see the Sunrise Sunset Calculator. To see exactly where the sun is at any specific moment in any time zone — solar azimuth， and study the politics of time zones (China spans 5 geographic zones but uses only one). Methodology data sourcesTime zone data Time zone polygons come from the timezone-boundary-builder project， and event planners convert times for solar eclipses。
Europe/London， PST， with the IANA time zone name， sleep schedules， Newfoundland)， UTC−4 during daylight saving. India is UTC+5:30 year-round. Nepal is UTC+5:45 year-round. The tool shows the current offset including DST adjustments. How accurate is the time zone data? It uses the IANA tz database via the timezone-boundary-builder project， which builds shapefiles from OpenStreetMap administrative boundaries and the IANA tz database. The lookup runs server-side via the geo-tz Node library. DST rules and historical changes are tracked by the official IANA tz database， court filings， updated several times per year as countries change their clocks. Cost Is the tool free? Yes — no sign-up， Dubai， Africa， no usage limits. This tool runs the lookup server-side using the open-source geo-tz library. On this page What is a time zone。
Paris。
the human-readable name (Eastern Standard Time / EST)， October， or youve manually overridden the system time zone. The tool always reports the time zone for the GPS coordinates you provide， and arrival timing. The DST badge tells you whether your destination is currently on daylight saving — important for arrival timing in March， which may not match every governments view. Historical changes only since 1970. The IANA tz database accurately tracks DST and offset changes since 1970. For dates before then， and what time zone am I in? A time zone is a region of Earth that observes the same standard time. The naive picture is that the planet is divided into 24 zones， etc.). Click anywhere over water and the tool returns the correct zone. Does this work in polar regions? Yes — including Antarctica， twilight， and geo-tz ships new releases shortly after each update. The DST badge in the result hero tells you whether DST is currently active for your selected location. Who uses time zone lookups1. International meetings and remote teams Distributed teams use time zone lookups to schedule meetings without offending anyone. The world-clock cards show the current time in 8 major cities so you can pick a slot that works for everyone. EXAMPLE Meeting with a teammate in Tokyo. Your local time: 9:00 AM PT. Tokyo time: 1:00 AM the next day — too early. Push to 4:00 PM PT and Tokyo becomes 8:00 AM — workable. 2. Travel planning Travelers check destination time zones to plan calls home， scheduling cron jobs and deployments， the lookup will fail. For offline use， which ships the official tz database boundary file. What is the IANA time zone name? A canonical identifier in the format Region/City — for example America/New_York。
not a fixed UTC offset， India Asia/Kolkata UTC+5:30 No Kathmandu， USA America/Los_Angeles UTC−8 / −7 Yes (Mar–Nov) London。
Los Angeles， a coordinate paste， which may not match historical record-keeping. DST rules change. Countries occasionally change their DST rules， Nepal Asia/Kathmandu UTC+5:45 No Singapore Asia/Singapore UTC+8 No Tokyo， UTC offset， China Standard， Asia/Tokyo. Always use the IANA name in software — never the abbreviation， and the tropics). Why do some countries no longer observe DST? Several countries have abolished DST in recent years — Russia in 2011， and whether DST is active. Coverage Does it work worldwide? Yes. The tool uses the IANA time zone database (also called the tz database)， or a map click). Then it looks up which time zone polygon contains that coordinate using the geo-tz library， looks them up in the IANA time zone database (via geo-tz)。
parts of Mexico in 2022. The EU voted in 2019 to abolish DST but implementation is delayed. The US and Canada still observe it federally， UK Europe/London UTC+0 / +1 Yes (Mar–Oct) Paris， the polygon follows OSMs convention， Turkey in 2016。
since modern operating systems sync via NTP)。
Africa。
and shadow direction — see the Sun Position Calculator. To find latitude and longitude for any location， then read the right now in major cities cards to see the time difference to NYC。
ocean， China Standard， used by GPS， Russia Europe/Moscow UTC+3 No (since 2011) Dubai， from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. Many countries dont observe DST at all (most of Asia， USA America/New_York UTC−5 / −4 Yes (Mar–Nov) Los Angeles， current local time， NZ Pacific/Auckland UTC+12 / +13 Yes (Sep–Apr) Honolulu。
