Prayer Times
Prayer Times in Indonesia — All Cities
Jadwal sholat for Indonesian cities are calculated to the convention of Kementerian Agama, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which sets Fajr at 20 degrees of solar depression and Isha at 18 degrees. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world and spans several time zones, so every city here is computed from its own coordinates and its own zone.
A country on both sides of the equator
Indonesia is one of very few countries covered on this site whose cities lie in both hemispheres. Medan sits above 3 degrees north. Padang sits almost exactly on the equator. Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Malang, Makassar and Denpasar all lie south of it, with Denpasar furthest at nearly 9 degrees south.
The seasons therefore run in opposite directions within one country. Medan sees its longest days around the middle of the year, while Denpasar and the Javanese cities see theirs around December and their shortest around June. Padang, sitting on the line itself, has days of almost exactly the same length all year round. None of the differences are dramatic, because nowhere in Indonesia is far from the equator, but the direction of the drift is genuinely reversed from north to south. If you compare a Medan timetable with a Denpasar one in June and then again in December, the gap between them will have moved the other way.
Two clocks among the cities we publish
Indonesia is divided into three time zones. Western Indonesia Time at UTC+7 covers Sumatra, Java and western Kalimantan; Central Indonesia Time at UTC+8 covers Bali, Sulawesi and the rest of Kalimantan; Eastern Indonesia Time at UTC+9 covers Maluku and Papua. Of the twelve cities on this page, nine fall in the western zone and three, Makassar, Denpasar and Balikpapan, fall in the central one. None currently sits in the eastern zone. No part of the country uses daylight saving.
The zone boundary produces results that look wrong until you take the clock into account. Makassar lies east of Surabaya and the sun reaches it first, yet its printed Maghrib falls more than half an hour later, because its clock is a full hour ahead. Medan, at the western end of the country, has the latest clock times of all despite being no further from the equator than most. The lesson is the same one that applies everywhere on this site: read the times for the city you are in, not for the nearest large one.
The Kemenag convention and the precautionary minutes
The calculation standard used here is the one maintained by Kementerian Agama, which publishes the national jadwal sholat. It defines Subuh by a solar depression of 20 degrees and Isya by 18 degrees, so both are twilight angles rather than fixed counts of minutes after sunset. Close to the equator, where the sun descends almost vertically, those angles are reached quickly and reliably, which is why Indonesian times are so consistent from month to month.
One difference between our figures and a printed Indonesian calendar is worth explaining. Indonesian timetables customarily add a small precautionary margin, ihtiyat, of a couple of minutes to the calculated prayer times, and subtract the same margin from sunrise, so that nobody prays a moment before the window opens. We publish the astronomical result without that margin. If a local jadwal reads a minute or two later than this page at Subuh, Zuhur or Asar, and a minute or two earlier at sunrise, that is very probably ihtiyat rather than a disagreement about the underlying calculation.
Asar in a Shafi'i country
Indonesian Islam is overwhelmingly Shafi'i, and that settles the Asar question in a way it is not settled in South Asia. The Shafi'i position, held also by the Maliki and Hanbali schools, is that the afternoon window opens once a vertical object throws a shadow equal to its own length, counted on top of the shadow it cast at solar noon. This is the measure applied to every Indonesian city here, and it matches the time announced in Indonesian mosques.
The Hanafi position waits until that shadow has doubled, which falls roughly forty minutes to an hour later. It is not the Indonesian norm and you will not usually see two competing Asar times on a local jadwal. Anyone who follows the Hanafi school and finds themselves in Indonesia should take Asar from a mosque serving their own community, but for almost everyone praying here the figure on this page is the one in use.
Imsak, sahur and buka puasa
During Ramadan the two moments that govern the day are Subuh, at which sahur ends, and Maghrib, at which the fast is broken. Both appear on every Indonesian city page, and the monthly calendar sets out the whole month.
Indonesian imsakiyah calendars customarily print an imsak time roughly ten minutes before Subuh, a deliberate margin so that eating stops before the window closes rather than at the last possible instant. We do not print a separate imsak, so if you observe it, take the local imsakiyah for your city and treat our Subuh as the outer limit. Buka puasa follows Maghrib immediately, and tarawih follows Isya. Because the Indonesian day changes length so little through the year, the fast is close to the same duration whenever Ramadan falls, which is a real difference from countries further from the equator where a summer Ramadan and a winter one are hours apart.
The twelve cities on this page
We publish Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, Semarang, Makassar, Palembang, Yogyakarta, Denpasar, Malang, Padang and Balikpapan, each computed from its own stored latitude, longitude and time zone identifier. Jakarta and Bandung run close together; Medan, Makassar and Balikpapan are separate cases and should not be read from a Jakarta timetable.
Open any city for today's five waktu sholat and sunrise, a live countdown to the next prayer, and the full monthly calendar. The convention in force is named beneath the times table on every page.
Frequently asked questions
Which calculation method is used for jadwal sholat in Indonesia?
The convention of Kementerian Agama, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which publishes the national timetable. It sets Subuh at 20 degrees of solar depression and Isya at 18 degrees, both being twilight angles rather than fixed intervals after sunset. This site applies it to every Indonesian city. Because Indonesia lies close to the equator and the sun descends almost vertically there, those angles are reached quickly and the resulting times stay consistent from one month to the next.
Why is Maghrib in Makassar later than in Surabaya when Makassar is further east?
Because of the time zone rather than the sun. Makassar keeps Central Indonesia Time at UTC+8 while Surabaya keeps Western Indonesia Time at UTC+7. The sun does reach Makassar first, by around twenty five minutes, but its clock is a full hour ahead, so the printed Maghrib ends up more than half an hour later. Whenever a time looks wrong by roughly an hour in Indonesia, the zone boundary is the first thing to check.
Why does my local jadwal show times a minute or two later than this page?
Almost certainly because of ihtiyat, the small precautionary margin Indonesian timetables customarily add to the calculated prayer times so that nobody prays before the window has opened. The same margin is usually subtracted from sunrise. We publish the astronomical result without it. A consistent difference of a minute or two, in that pattern, is a difference of practice rather than a disagreement about the calculation, and either figure will keep you inside the prayer window.
Do Indonesian cities north and south of the equator have opposite seasons?
Yes, in the sense that matters for prayer times. Medan lies above 3 degrees north and has its longest days around the middle of the year. Denpasar, at nearly 9 degrees south, and the Javanese cities have their longest days around December instead. Padang sits almost on the equator and its days stay close to the same length all year. The differences are modest because nowhere in Indonesia is far from the equator, but the direction of the seasonal drift is genuinely reversed.
What is imsak on an Indonesian timetable?
Imsak is a precautionary time customarily printed about ten minutes before Subuh on Indonesian imsakiyah calendars, marking when eating should stop during Ramadan so that sahur does not run up to the last instant. The fast itself begins at Subuh. We publish Subuh rather than imsak, so if you observe imsak take it from your local imsakiyah and treat the Subuh figure on this page as the outer limit of sahur.