Time Zone Reference
All UTC offsets, major cities, and current local times. Click any zone to see details.
Times shown are current local times in each zone. DST offsets vary — actual offsets may differ seasonally.
Understanding UTC and Time Zone Offsets
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the global time standard from which all local time zones are derived. Every time zone in the world is expressed as an offset from UTC — for example, New York is UTC−5 during winter and UTC−4 during summer, while Tokyo is consistently UTC+9 year-round. This reference table shows every UTC offset currently in use, along with the major cities that fall within each zone and their current local time.
The Earth is divided into 24 standard hourly time zones, each roughly 15 degrees of longitude wide. However, political borders, economic ties, and historical decisions mean that actual time zones do not follow neat meridian lines. China, for instance, uses a single time zone (UTC+8) despite spanning five geographic zones, while several countries use 30-minute or 45-minute offsets — including India (UTC+5:30), Iran (UTC+3:30), and Nepal (UTC+5:45). In total, there are roughly three dozen distinct UTC offsets in use worldwide today.
Why Time Zone Offsets Change Seasonally
Many regions observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), which means they shift their clocks forward by one hour during summer months to make better use of evening daylight. When this happens, the UTC offset for that region changes — but the time zone name (e.g., America/New_York) stays the same. This is why the offset shown for a city in March may differ from the offset in November. ZoneMeets uses the IANA Time Zone Database, which tracks these seasonal changes automatically, so the times displayed here are always current and accurate.
Finding the Best Time for a Global Meeting
If you are scheduling a meeting across three or more continents, scan this table for the offset where the most participants fall within reasonable working hours (roughly 9 AM to 5 PM local time). When a perfect overlap does not exist, look for the window that minimises inconvenience — early morning on the US East Coast often lines up with late evening in East Asia, for example. For a more interactive approach, use the ZoneMeets time zone converter on the home page, which lets you drag a time slider and see all zones update simultaneously with colour-coded business-hour indicators.