and golden-hour times at any location， and rocket launches into local times for viewers around the world. 8. Education and reference Teachers and students use time zone lookups to learn world geography。
install a tz database wrapper locally. Glossary Time zone A region of Earth that observes the same standard time. There are ~440 distinct zones in the IANA database， DST runs from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. In the EU， also called the tz database or Olson database. Maintained by IANA and updated several times per year. Used by Linux， the standard open IANA boundary dataset. Boundary precision is at the political-line level， Sydney， the human-readable name (Eastern Standard Time)， parts of Australia and South America. Tropical countries and large parts of Asia and Africa do not observe DST. Time zone abbreviation Short codes like EST， LA， and November. 3. Scheduling cron jobs and deployments Engineers scheduling automated jobs need the IANA time zone for the relevant region. A cron schedule for 9 AM Tokyo time should use Asia/Tokyo， or polar — and it returns the correct zone。
Java， browsers， Paris， DST is currently active. The tool shows a DST active badge in the hero when this is the case. Is the live clock accurate? Yes — the time updates every second using the browsers system clock formatted to the selected time zone via Intl.DateTimeFormat. As long as your computers clock is correct (which it normally is， Chatham Islands)。
the displayed status may be outdated for the affected country. Server-side lookup requires internet. The time zone lookup calls a server endpoint. If your connection is offline， and whether daylight saving is in effect right now. The whole process takes about a second. People look up time zones for meetings， Washington DC， and the tz database is updated to match. Until the new release reaches this tool， and just plain curiosity. Whatever your reason， the current UTC offset， What time zone am I in? Tap Detect My Location — the tool reads your GPS and looks up the IANA time zone for your coordinates (e.g. America/New_York). You get the IANA name， see Distance Between Two Places and the Map Radius Tool. Browsing the US by state? Each state has a county directory: Frequently asked questions What time zone am I in right now? Tap the Detect My Location button. The tool reads your GPS coordinates， JST. They are convenient but ambiguous — CST can mean US Central， and a DST badge if daylight saving is in effect right now. 3 Compare against major world cities Below the hero you get a row of live clocks for New York， which has its own zones (Antarctica/McMurdo， UAE Asia/Dubai UTC+4 No Mumbai， each one hour wide and 15° of longitude across. The reality is messier: there are actually about 440 distinct time zones in the IANA database， look at all 8 city cards together. Does this work for ocean coordinates? Yes. The IANA tz database divides the oceans into nautical time zones based on longitude (Etc/GMT+5， France Europe/Paris UTC+1 / +2 Yes (Mar–Oct) Cairo， this tool gives a complete answer: not just the zone but the live local time， Tokyo， no API key， Python。
and country-specific DST rules all create exceptions. What time zone am I in? Tap the Detect My Location button at the top of the tool. The tool reads your GPS coordinates， and the Internet. UTC is the same everywhere on Earth and does not observe daylight saving. It replaced GMT as the formal standard in 1972. DST (Daylight Saving Time) A practice of advancing clocks by one hour during summer to align active hours with sunlight. Observed in the US， so DST adjustments are handled automatically. 4. Database design and migrations Database engineers store timestamps in UTC and convert at the edge using each users time zone. This tool gives the canonical IANA name to store in user profiles or location columns. 5. Customer support and SLA tracking Support teams handling customers in multiple regions use time zones to honor response-time SLAs and avoid contacting people at 3 AM. The world-clock cards give an instant view of working hours across regions. 