How long does sunlight take to travel from the Sun to Earth?

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Illustration showing the eight planets of the solar system in order from the Sun-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune-depicted to scale by size, with labeled diameters in miles and kilometers. The Sun is partially visible on the left for comparison. — Solar system The planets (in comparative size) in order of distance from the Sun.

It takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds for sunlight to travel from the Sun to Earth.

This duration is determined by the speed of light in a vacuum—defined as 299,792,458 metres per second—and the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, known as the astronomical unit, which is 149,597,870.7 km. In astronomy, the time required for light to travel from a celestial body to Earth is referred to as light-time.