How to Convert Time Zones (IST, EST, PST, GMT) Without Daylight Saving Mistakes
Take a team call with people in Pune, London and San Francisco. A spreadsheet with offsets typed in by hand works until daylight saving changes in one country and not another, and then someone misses the call, twice a year. Time zone converter shows every city's day side by side, with working hours shaded, and handles daylight saving from your browser's own time zone data.
Steps
- Type a city such as Pune, London or New York and pick it. Add as many as you need.
- Set the date and time in the first city, or tap an hour on its strip.
- Copy the link to share the same view, or add the slot to your calendar.
How to read the planner
The first city is the base: the time you set is its local time, and each row shows what time it is elsewhere during the base city's day. Green hours fall inside working hours (9:00 to 18:00 by default, and you can change that); dark hours are night (22:00 to 7:00). Find a column that's green in every row and you've found your meeting slot.
Press Base on any row to make that city the reference instead.
Daylight saving, handled
Offsets come from your browser's time zone database for the exact date you pick. The US and Europe change clocks on different weekends in spring and autumn, so for a week or two the gap between New York and London is an hour different from usual. Pick a date in that window and the planner shows the correct gap. India doesn't observe daylight saving, so IST stays at UTC+5:30 all year, which is exactly why Indian teams get caught out by everyone else's changes.
Half-hour and 45-minute zones
Some zones aren't whole hours from UTC: India is +5:30, Nepal +5:45, parts of Australia +9:30. When the base city's hour starts, it's 30 or 45 minutes past the hour there, and the strip shows that.
Finding cities
Most cities share a zone named after a bigger city in the same country, so Pune and Chennai use Asia/Kolkata. If a small town isn't listed, type the country's main city, or a short form like IST or EST.
Sharing a time
Two options:
- Copy the link. It carries the cities and the time, so the other person sees the same view in their own browser, converted correctly for them.
- Add to calendar downloads an .ics file with the time in every city written in the notes, which avoids "is that my 3 pm or yours?" emails.
Example: India, UK and US West Coast
Pune (base), London and San Francisco. Pune's 21:30 is 17:00 in London during British Summer Time and 09:00 in San Francisco during Pacific Daylight Time: the end of London's day, the start of California's, and late evening in India. Not perfect for anyone, but workable. Move to November and the offsets shift; the planner shows it immediately.
Tips for distributed teams
- Rotate the inconvenient slot so the same people aren't always on late calls.
- Write times with the city or zone, not just "3 pm".
- Double-check around late March and early November, the busiest daylight-saving transition periods.
- Record decisions in writing, so people who can't attend live aren't left out.
Privacy
According to the page, nothing is sent to a server. Cities and the time are kept in the page address so links work, and your city list is remembered on this device. It reads your browser's zone only to suggest a default city, and never asks for your location. Google ads appear on the page, as across the site.
FAQ
Can I find a city that isn't listed? Use the main city in the same zone, or a short form like IST.
Does it handle daylight saving? Yes, for the exact date you pick.
How do I share a meeting time? Copy the link or download the calendar file.
Is my location used? No.
Schedule your next cross-border call with Time zone converter.
— Alok Kumar Singh