How to Use the Time Zone Converter
Time Zone Converter explained: the offsets, daylight saving and quick conversions, worked out for any date you pick.
Scheduling across countries goes wrong in two ways: the wrong offset, and forgetting that daylight saving moved it. A time zone converter that knows the date fixes both.
Pick a date, a time and the zone it is in, and this one shows the same moment in 17 zones at once, from US Pacific to Sydney, with each zone's abbreviation and UTC offset on that day.
How it works
The conversion uses the IANA time zone database built into your browser, the same data your phone and computer use. So it knows that New York is EDT (UTC-4) in summer and EST (UTC-5) in winter, that London moves between BST and GMT, and that India, Indonesia, Singapore, China and Japan do not change their clocks.
The zones it covers
- UTC.
- US Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern time.
- London and Central Europe.
- East Africa (Nairobi), the Gulf (Dubai) and India.
- Indonesia: WIB, WITA and WIT.
- Singapore, China, Japan and Sydney.
Daylight saving, in short
The US and Canada change on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. The UK and the EU change on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October. For a few weeks each spring and autumn, the gap between New York and London is one hour shorter than usual. Sydney changes the other way round, in October and April.
Tips
- Write meeting times with the zone and the offset, such as 15:00 UTC+3, and nobody has to guess.
- UTC never changes for daylight saving, which is why servers, flights and logs use it.
- The swap button turns the conversion round in one click.
Frequently asked questions
Does it handle daylight saving?
Yes, for the date you pick, from the IANA time zone database built into your browser.
Is it free?
Yes. The time zone converter is free to use: making the result and saving it cost nothing, and you do not need an account.