Sunrise & sunset times in San Jose (CR)

Sun and moon in San Jose (CR)

Stargazers, dog walkers and commuters rely on the daily sun and moon schedule for San Jose (CR), Costa Rica. This page shows live sunrise, sunset, solar noon, day length, morning and evening golden hour, blue hour, dawn and dusk, plus the current moon phase and the moonrise and moonset times for San Jose (CR). Every value is calculated in the browser for the date you pick and shown in the local time of San Jose (CR), Costa Rica. San Jose (CR) sits at roughly 9.93 degrees north, in the northern hemisphere, so it sees very little seasonal change, with day length staying close to twelve hours all year and a short, fast twilight after sunset. Because the length of the day changes with the seasons, the exact sunrise and sunset in San Jose (CR) shift from week to week. Pick any date with the date picker to see how the light will fall on a specific day, which is handy for planning a shoot, an event, a wedding, a flight or simply the best moment to catch the last warm light of the evening. Golden hour, that soft warm window near sunrise and sunset, is the favourite of photographers in San Jose (CR). Blue hour, the cooler stretch just before sunrise and just after sunset, is ideal for cityscapes and long exposures. Combined with the moon phase and moon times, this gives you a complete picture of natural light over San Jose (CR), Costa Rica for any day of the year.

What time is sunset in San Jose (CR) today?

The sun sets in San Jose (CR) at 17:26 (just after midnight) today, Thursday, 1 October 2026, in San Jose (CR)'s own local time. The warm light starts well before that: evening golden hour opens at 16:58, giving 28 minutes of low golden light before the sun reaches the horizon. Sunset is not the end of the light either. Last light, the moment usable daylight ends at civil dusk, follows 21 minutes later at 17:47, and the sky is properly dark at 18:35, 1h 10m after sunset.

Tomorrow the sun sets at 17:26 in San Jose (CR). That is 35 seconds earlier than today. Over the coming week sunset moves 3 minutes 59 seconds earlier.

Planning around the light? See golden hour in San Jose (CR).

Is the day getting longer or shorter in San Jose (CR) right now?

San Jose (CR) gets 12h 2m of daylight today, from sunrise to sunset. Tomorrow will be 32 seconds shorter. Over the next seven days San Jose (CR) loses 3 minutes 45 seconds of daylight.

That pace is not constant. In San Jose (CR) the day length changes fastest around March, near the equinox, when it moves by about 33 seconds per day, and it slows almost to a stop at the solstices in June and December. The word solstice means exactly that: the sun standing still.

When are the earliest and latest sunrise and sunset in San Jose (CR)?

The earliest sunset of 2026 in San Jose (CR) falls on 16 November at 17:11, 35 days before the December solstice, and the latest on 11 July at 18:01.

Sunrise runs on its own schedule: earliest on 28 May at 05:14, latest on 27 January at 05:58, 37 days after the December solstice. The four dates in the table below do not line up with the solstices, and they are not supposed to. Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical and its axis is tilted, so the sun runs a few minutes fast or slow against clock time through the year. That offset, the equation of time, is what pushes the earliest sunset ahead of the shortest day and the latest sunrise behind it.

For the longest and shortest day themselves, see day length in San Jose (CR).

How long does twilight last in San Jose (CR)?

First light in San Jose (CR) arrives 21 minutes before sunrise today, at 05:03. After sunset the light hangs on for another 21 minutes, until 17:47. That evening stretch is not the same all year in San Jose (CR): it runs from 21 minutes at its shortest, in September, to 23 minutes at its longest, in June. The lower the angle at which the sun crosses the horizon, the longer twilight lasts, which is why dusk is a slow affair at high latitudes and abrupt near the equator.

Full three-band twilight tables: dawn in San Jose (CR) and dusk in San Jose (CR).

How high does the sun get in San Jose (CR)?

At midday on the June solstice the sun stands 76.5 degrees above the horizon in San Jose (CR). On the December solstice it climbs only 56.6 degrees. The midday sun stays high enough all year that noon shadows in San Jose (CR) are always shorter than the object casting them, about 0.66 times their height at the lowest point of the year.

Twice a year, on 15 April and 27 August, the midday sun over San Jose (CR) comes within half a degree of straight overhead, reaching 89.97 degrees at its highest. On those days an upright post casts almost no shadow at solar noon, which is why they are sometimes called zero shadow days. It can only happen between the tropics, where the sun passes directly over a place at all.

Frequently asked questions about San Jose (CR)

Data and methodology: every time on this page is computed from San Jose (CR)'s coordinates with SunCalc, an open source astronomy library, not estimated or looked up from a table. Coordinates 9.93, -84.09, time zone America/Costa_Rica. Accurate to about a minute for a flat, unobstructed horizon; terrain, tall buildings and atmospheric conditions can shift the moment the sun is actually visible by a few minutes. Full method on methodology.

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Sun and moon times for places close to San Jose (CR). Sunrise and sunset shift as you move east, west, north or south.

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Plain-English guides to the moments that shape the day in San Jose (CR) and everywhere else.

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