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Prayer times calculator

Work out Fajr, sunrise, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha for any location and date, using the calculation method and Asr position you follow.

Place and date

Positive north, negative south

Positive east, negative west

Hours ahead of UTC at that place on that date, daylight saving included

Calculation method

Widely used across Europe and much of the world. A reasonable default if you are unsure.

Asr

Show nothing rather than estimate. Ask your local mosque what they follow.

Methods disagree with one another by up to twenty minutes at Fajr and Isha, because they disagree about which angle of twilight marks the boundary. Follow whichever your local mosque follows rather than whichever gives the answer you prefer.

Clock

Prayer times

Enter a location and date, or tap Use my location, and the six times will appear here.

A planning aid, not a timetable

These times are computed, not published by a mosque. Use them to plan, and follow your local mosque for the start of a prayer, especially for Fajr and Isha, where the convention matters more than the arithmetic.

How the times are worked out

Four of the six come straight from the sun’s position and are not a matter of opinion:

  • Sunrise and Maghrib are when the sun’s upper edge touches the horizon, allowing for the atmosphere bending its image slightly into view.
  • Dhuhr is solar noon, when the sun crosses the meridian. That is rarely 12:00 on the clock. The gap runs to a quarter of an hour either way across the year, and further still if you sit at the edge of a wide time zone.
  • Asr is when a shadow has grown by the object’s height beyond its noon length, or twice that on the Hanafi position.

Fajr and Isha are the two that move. They are defined by how far the sun has dropped below the horizon, and organisations differ on the angle. That is the single biggest reason two prayer time apps will show you different numbers.

Why northern summers are a problem

Twilight angles assume the sun goes far enough down. Above about 48 degrees of latitude it stops doing so in summer: in London the sun never reaches 18 degrees below the horizon between roughly late May and mid-July, so there is no moment that answers the definition of Fajr.

This calculator reports that rather than papering over it. Several conventions exist for those nights, dividing the night in half, in sevenths, or in proportion to the angle, and communities differ over which to use. Pick the one your mosque follows.

Those conventions are not a midsummer patch. They bound the twilight period whenever it runs long, which at British latitudes begins months before the solstice.

Getting your coordinates right

A tenth of a degree is about eleven kilometres, which moves sunrise by under a minute , so a nearby town’s coordinates are fine. What is not fine is a UTC offset that does not match the place: that shifts every time by a whole hour. The tool fills in your own device’s offset, which is correct when you are calculating for where you are.

What stays in your browser

All of it. Your coordinates are used by the calculation running on your device and are not sent anywhere. If you use the location button, the browser asks you first and the answer never leaves the page.

Questions

Why do prayer time apps disagree with each other?
Because they disagree about Fajr and Isha, not about the sun. Those two are defined by how far the sun sits below the horizon at dawn and dusk, and different organisations settled on different angles: 15 degrees, 18, 19.5. The calculation is identical; the boundary is a judgement. Dhuhr, Asr, sunrise and Maghrib depend only on the sun's position and come out the same everywhere.
Which calculation method should I choose?
Whichever your local mosque follows, so that you are praying in step with the community around you. If you do not know, the Muslim World League angles are a common default in Europe, ISNA in North America, Karachi across South Asia and Umm al-Qura in Saudi Arabia. The tool shows the difference immediately, so you can see what the choice costs you.
What is the difference between the two Asr options?
Asr begins when an object's shadow has grown by the object's own height beyond its length at noon. The Hanafi position takes it as twice the object's height, which puts Asr later, often by 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the season. Both are offered here and neither is presented as the default answer.
Why does it say Fajr and Isha are not available?
Above roughly 48 degrees of latitude the sun does not drop far enough below the horizon in summer for the twilight angle ever to be reached, in London, that is most of June and July. There is genuinely no such moment on those dates, so the calculator says so rather than inventing one. If your mosque follows a convention for those nights, choose it under 'When twilight runs long'.
Do the twilight conventions only matter in midsummer?
No, and this surprises people. They cap the twilight period whenever it runs longer than the stated share of the night, which in London starts happening well before June. A one-seventh rule already moves Fajr in mid-September. That is how the conventions are defined, communities that follow one follow it year-round.
Why do I have to enter a UTC offset?
Because the times are computed for the coordinates you give, and they have to be labelled in the clock that place actually keeps. The tool fills in your own device's offset, which is right when you are calculating for where you are standing. If you are looking up times for somewhere else, set the offset that place is on for that date, daylight saving included.
How accurate are these times?
The solar position is accurate to well under a minute for any date you are likely to enter, which is finer than the rounding to whole minutes. The uncertainty that matters is not astronomical: it is which convention you follow, and that can move Fajr by twenty minutes. Treat the result as a planning aid and follow your local mosque for the start of a prayer.
Does this account for altitude or my horizon?
No. It assumes a sea-level horizon, which is the standard assumption behind published prayer timetables. Being high up brings sunrise slightly forward and pushes sunset slightly back, a minute or two in most places, more on a mountain.

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