Paris Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in Paris right now. Maybe you have a call with someone in France, a flight to catch, a match kicking off on Paris time, or someone to reach before their evening is over. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in Paris and ticks forward every second, so there is nothing for you to work out by hand.

Wherever in the world you are reading this from, the clock tracks Paris and keeps itself right on its own, even across the days when the clocks change. Whether Paris is on its winter or its summer setting at the time, the clock shows the correct local time.

Paris changes its clocks twice a year

Here is the part worth knowing about Paris time. Paris does not stay on the same clock all year. It uses Central European Time, CET, through the winter, and moves an hour ahead to Central European Summer Time, CEST, for the summer.

So there are two settings behind Paris time:

• CET, Central European Time. One hour ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 1. The winter setting, from late October to late March.
• CEST, Central European Summer Time. Two hours ahead of UTC, written UTC plus 2. The summer setting, from late March to late October.

The clock above follows whichever one is in force, so you do not have to track it yourself. The section further down spells out the dates if you ever need to work it out for a particular day.

What time zone Paris is in

Paris runs on Central European Time, the zone shared by a broad band of countries from Spain across to Poland. In the winter that is one hour ahead of UTC, and in the summer it springs forward to two hours ahead. The rest of mainland France keeps the same time as Paris, as do neighbours like Germany, Spain, and Italy.

There is a fun wrinkle here. Mainland France is a single time zone, but France as a whole spans more time zones than any other country on earth, twelve in total, once you count its overseas departments and territories scattered from the Caribbean to the Pacific. So while Paris keeps one steady clock, the French Republic stretches right around the globe.

How to tell if Paris is on CET or CEST right now

Paris changes its clocks on two Sundays a year, and across the European Union those dates are fixed by law, Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements. Every member state changes together:

• Spring forward. On the last Sunday of March, the clocks jump ahead one hour. CET becomes CEST, and Paris goes from UTC plus 1 to UTC plus 2.
• Fall back. On the last Sunday of October, the clocks drop back one hour. CEST becomes CET again, at UTC plus 1.

So the rule is short. From the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October, Paris is on CEST. The rest of the year, late October round to late March, it is on CET. Place today between those two Sundays and you have your answer.

Time difference from Paris to other cities

The cities that share Europe's daylight saving schedule stay a fixed distance from Paris all year, while the ones that do not change their clocks can shift by an hour between Paris's winter and summer. Here is the quick reference, assuming it is 12 noon in Paris.

A few quick examples

Let us run a few, so you can see how this works.

Say it is 12 noon in Paris. London is an hour behind all year, so 11 in the morning there. In the winter, New York is six hours behind, making it 6 in the morning on the US East Coast, while Mumbai is four and a half hours ahead at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Now a call to New York, which has one small catch. France and the US both change their clocks, but not on the same dates, so for a couple of short windows in spring and autumn the usual six hour gap briefly narrows to five. For anything that has to land exactly in those weeks, trust the live clock over the rule of thumb.

And one for Asia. Tokyo is eight hours ahead of Paris in winter, so a 9 in the morning start in Paris is already 5 in the evening in Tokyo, near the end of their working day. The overlap between France and Japan is narrow, so those calls tend to sit early in the Paris morning.

A couple of things about Paris time

Paris sits at about 49 degrees north, so the length of the day swings a good deal across the year. Around midsummer there are roughly sixteen hours between sunrise and sunset, with the light lasting well into the evening, while around midwinter that drops to about eight hours and it is dark by late afternoon.

One quiet quirk is that France runs its clocks a little ahead of where the sun would put them. Paris lies west of the meridian its time zone is built on, so the sun is at its highest a touch after 12 noon by the clock in winter, and later still in summer on CEST, when the country is two hours ahead of UTC. It is a small reason the evenings feel so long there in the warmer months.

Other places on the same time

Plenty of cities keep the same time as Paris on Central European Time. Here are a few to jump to:

• Lyon time now
• Madrid time now
• Rome time now
• Berlin time now

For the country as a whole, see France time now. And if it is the time zone itself you are reading up on rather than the city, the summer side is at CEST Time Now, and the global reference it is measured from at UTC Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in Paris right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. Just remember that Paris changes its clocks, so it shows CET through the winter and CEST through the summer, switching over on its own. Either way, the time shown is the correct Paris time.

Is Paris on CET or CEST right now?

Go by the dates. Paris is on CEST from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. The rest of the year, from late October round to late March, it is on CET. Find where today falls between those two Sundays and you will know.

What time zone is Paris in?

Central European Time, one hour ahead of UTC, in the winter, and Central European Summer Time, two hours ahead, in the summer. It is the same zone as much of mainland Europe, from Spain to Poland.

How many hours ahead of London is Paris?

One hour ahead, all year. Paris and London both change their clocks, but on the same dates, so the one hour gap between them never changes.

What is the time difference between Paris and New York?

New York is normally six hours behind Paris. The two change their clocks on slightly different dates, so for a couple of short windows in spring and autumn the gap narrows to five hours.

What is the IANA name for Paris time?

It is Europe/Paris in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. It carries both the CET and CEST offsets along with the rule for switching between them, and it is what drives the live clock on this page.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), home of the Europe/Paris identifier. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. Directive 2000/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on summer-time arrangements, which sets the last Sundays of March and October as the change dates across the EU. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2000/84/oj
3. Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), Time Department, which maintains Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the reference Central European Time is measured from. https://www.bipm.org/en/work-programme/time