UK to US time
London to New York is five hours, except when it is four. The converter below is preset for the UK-US question, and the mismatch weeks are explained underneath.
Guide
How to use it
- The converter is preset London to New York, switch the to-zone for Central, Mountain or Pacific.
- Set the date, the UK-US gap changes twice a year, on different weeks.
- Use the strip’s tinted hours for meeting planning: London to Eastern shares a generous window, London to Pacific shares almost nothing before your evening.
Examples
The standard gaps
New York, Boston, Miami, Toronto too: five hours behind the UK. London 14:00 is 09:00 Eastern, the classic first-call-of-their-day slot.
Chicago and Dallas six behind, Denver seven (but Phoenix skips DST and floats between six and seven). Mid-country calls want your mid-afternoon.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle: eight behind. Their 09:00 is your 17:00, the UK-Pacific relationship is one meeting a day, chosen carefully.
Method
How it works
Conversions run on the IANA database, so the two mismatch periods are handled automatically: in March the US springs forward roughly two weeks before the UK (gap shrinks by an hour), and around late October to early November the UK falls back first (gap shrinks again, from the other side).
During those windows London-New York is four hours, not five, a fortnight per year of missed calls that this page exists to prevent.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why did my usual 3pm call move?
You are in a mismatch window: the US changes clocks mid-March, the UK late March, and the reverse in autumn. Calendar software handles it, human habit does not.
Is EST the same as Eastern time?
EST is specifically winter (Standard) time, summer is EDT. People say EST year-round, tools should not: this converter renders the correct abbreviation for the date.
Which US zone is Toronto in?
Eastern, same clock as New York. Canada broadly mirrors US DST, so UK-Toronto behaves like UK-New York.
When is the best UK-US meeting time?
London 15:00-17:00 catches Eastern mid-morning and Pacific first thing. Earlier only suits Eastern, later pushes the UK into overtime.
Does Arizona really not change clocks?
Most of it, no (the Navajo Nation does). Phoenix sits at UTC−7 all year, matching Pacific in summer and Mountain in winter.
What about Alaska and Hawaii?
Anchorage is nine behind the UK (in the converter’s list), Hawaii ten and DST-free. Both are why the date field matters more than memory.
More tools