Time zones
This page covers finding the time somewhere else, converting a time from one zone to another, and working out how many hours apart two places are. Reach for it when you arrange a call with people abroad, check when a flight lands in local time, or read a time given in another zone.
Your own time zone is the one your Mac is set to. Zones can be named by city, country, abbreviation (CET), offset (UTC+2) or full identifier (Europe/Berlin). Big cities work by name, so Mumbai, Munich and Boston convert as you’d expect; see Zone names for what’s recognised.
The time elsewhere right now
Ask for the time or date in a place. These answers follow the clock and refresh while the editor is visible; the ones below are from a Wednesday afternoon in September.
time in Tokyo gives 12:48 AMLondon time gives 4:48 PMnow in New York gives 11:48 AMnow in UTC+2 gives 5:48 PMtoday in Tokyo gives September 17tomorrow in Sydney gives September 18time in, now in and <place> time all give the current time there. today in, tomorrow in, yesterday in and date in give the date there, which can be a day ahead of yours or behind it. now as date in Tokyo gives the same answer as today in Tokyo.
Converting a time between zones
Write a time, the zone it’s in, then in or to and the zone you want. Include the date whenever you can, because the date decides whether summer time applies.
June 16 2025 at 3pm London in New York gives June 16, 2025 at 10:00 AMJune 16 2025 at 3pm London to Tokyo gives June 16, 2025 at 11:00 PMDecember 1 2025 at 9am Sydney to Los Angeles gives November 30, 2025 at 2:00 PMNovember 14 2025 at 10:45pm Singapore to London gives November 14, 2025 at 2:45 PMJune 16 2025 at 3pm Mumbai in London gives June 16, 2025 at 10:30 AMWhen a conversion crosses midnight the date changes with it, as in the Sydney example.
You can also write it the way you’d say it, with time after either zone. UK, Britain and Great Britain all mean London time:
June 16 2025 at 2pm PT in UK time gives June 16, 2025 at 10:00 PMJune 16 2025 at 9am New York time in London gives June 16, 2025 at 2:00 PMJune 16 2025 at 9am in New York in London time gives June 16, 2025 at 2:00 PMWhen two zones follow the time, the first is where the time is and the second is where you want to see it, so the last line reads as 9am in New York, shown in London. With only one zone, as in June 16 2025 at 3pm in Tokyo, the time is your own: 3pm on your Mac’s clock, shown in Tokyo.
Without a date
Leave out the date and today’s date is used. The answer is right for today, but can be an hour out on another day if summer time starts or ends in between.
9am London to New York gives 4:00 AM3pm EST in JST gives Tomorrow at 4:00 AMnoon UTC in Los Angeles gives 5:00 AM9:00 Vienna in Dubai gives 11:00 AM9am in New York in London time gives 2:00 PM3pm in Tokyo gives 11:00 PM3pm in Tokyo is 3pm where you are, shown in Tokyo; the answer above is for a Mac set to London time. A time converted into the next or previous day shows Tomorrow at or Yesterday at.
Conversions between fixed offsets, or between places that change their clocks together, give the same answer all year:
3pm UTC+05:30 to GMT gives 9:30 AM11am UTC+5:30 to UTC-4 gives 1:30 AM6pm New York to Los Angeles gives 3:00 PM3pm PT to ET gives 6:00 PM3pm Mumbai in UTC gives 09:30ET, CT, MT and PT stand for US Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time, and need capitals. A time without a date converted to UTC is shown on the 24-hour clock, the way UTC times are usually written.
ISO timestamps
Timestamps from logs, calendar exports and booking systems, such as 2025-03-01T15:00:00Z, name an exact moment. Add in and a place to read one in local time, with the date adjusted:
2025-03-01T15:00:00Z in Tokyo gives March 2, 2025 at 12:00 AM2025-07-04T11:00:00+02:00 in Los Angeles gives July 4, 2025 at 2:00 AMPitfalls
- Name the starting zone when the time isn’t yours.
3pm in Tokyostarts from 3pm on your own clock. For 3pm in London, write3pm London in Tokyoor3pm in London in Tokyo time. - Keep the zone right after the time. Words between a time and
inare read as the place, so3pm sharp London in Tokyoshows an unknown time zone error. Put a day before the time instead:Friday at 3pm London in Tokyo. - A place Varlig doesn’t recognise shows an error instead of a time, so a typo such as
3pm Lodnon in Tokyois easy to spot. Write names without accents or full stops:Sao Paulo, notSão Paulo, andWashington DC.
Summer time
Places that use daylight saving time change their offset during the year, and they don’t all change on the same day. The United States moves its clocks forward on the second Sunday in March and the United Kingdom on the last Sunday, so for a few weeks New York is four hours behind London instead of five.
