About the Time Zone Converter
This time zone converter works like a meeting planner: the top city’s day is split into hourly columns, and every row below shows what time it is in that city at the same moment. Working hours (9 am–6 pm) are green and night hours (10 pm–6 am) are shaded, so overlapping working hours stand out at a glance.
All times come from your browser’s built-in IANA time zone database, so daylight saving time in the US, Europe and Australia switches on exactly the right date. When you have found a slot, copy the share link and send it to the other participants – they will see the same cities and the same moment.
How to use
- Use Add city to add every location your participants are in. The top row is the reference city (by default your own time zone).
- Set the date of the meeting. If a daylight saving change falls near that date, the time differences adjust automatically.
- Tap a column where green cells line up, or drag the slider. The list below shows each city’s local date and time.
- Press Make reference on any city to see the day from that city’s perspective – the selected moment stays the same.
- Press Copy share link and paste it into your invite, chat or email.
How to find a good meeting time
- US East Coast ↔ Europe: 9–11 am in New York is 2–4 pm in London and 3–5 pm in Paris or Berlin – the easiest transatlantic window.
- US ↔ East Asia: working hours don’t overlap. 7–8 pm in New York is 9–10 am the next morning in Tokyo (8–9 pm while New York is on DST); 4–6 pm in Los Angeles is 9–11 am in Tokyo in winter.
- Europe ↔ East Asia: 7–9 am in London is 4–6 pm in Tokyo or Seoul (8–10 am while the UK is on summer time).
- With three or more continents someone always gets an early or late slot – for recurring meetings, rotate the time so the same people don’t always lose out.
- Watch the date markers: Monday morning in Asia is still Sunday in the Americas.
Daylight saving time pitfalls
Most of the US, Canada, Europe, south-east Australia and New Zealand move their clocks twice a year, but on different dates. For a few weeks in March and in October/November the usual time differences change.
| Region | DST starts (2026) | DST ends (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| USA & Canada | 2nd Sunday in March (Mar 8) | 1st Sunday in November (Nov 1) |
| EU & UK | Last Sunday in March (Mar 29) | Last Sunday in October (Oct 25) |
| SE Australia & New Zealand | Sep/Oct (southern spring) | 1st Sunday in April (Apr 5) |
| Japan, China, Korea, India, Arizona, Hawaii | no DST | – |
Example: between March 8 and March 28, 2026, New York is only 4 hours behind London instead of 5. On the switch day itself the reference city’s day has 23 or 25 hours, and the grid shows exactly that many columns.
Common time zone abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Name | UTC offset | Example city |
|---|---|---|---|
| EST / EDT | Eastern Standard / Daylight Time | UTC−5 / UTC−4 | New York |
| CST / CDT | Central Standard / Daylight Time | UTC−6 / UTC−5 | Chicago |
| MST / MDT | Mountain Standard / Daylight Time | UTC−7 / UTC−6 | Denver (Phoenix: MST all year) |
| PST / PDT | Pacific Standard / Daylight Time | UTC−8 / UTC−7 | Los Angeles |
| GMT / BST | Greenwich Mean Time / British Summer Time | UTC+0 / UTC+1 | London |
| CET / CEST | Central European (Summer) Time | UTC+1 / UTC+2 | Paris, Berlin |
| IST | India Standard Time | UTC+5:30 | New Delhi |
| JST | Japan Standard Time | UTC+9 | Tokyo |
| AEST / AEDT | Australian Eastern Standard / Daylight Time | UTC+10 / UTC+11 | Sydney |
Abbreviations are ambiguous (CST is also China Standard Time, IST also Irish and Israel Standard Time), so in invites it is safer to name a city or write the UTC offset.
FAQ
Why do some cells show minutes, like 5:45?
Some countries use half-hour or 45-minute offsets – India (UTC+5:30), Nepal (UTC+5:45), Newfoundland (UTC−3:30) or Adelaide (UTC+9:30). When it is exactly on the hour in the reference city, it isn’t on the hour there, so the minutes are shown.
Will people who open my link see the same time?
Yes. The part of the link after # contains the cities, the date and the reference city’s time, so everyone sees the same moment – no matter which time zone their own device is set to. If your list contains “Your time”, the link uses your actual time zone instead.
What happens on a daylight saving switch day?
The reference city’s day has 23 hours (spring forward) or 25 hours (fall back), so the grid has one column less or more and a note appears. On March 8, 2026, for example, New York jumps from 1:59 am straight to 3:00 am.
Which hours count as working hours?
Local 9 am to 6 pm is green, 10 pm to 6 am is shaded as night, and the hours in between (early morning and evening) are white – often the only option for meetings across many time zones.
Where is my city list stored?
Only in your browser on this device; nothing is sent to a server. A shared link temporarily shows the cities from that link instead.