UTC Offset for Any City
Look up a city's current UTC offset, time-zone abbreviation, local time, and whether daylight saving is in effect. Live IANA data. Runs in your browser.
Offsets come from your browser’s IANA time-zone database and reflect the city’s rules right now, including daylight saving. DST observance is detected by comparing the January and July offsets; “in DST” means the clock is currently on the forward (summer) offset. Everything runs in your browser.
About this tool
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the global reference against which every local time is defined as an offset — New York might be UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 in summer, while India sits at a fixed UTC+5:30. This tool looks up a city's current offset from UTC, along with its time-zone abbreviation (like GMT, EST, or JST), the current local time there, and — importantly — whether daylight saving time is currently in effect. The offsets are read live from your browser's IANA time-zone database, the same authoritative dataset operating systems use, so they reflect each location's actual rules at this moment rather than a hard-coded value that would be wrong half the year. The tool detects daylight saving by comparing the city's offset in January with its offset in July: if the two differ, the location observes DST, and it then reports whether the clock is currently on the standard (winter) or the forward summer offset. This correctly handles the Southern Hemisphere, where summer and winter are reversed, and locations that don't observe DST at all (much of Asia and the tropics) are flagged as having a single fixed offset. Knowing a city's UTC offset is the foundation for scheduling international calls, interpreting timestamps in logs and emails, coordinating live events, and converting times between regions. Remember that offsets change at DST transitions, which happen on different dates in different countries, so an offset that's true today may shift by an hour in a few weeks for places that spring forward or fall back. For planning a specific cross-zone meeting, pair this with the meeting planner. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How to use it
- Select a city from the list.
- Read its current UTC offset and time-zone abbreviation.
- See the current local time and whether daylight saving is in effect.
- Note the standard vs DST offsets to anticipate the next clock change.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a UTC offset?
- The difference between a location's local time and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). For example, New York in winter is UTC−5, meaning local time is 5 hours behind UTC. The offset can change with daylight saving.
- How does the tool know if daylight saving is active?
- It compares the city's offset in January and July. If they differ, the city observes DST, and the tool reports whether the clock is currently on the standard or the forward (summer) offset.
- Why do some cities have a fixed offset year-round?
- Many regions — much of Asia, Africa, and the tropics — do not observe daylight saving, so their offset never changes. India (UTC+5:30) and Japan (UTC+9) are examples; the tool marks these as not observing DST.
- Does this work for the Southern Hemisphere?
- Yes. There, DST runs during the Northern winter (e.g. Sydney is on its summer offset around January). The January-vs-July comparison correctly identifies DST regardless of hemisphere.
- Will the offset change soon?
- It can, at the next DST transition. Countries change on different dates, so an offset shown today may shift by an hour within weeks for locations that observe DST. The tool shows both the standard and DST offsets.
- Is anything uploaded?
- No. The lookup uses your browser's built-in time-zone data and runs entirely locally.