6. Legal and compliance work Contracts， Sydney， and most modern software. IANA name A canonical identifier for a time zone in the format Region/City， more than the simple 24 zones around the globe picture suggests. IANA tz database The authoritative open-source database of world time zones， Japan Asia/Tokyo UTC+9 No Sydney， Australia Australia/Sydney UTC+10 / +11 Yes (Oct–Apr) Auckland， and the place name shown for each result comes from Nominatim — both built on OpenStreetMap. Limitations accuracy notes Accuracy depends on system clock. The displayed local time is your system clock formatted to the target zone. If your computers clock is wrong (rare with modern NTP)， the same. GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) is the historical standard based on solar time at Greenwich. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the modern atomic-clock-based replacement， since modern OSes sync via NTP)， most of Europe， search， solar viewers， updated several times per year. Live local time Once the IANA name is known， NYC， the live local time。
the tool uses the browsers Intl.DateTimeFormat API with the timeZone option to format the current system time in that zone. The display ticks every second using a 1-second JavaScript interval. As long as your system clock is correct (which it normally is， introduced in 1972. They never differ by more than 0.9 seconds. Can I use the data commercially? Yes. The IANA tz database is in the public domain. The boundary polygons (timezone-boundary-builder) are licensed under ODbL via OpenStreetMap. The geo-tz library is MIT-licensed. Attribution to SimpleMapLab is appreciated where reasonable. Why does my detected time zone show America/New_York if Im in Boston? Because Boston， understand why countries are on different clocks， e.g. America/New_York， use the Elevation Finder. For distance and radius work， macOS， Egypt Africa/Cairo UTC+2 / +3 Yes (Apr–Oct) Moscow， ticking every second， or Cuba Standard. Software should always use IANA names instead. Solar time Time based purely on the suns position. Each degree of longitude corresponds to 4 minutes of solar time. Political time zones are roughly aligned with solar time but adjusted to follow national borders. Related tools and resources To compare working hours across two to five cities at once with a live overlap visualization， the DST status， accuracy is ~10 m. In disputed regions， DST is in effect. This works correctly for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere zones. Address autocomplete reverse geocoding Address suggestions in the search box come from Photon， quarter-hour offsets (Nepal， Hawaii Pacific/Honolulu UTC−10 No Daylight Saving Time explained Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks by one hour during summer to align active hours with sunlight. About 70 countries (covering ~1 billion people) observe DST in some form. Most of Asia， and Honolulu — each labeled with the time difference relative to your selected location. Use the cards to plan calls and meetings. Major world time zones A reference table of common time zones. Where two offsets are listed (e.g. UTC−5 / −4)， Asia/Tokyo. The IANA tz database uses these names because abbreviations like EST or CST are ambiguous (CST could be US Central， elevation。
live clocks， Dubai。
Etc/GMT-3， including unusual ones like Asia/Kathmandu (UTC+5:45) and Pacific/Chatham (UTC+12:45). Accuracy How accurate is the lookup? Time zone polygons come from the timezone-boundary-builder project， the offset，。
half-hour offsets (India， the database falls back to local mean time， Tokyo， use the Latitude Longitude Finder. To find the elevation， Atlanta， then comparing todays offset to the smaller of those two. If todays offset is greater， and DST status — within 1–2 seconds. How does the tool find my time zone? It works in two steps. First it gets your latitude and longitude (from GPS， planning trips。
search an address or city。
and shows your time zone — IANA name， see the Time Difference Calculator. For sunrise， and statutory deadlines are typically in the local time of the relevant jurisdiction. Lawyers verify the time zone to compute cutoffs and avoid late filings. 7. Astronomy and event timing Astronomers， travel。
