Time Zone Converter

How to use the time zone converter

Set a time and date, and choose which place that time is in — New York is selected to start. Every other place in the list shows its local time for that same moment, with its current zone abbreviation, its offset from UTC and how far ahead or behind it is. When you open the page it switches to the current time and keeps updating; change the time or date to plan something else, and press Now to go back to the live clock.

The list starts with the four main US time zones, London and your own time zone. Remove any place with its × button and add others with the search box: type a city (“Tokyo”), a US state abbreviation’s city (“Phoenix”), a zone name (“pacific”, “PST”) or any IANA zone such as Asia/Dubai. The meeting planner lines up a whole day and shows when everyone is within working hours. The page address keeps your places and time, so you can bookmark or share it. Everything runs in your browser.

How time zone conversion works

Every time zone is an offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). To convert, go through UTC: subtract the source offset, then add the target offset.

UTC time = local time − source offset target time = UTC time + target offset

The catch is that the offset depends on the date, because of daylight saving time. This converter never uses a fixed table: for the exact moment you choose it asks your browser’s copy of the IANA time zone database — the same data used by phones, computers and servers — for each place’s offset and zone name.

Worked example

The example is 9:00 AM in New York on Thursday, September 24, 2026. New York is on Eastern Daylight Time, UTC−4, so the UTC time is 9:00 + 4 h = 13:00 UTC. From there:

With 9 AM–5 PM working hours there is no moment when all six places are at work: London’s day ends (17:00 BST = 12:00 PM in New York) just as Los Angeles’s begins (9:00 AM PDT = 12:00 PM in New York). The planner reports the best compromise, 11:00 AM–1:00 PM New York time, when five of the six are within working hours.

US time zones

Federal law defines nine standard time zones for the United States and its territories:

Daylight saving time and the odd hours

• US rules. Clocks spring forward from 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM local time on the second Sunday in March and fall back from 2:00 AM to 1:00 AM on the first Sunday in November. In 2026 those days are March 8 and November 1.
• Skipped and repeated times. On March 8, 2026, 2:30 AM never happens in New York. If you enter it, the converter tells you and shows 3:30 AM EDT — the moment you most likely mean. On November 1, 1:30 AM happens twice (first EDT, then EST); the converter uses the first one and says so. The planner’s day has 23 or 25 columns on those dates.
• Other countries change on other dates. The UK and EU switch on the last Sunday in March and October, and most of the southern hemisphere does the opposite of the north — Sydney is on daylight time from October to April. Many countries, including Japan, China and India, do not use daylight saving time at all.

Tips and common mistakes

• Abbreviations are ambiguous. CST is US Central Standard Time or China Standard Time; IST is India, Irish or Israel Standard Time. That is why every row also shows its UTC offset.
• Check the date, not just the time. A row marked “+1 day” is already on the next calendar day. A Friday afternoon in California is Saturday morning in Tokyo and Sydney.
• The planner ignores weekends and holidays. It only checks the hours you set, so look at each place’s date before booking.
• Rules change. Countries occasionally change their offsets or drop daylight saving time. The converter is as current as your browser’s time zone data, so keep your browser updated.

To add or subtract hours from a time, use the time calculator; to switch between 12-hour and 24-hour notation, the military time converter; and to count down to a meeting, the countdown timer.