The short answer
Pacific Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Time, all year round. At 09:00 in Los Angeles it is 12:00 in New York. The gap never changes, because both zones change their clocks on the same dates at 02:00 local time.
The labels do change, though. In winter the zones are EST (Eastern Standard Time, UTC−5) and PST (Pacific Standard Time, UTC−8). From the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November they are EDT (UTC−4) and PDT (UTC−7). Writing "EST" and "PST" in summer is very common and usually harmless between Americans. It can mislead software and people abroad, who may take the labels literally.
The four main zones in the contiguous US
| Zone | Winter | Summer | Example cities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern | EST, UTC−5 | EDT, UTC−4 | New York, Washington DC, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Detroit |
| Central | CST, UTC−6 | CDT, UTC−5 | Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, New Orleans |
| Mountain | MST, UTC−7 | MDT, UTC−6 | Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque (Phoenix: MST all year) |
| Pacific | PST, UTC−8 | PDT, UTC−7 | Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland |
Alaska (UTC−9, UTC−8 in summer) and Hawaii (UTC−10 all year) make six zones across the 50 states. US territories add more: Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands use Atlantic Standard Time (UTC−4), and Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands use Chamorro Standard Time (UTC+10). None of these territories changes its clocks.
Zone boundaries follow state and county lines rather than straight lines of longitude, and several states are split. Most of Texas is Central but El Paso is Mountain. Most of Florida is Eastern but the western Panhandle is Central. Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Idaho, Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas are all divided. If you are scheduling with a smaller town, check the specific location.
Clock change dates
Since 2007, the US has followed the Energy Policy Act of 2005: clocks go forward at 02:00 local time on the second Sunday of March and back at 02:00 on the first Sunday of November.
- 2026: forward on Sunday 8 March, back on Sunday 1 November.
- 2027: forward on Sunday 14 March, back on Sunday 7 November.
- 2028: forward on Sunday 12 March, back on Sunday 5 November.
Because each zone changes at 02:00 local time, the changes ripple across the country over several hours. New York changes first and Los Angeles three hours later. For those few hours in the early morning the usual gaps are briefly out by one. This matters only for systems running overnight jobs.
The exceptions: Arizona and Hawaii
Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time (UTC−7) all year, so it does not use daylight saving time. The Navajo Nation, in the north-east of the state, is the exception and does change its clocks. The result surprises many people: in summer, Phoenix shows the same time as Los Angeles, and in winter it matches Denver. Its gap with New York is 3 hours in summer and 2 in winter.
Hawaii stays on Hawaii Standard Time (UTC−10) all year. It is 2 hours behind Los Angeles in winter and 3 hours behind in summer, and 5 or 6 hours behind New York.
Changes next door in 2026
Two Canadian provinces stopped changing their clocks in 2026. British Columbia moved to permanent UTC−7 on 9 March 2026, and Alberta to permanent UTC−6 on 18 June 2026. From 1 November 2026, when the US falls back, Vancouver will be an hour ahead of Seattle, and Calgary an hour ahead of Denver. In summer they line up again. Teams that span the border need to watch for this. Mexico also ended daylight saving time in most of the country in 2022. Mexico City stays on UTC−6, matching Chicago in winter but an hour behind it in summer.
Scheduling coast to coast
A standard 09:00–17:00 day in New York overlaps with Los Angeles from 12:00 to 17:00 Eastern, which is 09:00 to 14:00 Pacific. That is five hours, but they include lunch on one coast or the other. Practical rules many teams use:
- Hold all-hands meetings at 12:00–14:00 Eastern (09:00–11:00 Pacific). Late morning in the West, early afternoon in the East.
- Avoid 09:00 Eastern starts for national calls. That is 06:00 in California.
- Avoid after 15:00 Pacific for anything that needs East Coast decisions, because it is 18:00 in New York.
- Include Central and Mountain colleagues by checking the middle of the window. 13:00 Eastern is 12:00 in Chicago, 11:00 in Denver and 10:00 in Los Angeles.
- Say "ET" and "PT", or the city, rather than EST and PST. That way the label is right in any season.
Calling the US from abroad
From the UK, the East Coast is usually 5 hours behind and the West Coast 8, with a few weeks each spring and autumn when both gaps are an hour smaller (see BST vs EST). From central Europe the gaps are usually 6 and 9 hours. From India, New York is 9½ hours behind during US summer time and 10½ in US winter. Los Angeles is 12½ or 13½ hours behind India. From Sydney, it depends on both hemispheres' change dates. Use the converter with the actual date.
Related pages
Live clocks: New York, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Los Angeles. Abbreviations: EST/EDT, CST/CDT, MST/MDT, PST/PDT. City pair: New York and Los Angeles.
Sources
- NIST, Daylight saving time rules: nist.gov
- US Department of Transportation, time zones: transportation.gov
- IANA time zone database: iana.org/time-zones