time-zone and daylight saving rules are set by governments and can change. For flights, deadlines and meetings that cannot move, confirm the time with an official source.