Meeting time
Date (optional)
Result (click to copy)
Finding a Time That Works
The entered time is your own local time
Whatever you type is interpreted using your device's own timezone (shown above your results) — not UTC and not any of the listed cities. Double-check the "Your timezone" line matches where you actually are.
"Ok" doesn't mean ideal
The 🟡 status covers a wide early-morning/evening window. For a genuinely convenient meeting, aim for as many ✅ "Work hours" results as possible across your key attendees' locations.
Always set a date for recurring or future meetings
Daylight Saving Time shifts several of these zones by an hour at different points in the year. For anything beyond "right now," enter the actual meeting date so the conversion reflects the correct DST state.
How to Use the Meeting Time Zone Planner
- Enter meeting time — the time in your local time zone or the time zone you are scheduling from.
- Enter date — optional but important for daylight saving time accuracy. DST changes affect US and European time zones seasonally.
- Read the global time table — see your meeting time converted to 12 major cities with work-hours status indicators.
- Check status indicators — green ✅ means standard work hours (9 AM–6 PM), yellow 🟡 means early/late but workable, red 🔴 means night time.
- Find the optimal time — adjust your meeting time until the maximum number of participants show green or yellow status.
🌍 The global sweet spot: 9–10 AM US Eastern time covers: US (work hours), UK (2–3 PM ✅), Europe (3–4 PM ✅), India (6:30–7:30 PM 🟡). For US + Asia Pacific: 8 AM US Eastern = 9 PM Tokyo (late 🟡) / 10 PM Sydney (late 🟡) — difficult but manageable. There is no perfect time for all time zones simultaneously.
Understanding Global Time Zones
🌐 UTC Reference
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the global reference. All time zones are expressed as UTC offsets. New York: UTC-5 (UTC-4 during DST). London: UTC+0 (UTC+1 during BST). Dubai: UTC+4. Karachi/PKT: UTC+5. Mumbai: UTC+5:30. Singapore/HK: UTC+8. Tokyo: UTC+9.
☀️ Daylight Saving Time
US clocks spring forward in March, fall back in November. UK/Europe: last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October. DST shifts create 1–2 hour changes in relative time differences between regions during transition periods. Australia's DST runs opposite to the Northern Hemisphere.
🏢 Remote Work Challenge
Distributed teams face the time zone coordination challenge daily. The solution: establish core overlap hours (typically 4 hours where all team members are in work hours), protect those hours for synchronous meetings, and use asynchronous communication for everything else.
📅 Meeting Scheduling Tools
World Time Buddy, Every Time Zone, and Calendly with time zone detection simplify scheduling. Google Calendar automatically converts meeting times to each recipient's time zone. These tools prevent the common error of forgetting DST transitions when scheduling across regions.
⏰ Time Zone Etiquette
Always specify the time zone when scheduling across regions. '3 PM meeting' is ambiguous globally. '3 PM EST' or '15:00 UTC' eliminates confusion. When in doubt, use UTC as the unambiguous reference that everyone can convert from.
🔄 Rotating Meeting Times
For recurring meetings with globally distributed teams, rotating the meeting time fairly distributes the inconvenience. Week 1: convenient for US + Europe. Week 2: convenient for Asia + Europe. No team should permanently bear the burden of early morning or late night calls.
Remote Work and Global Collaboration
Asynchronous-first culture
The most effective globally distributed teams default to asynchronous communication and reserve synchronous meetings for discussions that genuinely require real-time interaction. This means detailed written updates, recorded video walkthroughs, and documented decisions — reducing the number of required cross-timezone meetings to the essential minimum. Teams that master async communication achieve better outcomes with far less scheduling friction than those who try to replicate in-office meeting culture across time zones.
The meeting cost calculation
A 1-hour meeting with 8 people costs 8 person-hours. For a global team where 4 people attend outside work hours (early morning or evening), the cost includes both time and wellbeing. Recurring off-hours meetings cause burnout and erode work-life balance for those perpetually inconvenienced. This calculator helps identify times that minimise the total burden across the team.
Client communication across time zones
For client-facing roles spanning multiple time zones, setting clear communication response time expectations prevents misunderstandings. 'I respond to messages within 4 business hours in my time zone' is clear and professional. Building a 'follow the sun' workflow — where team members in different time zones hand off to each other — provides near-24-hour client coverage without requiring anyone to work unusual hours.
🌍 Global meeting rule: Before scheduling any cross-timezone meeting, use this tool to verify that your proposed time is reasonable for all participants. A meeting at 9 AM New York time forces Tokyo participants to attend at 10 PM — acceptable occasionally, not as a recurring weekly obligation. Respect for colleagues' time zones is foundational to effective global collaboration.
Avoid These Mistakes
Assuming a time zone name means a fixed offset
"Eastern Time" isn't always UTC-5 — it's UTC-4 for roughly half the year (EDT). Always let a tool calculate from an actual date rather than memorizing a single offset per city.
Scheduling recurring meetings without rechecking DST
A recurring meeting that lands at a good time in one season can shift by an hour for some attendees after a DST change, even though the meeting's local time on your own calendar hasn't moved.
Not confirming your own detected timezone
This tool reads your timezone from your device. If you're traveling or your device's clock/timezone setting is wrong, the "Your timezone" line — and every converted time — will be wrong too. Check it before sending an invite.
Treating 🟡 "Ok" as equivalent to normal hours
A 🟡 result means early morning or evening for that attendee, not a normal workday slot — fine occasionally, a real burden if repeated weekly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I schedule a meeting across time zones?
Enter your meeting time and this tool shows it in 12 global cities instantly. Green ✅ means it's during standard work hours (9AM-6PM). Yellow 🟡 means early/late but reasonable. Red 🔴 means it's night time.
What is UTC/GMT?
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) are essentially the same reference point. All time zones are expressed as offsets from UTC, and that offset can change with Daylight Saving Time. For example, Pakistan Standard Time (PKT) is a fixed UTC+5 year-round, while New York shifts between UTC-5 (EST, winter) and UTC-4 (EDT, summer) — which is why this tool always calculates from a real date rather than a fixed offset table.
What is the best time for global meetings?
9-10 AM US Eastern time works well for US + Europe (2-3 PM UK, 3-4 PM Central Europe). For US + Asia/Pacific: early morning US is afternoon/evening Asia. Avoid 12 PM - 1 PM as it's lunch in most places.
References
🌐 IANA Time Zone Database
The authoritative source for time zone and Daylight Saving Time rules worldwide — the same database used by browsers (including this tool) to compute accurate local times.
📅 Your calendar app
For a meeting you're actually sending invites for, your calendar software's own time zone conversion (Google Calendar, Outlook) is the definitive source once the invite is created — use this tool for planning, then confirm in the invite itself.