Puerto Rico time now, live flip clock
Puerto Rico keeps Atlantic Standard Time, AST, UTC-4, across all of its islands. Its clocks do not change. The clock above shows Puerto Rico's time live, with seconds.
Time zone in Puerto Rico
San Juan, the capital, keeps the same time as all 78 municipios.
- AST, UTC-4
- Not observed
- San Juan, Bayamón, Carolina, Ponce
How many hours ahead or behind San Juan
On 7 October 2026, New York is on the same time as San Juan.
| City | Difference from San Juan |
|---|---|
| New York | Same time |
| Chicago | 1 hour behind |
| Los Angeles | 3 hours behind |
| Toronto | Same time |
| Santo Domingo | Same time |
| Madrid | 6 hours ahead |
| London | 5 hours ahead |
| Halifax | 1 hour ahead |
| Your time zone | Detected after this page loads |
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How Puerto Rico keeps its time
- The first of nine US zones
- AST
- Federal law divides the United States into nine standard time zones. The first is the Atlantic zone, and its time is Atlantic standard time. The zone's western edge is a line of longitude. The rule then adds the part of Puerto Rico west of that line. So the whole Commonwealth keeps one time. The Eastern zone, under the same rules, takes in no part of Puerto Rico.
- No daylight saving time
- 0
- Puerto Rico does not put its clocks forward in summer. So from March to November it shows the same time as New York. The rest of the year it is one hour ahead.
- War time, then no change since
- +1 h
- San Juan kept local mean time until the year after the United States acquired Puerto Rico. Atlantic time replaced it. During the Second World War the island followed US war time for more than three years. That put it one hour ahead of Atlantic time. It then returned to Atlantic time. The clocks have not moved since.
- One entry, twenty places
- 20
- Puerto Rico's entry in the time zone database also stands for nineteen other places. They run from Anguilla and the Virgin Islands down to Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and Curaçao. Quebec's coast east of Natashquan keeps this entry too. None of them changes its clocks. The database chose the name Puerto Rico because there are too many San Juans elsewhere.
Questions about time in Puerto Rico
What time zone is Puerto Rico in?
Puerto Rico is in the Atlantic time zone, AST, UTC-4. It is the first of the nine zones in US federal law. San Juan and the other 77 municipios all show the same time. The clocks do not change during the year, so the offset holds in summer too.
Does Puerto Rico have daylight saving time?
No. Puerto Rico keeps AST, UTC-4 in every season. NIST, the US standards institute, lists Puerto Rico among the places without daylight saving time. Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands are on that list too. So Puerto Rico shows New York's time in summer, and runs one hour ahead in winter.
Is Puerto Rico on the same time as New York?
Only in summer. New York is 1 hour behind Puerto Rico in winter. From March to November New York moves its clocks forward and the two match. Miami and Toronto keep New York's time, so the same pattern holds for them.
Is Puerto Rico on the same time as the Dominican Republic?
Yes, in every month. Santo Domingo is on the same time as San Juan, and neither changes its clocks. The US Virgin Islands keep Puerto Rico's time too. Halifax and Bermuda show the same time as Puerto Rico in winter. In summer they move an hour ahead and Puerto Rico stays put.
What is the time difference between Puerto Rico and Spain?
Madrid is 5 hours ahead of Puerto Rico in winter. In the Spanish summer the gap grows by one hour, because Spain moves its clocks and Puerto Rico does not. A midday call from San Juan reaches Madrid in the late afternoon. London is 4 hours ahead of Puerto Rico in the British winter, and one hour more in summer.
Time zone names for developers
| IANA zone | Standard time | Daylight saving time |
|---|---|---|
| America/Puerto_Rico | AST, UTC-4 | No |
Sources
We checked each fact on this page against these sources on 2 October 2026. Times, offsets and clock changes come from the time zone database.