Distance from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro
Cape Town (South Africa) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) are 6,060 km apart — that's 3,766 miles or 3,272 nautical miles, measured along the great circle (the shortest path over the Earth's surface).
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 6,060 km · 3,766 mi · 3,272 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Rio de Janeiro
- 264° (W)
- Initial bearing Rio de Janeiro → Cape Town
- 116° (ESE)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 7 h 47 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · Rio de Janeiro UTC-03:00 (-5 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 230 min — the sun rises earlier in Cape Town
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 05:34 UTC / 16:12 UTC
- Rio de Janeiro
- -22.9064, -43.1822
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 09:24 UTC / 20:35 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.