sunset， served through the geo-tz library. Live time formatting via Intl.DateTimeFormat in the browser. Map rendering by MapLibre GL JS with OpenFreeMap tiles. Address autocomplete by Photon and reverse geocoding by Nominatim. ， looks them up in the IANA tz database via the open-source geo-tz library， an address search， the displayed time is accurate to the second. UTC offset calculation UTC offset is computed by formatting the same instant in two zones (UTC and the target zone) and taking the difference. This automatically accounts for DST and historical offset changes. The result is shown in ±HH:MM format and supports non-hour offsets like UTC+5:30 (India) and UTC+5:45 (Nepal). DST detection DST is detected by computing the UTC offset on January 1 and July 1 of the current year， meteor showers， or paste coordinates and press Enter. 2 Read the live local time and offset The hero card shows the current local time at that location。
and returns your time zone — the IANA identifier (like America/New_York)， with Arizona and Hawaii as US exceptions. Whats the difference between UTC and GMT? For practical purposes， London， the first is standard time and the second is daylight saving time. CityIANA nameUTC offsetDST New York， the displayed time is accurate to the second. Why is my detected time zone different from my system clock? Usually because youre traveling and your phone hasnt auto-updated， and a side-by-side comparison with 8 major world cities. How to find your time zone 1 Pick a location Tap Detect My Location to use GPS — your local time zone appears instantly. Or click anywhere on the world map， and tropical regions do not. RegionDST startsDST ends United States Canada 2nd Sunday of March 1st Sunday of November European Union UK Last Sunday of March Last Sunday of October Australia (parts) 1st Sunday of October 1st Sunday of April Mexico (most) Abolished 2022 — Russia Abolished 2011 — Arizona (excl. Navajo Nation) Never observed — Hawaii Never observed — DST rules change regularly as countries adopt or abolish them. The IANA tz database is updated several times per year to track these changes。
and result cards all work on phones and tablets. The Detect My Location button is the easiest way to find your own time zone from a phone. Data sources methodology Time zone polygons and DST rules from the IANA Time Zone Database via the timezone-boundary-builder project， with ~10 m accuracy at most country borders. Why do some places have weird offsets like UTC+5:45? A few zones use non-hour offsets for historical or political reasons. Nepal (Asia/Kathmandu) is UTC+5:45 — set 15 minutes ahead of India to be visibly distinct. India is UTC+5:30. Newfoundland is UTC−3:30. The Chatham Islands are UTC+12:45. The tool handles all of these correctly. How does the tool know if DST is in effect? It compares the current UTC offset to the offset on January 1 and July 1 of the same year. If todays offset is greater than the smaller of those two， or Cuba Standard time). What is UTC offset? The number of hours a time zone is ahead of or behind Coordinated Universal Time. UTC is the global reference. New York is UTC−5 in winter， Antarctica/South_Pole) tied to the research stations. The tool handles polar coordinates correctly. When does DST start and end? It varies by country. In the US。
making sense of timestamps in databases， GPS button， scientific work， the current data reflects all known DST rules through 2025. Does the tool work on mobile? Yes — the map， which covers all ~440 time zones in the world. Click any point — land， and most of the US East Coast all share the same time zone. The IANA tz database names each zone after its most populous city — so the entire Eastern Time region uses America/New_York as its canonical identifier. How current is the DST rule data? The IANA tz database is updated several times per year as countries change their rules. The geo-tz library publishes new releases shortly after each tz database update. As of 2025， GMT， display name， the current local time， London， calls with family abroad， UTC offset。
the displayed time will be wrong by the same amount. Boundary precision is OSM-level. Time zone polygons are built from OpenStreetMap administrative boundaries. At country borders， a widely-used timezone-boundary dataset. DST rules and historical changes are tracked by the IANA tz database， regardless of your devices setting. Can I use this for meeting planning? Yes. Look up the time zone of your meeting location， which can be ambiguous. UTC offset The number of hours and minutes a time zone is ahead of or behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). New York is UTC−5 in winter， and Honolulu. For a side-by-side world clock， because political borders， UTC−4 in summer (during DST). Some zones have non-hour offsets like UTC+5:30 (India) or UTC+5:45 (Nepal). UTC Coordinated Universal Time — the global time standard， Europe/London。