March 10 2025 at 9am New York in London gives March 10, 2025 at 1:00 PMMarch 31 2025 at 9am New York in London gives March 31, 2025 at 2:00 PMMost abbreviations stand for a region, not a fixed offset, so they follow that region’s summer time on the date you give. PST behaves like Pacific Daylight Time in June, and CET like Central European Summer Time:
January 16 2025 at 2am PST to GMT gives January 16, 2025 at 10:00 AMJune 16 2025 at 2am PST to GMT gives June 16, 2025 at 9:00 AMMarch 12 2025 at 2pm CET to IST gives March 12, 2025 at 6:30 PMJune 12 2025 at 2pm CET to IST gives June 12, 2025 at 5:30 PMAEST, AEDT, ACST, ACDT, AWST, SAST, WIB, WITA and WIT are the exceptions: they are always the same offset. In January Sydney is on summer time, so AEST and Sydney differ by an hour:
January 2 2025 at 9am AEST to London gives January 1, 2025 at 11:00 PMJanuary 2 2025 at 9am Sydney to London gives January 1, 2025 at 10:00 PMIf you need an offset that never changes, write it as UTC+10 or similar.
Zone names
You can name a zone in five ways. When a name could match more than one, they are tried in this order.
- Abbreviations, written in capitals:
UTC,GMT,EST,EDT,CST,CDT,MST,MDT,PST,PDT,AKST,AKDT,HST,AST,ADT,NST,NDT,BST,WET,WEST,CET,CEST,EET,EEST,MSK,MSD,TRT,IST(India),PKT,GST(Gulf),IRST,ICT,WIB,WITA,WIT,SGT,HKT,PHT,KST,JST,AWST,ACST,ACDT,AEST,AEDT,NZST,NZDT,BRT,BRST,ART,CLT,CLST,COT,PET,SAST,CAT,EAT,WAT. - Built-in places: Tokyo, Japan, London, United Kingdom, Britain, Great Britain, Berlin, Germany, Paris, France, New York, United States, Eastern Time, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Pacific Time, Chicago, Central Time, Denver, Mountain Time, Sydney, Australia, Singapore, Bangkok, Thailand, Vancouver, Moscow, Russia, Canada and Ottawa, the airport codes HND, NRT, LHR, CDG, JFK, LAX, SFO, SEA, ORD, SYD, SIN, BKK, YVR and SVO, and
UK,ET,CT,MTandPT, which need capitals. On top of these come about 150 big cities and countries that aren’t zone names of their own, such as Mumbai, Delhi, Beijing, Osaka, Munich, Milan, Barcelona, Manchester, Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro. See the full list. - Offsets:
UTC+2,GMT+8,UTC-05:30,UTC+5:30. - IANA identifiers:
Europe/Berlin,America/New_York,Asia/Kolkata. You can type a space instead of the underscore, as inAmerica/New York. - IANA city names on their own, when there’s only one match: Vienna, Kathmandu, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Indianapolis, Lisbon, Stockholm, Nairobi and so on.
Countries with several zones, such as the United States, Australia, Russia and Canada, map to one zone: New York, Sydney, Moscow and Toronto respectively. Name a city when it matters. Names shared by well-known places in different zones, such as Portland, San Jose and Valencia, aren’t built in, so name a larger city in the zone you mean, such as Los Angeles or Madrid.
June 16 2025 at 9am JFK to LHR gives June 16, 2025 at 2:00 PMJune 16 2025 at 9am Asia/Kolkata to London gives June 16, 2025 at 4:30 AMJune 16 2025 at 9am Kathmandu to UTC gives June 16, 2025 at 3:15 AMJune 16 2025 at 9am Munich to Beijing gives June 16, 2025 at 3:00 PMThe Holidays and time-zone names reference lists the region and offset behind each abbreviation and place name.
Time differences
Ask for the difference between two places to see how many hours apart they are. The answer is positive when the second place is ahead of the first.
time difference between London and New York gives -5 hoursdifference between New York and Tokyo gives 13 hoursdifference between Berlin and Kathmandu gives 3.75 hoursdifference between PDT & AEST gives 17 hoursdifference between here and Tokyo gives 8 hourshere is your Mac’s time zone; the last answer is for a Mac set to London time. Differences are worked out for today’s date, so they shift by an hour when one of the places changes its clocks. To compare a particular day, convert a dated time instead, as in Summer time.
Putting it together
Here is a note for a video call between London, New York, San Francisco and Mumbai. The call time is written once, in London time, and everyone else’s time follows from it.
call = March 12 2025 at 4pm Londonlength = 45 mincall in New York gives March 12, 2025 at 12:00 PMcall in San Francisco gives March 12, 2025 at 9:00 AMcall in Mumbai gives March 12, 2025 at 9:30 PMcall ends = call + lengthcall ends in San Francisco gives March 12, 2025 at 9:45 AMBecause the date is part of call, summer time is handled for you: the United States has already changed its clocks in mid-March while the United Kingdom hasn’t, so New York is four hours behind London that week. Change the first line and every other time updates.