What is a time zone converter?
A time zone converter tells you what the clock reads in one place when it shows a given time in another. Enter a date, a time, and two locations, and this converter returns the matching local date and time in the target zone, with daylight saving applied for that specific date, plus the hour difference between the two zones.
How to convert a time
- Pick the date. It matters because daylight saving rules change the offset during the year.
- Enter the time in 24-hour format,
HH:MM(for example09:00or18:30). - Choose the From zone, where that time applies.
- Choose the To zone, where you want to know the time.
- Click Calculate. You'll see the converted date and time, labelled with the zone name, and the offset difference.
Worked examples
| From | To | Converted | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York, 5 Oct 2026, 09:00 | Kolkata | 2026-10-05 18:30 | +09:30 |
| London, 5 Oct 2026, 15:00 | Sydney | 2026-10-06 01:00 | +10:00 |
| Los Angeles, 15 Jan 2026, 09:00 | Tokyo | 2026-01-16 02:00 | +17:00 |
| Los Angeles, 1 Jul 2026, 09:00 | Tokyo | 2026-07-02 01:00 | +16:00 |
| Kolkata, 5 Oct 2026, 12:00 | Karachi | 2026-10-05 11:30 | -00:30 |
The Los Angeles to Tokyo rows show why the date matters: Japan doesn't use daylight saving, California does, so the gap is 17 hours in winter and 16 in summer.
Time zones in this converter
The converter covers UTC and 24 cities. Each one is an IANA time zone identifier, such as America/New_York, which stands for every place that has kept the same clock rules as that city. These are the offsets the database gives for 2026:
| City | Zone ID | Standard offset | Daylight saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | America/Los_Angeles | UTC−08:00 | UTC−07:00 |
| Denver | America/Denver | UTC−07:00 | UTC−06:00 |
| Chicago | America/Chicago | UTC−06:00 | UTC−05:00 |
| New York | America/New_York | UTC−05:00 | UTC−04:00 |
| São Paulo | America/Sao_Paulo | UTC−03:00 | none |
| London | Europe/London | UTC+00:00 | UTC+01:00 |
| Paris, Berlin | Europe/Paris, Europe/Berlin | UTC+01:00 | UTC+02:00 |
| Moscow | Europe/Moscow | UTC+03:00 | none |
| Cairo | Africa/Cairo | UTC+02:00 | UTC+03:00 |
| Johannesburg | Africa/Johannesburg | UTC+02:00 | none |
| Dubai | Asia/Dubai | UTC+04:00 | none |
| Karachi | Asia/Karachi | UTC+05:00 | none |
| Kolkata | Asia/Kolkata | UTC+05:30 | none |
| Dhaka | Asia/Dhaka | UTC+06:00 | none |
| Bangkok | Asia/Bangkok | UTC+07:00 | none |
| Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Perth | Asia/Shanghai etc. | UTC+08:00 | none |
| Tokyo, Seoul | Asia/Tokyo, Asia/Seoul | UTC+09:00 | none |
| Sydney | Australia/Sydney | UTC+10:00 | UTC+11:00 (Oct to Apr) |
| Auckland | Pacific/Auckland | UTC+12:00 | UTC+13:00 (Sep to Apr) |
Governments change these rules from time to time. The IANA database is updated when they do, and the converter uses whichever version is installed on the server.
Daylight saving and the "shoulder weeks"
Places don't all change their clocks on the same day. In 2026:
- The US moves its clocks forward on 8 March and back on 1 November (the second Sunday in March and first Sunday in November, as set by federal law; see NIST's daylight saving page).
- The UK and EU change on 29 March and 25 October, the last Sundays of those months (GOV.UK).
- Sydney and Auckland, in the southern hemisphere, go the other way: clocks move forward in September or October and back in April.
Between those dates the usual gap shifts by an hour. Converting 09:00 in New York to London gives 13:00 on 28 October 2026 (a 4-hour gap, because the UK has already switched back and the US hasn't) but 14:00 on 2 November (the normal 5 hours). Meetings scheduled across those weeks are the ones that most often go wrong.
Skipped and repeated times
When clocks spring forward, one local hour never happens. In New York on 8 March 2026, the clock jumps from 01:59 to 03:00, so 02:30 doesn't exist. If you enter it anyway, the converter reads it as 03:30 daylight time and returns 07:30 UTC.
When clocks fall back, one hour happens twice. In New York, 01:30 on 1 November 2026 occurs first in daylight time and then again in standard time. The converter uses the first occurrence and returns 05:30 UTC. If you meant the second, add an hour to the result.
Half-hour offsets
Not every zone is a whole number of hours from UTC. India is UTC+05:30 all year, which is why New York to Kolkata shows +09:30 in October and Kolkata to Karachi shows a 30-minute difference. Other places, outside this converter's list, use 45-minute offsets.
Related calculators
- Countdown calculator: time left until a date, counted in UTC.
- Date calculator: add or subtract days, weeks or months from a date.
- Travel time calculator: estimate how long a drive will take, then convert your arrival time if you cross zones.
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