USA Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in the United States right now. The tricky bit is that there is no single answer, because the country runs across several time zones at once. The clock at the top of this page shows Eastern Time, used on the East Coast where the largest share of the population lives, from New York down to Miami. It ticks forward every second.

But Eastern is only one part of the picture. When it is midday in New York it is still mid-morning in California, and earlier still up in Alaska and out in Hawaii. So this page lays out all of the US zones, and the section a little further down shows how to read any of them straight off the Eastern clock above.

The time zones of the United States

The United States proper uses six main time zones. Starting on the East Coast and moving west, each one is an hour behind the last, until you reach Hawaii. Here they are, with their winter and summer offsets, since most of them change for daylight saving.

Across the mainland, Eastern is the most populated zone by a wide margin, with close to half the country, and the West Coast Pacific zone is the next biggest. Beyond these six, a few US territories sit on their own offsets, such as Puerto Rico, which keeps Atlantic time at UTC minus 4 all year, and Guam, which is on the far side of the date line at UTC plus 10.

Reading the other US zones off the clock

Because the clock above is on Eastern Time, the simplest way to get any other US zone is to count back from it. Each zone to the west is a set number of hours behind. Here is the quick reference, assuming the clock reads 12 noon Eastern.

For the mainland zones, these gaps hold steady all year, because they all change their clocks together. Hawaii is the odd one out, since it does not use daylight saving, so its gap to the East Coast grows by an hour each summer.

Daylight saving across the US, and who skips it

Most of the United States observes daylight saving time, and the dates are set in US law, the Uniform Time Act, last amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. On the second Sunday of March the clocks spring forward an hour, and on the first Sunday of November they fall back. Because the mainland zones all move together, the one hour gaps between them stay fixed through the year.

There are two notable holdouts. Most of Arizona does not change its clocks. It stays on Mountain Standard Time all year, which means that through the summer it actually lines up with Pacific Time rather than the rest of the Mountain zone. The exception within the exception is the Navajo Nation, which does observe daylight saving. Hawaii does not change its clocks either, holding on its standard offset year-round, and neither do the US territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam.

US cities by zone

If you want a live clock for one particular part of the country rather than the Eastern clock above, here are the major cities by zone:

• New York time now (Eastern)
• Washington DC time now (Eastern)
• Miami time now (Eastern)
• Chicago time now (Central)
• Los Angeles time now (Pacific)
• San Francisco time now (Pacific)
• Seattle time now (Pacific)
• Las Vegas time now (Pacific)
• Alaska time now (Alaska)

For the West Coast as a whole, there is also California time now.

A few quick examples

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

Say the clock here reads 12 noon Eastern, lunchtime in New York. Counting back, it is 11 in the morning in Chicago, 10 in Denver, and 9 in the morning in Los Angeles, where the day is just getting going. Up in Alaska it is 8 in the morning, and in Hawaii 7, or 6 in the summer.

This is the thing to keep in mind when you are arranging a call that spans the country. A 9 in the morning start on the East Coast is only 6 in the morning on the West Coast, too early for most people. The window that tends to work for everyone, from New York to Los Angeles, is the East Coast afternoon, which is late morning in California.

And if your call reaches all the way to Hawaii, remember the extra summer hour. A time that is five hours apart from the East Coast in winter is six hours apart in summer, since Hawaii stays put while the mainland springs forward.

Questions people ask

What time is it in the USA right now?

There is no single US time, because the country spans several zones. The clock near the top of this page shows Eastern Time, used on the East Coast where most of the population lives. To get another part of the country, count back from it using the table above, or open one of the city clocks lower down.

How many time zones does the US have?

Six main ones across the country: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, and Hawaii. A few US territories, like Puerto Rico and Guam, sit on further offsets of their own, which takes the full count higher.

What time zone is the clock on this page showing?

Eastern Time, the East Coast zone that runs from New York to Miami. It is the most populated US zone, which is why it is the one shown, and every other US zone can be read off it from the table above.

What is the time difference between New York and Los Angeles?

Three hours. New York is on Eastern Time and Los Angeles is on Pacific Time, three hours behind. Both change their clocks on the same dates, so that three hour gap holds all year.

Does all of the US observe daylight saving?

No. Most of the country does, springing forward in March and back in November. Most of Arizona does not, staying on Mountain Standard Time all year, and Hawaii does not either. US territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam also keep a fixed offset.

What are the US time zones from east to west?

Eastern at UTC minus 5, then Central, Mountain, and Pacific, each an hour further back, then Alaska, and finally Hawaii at UTC minus 10. Those offsets are the winter, standard-time values; in summer most of them move forward an hour for daylight saving.

What is the IANA name for the US Eastern zone shown here?

It is America/New_York in the IANA time zone database, the time data your phone and your computer use. It carries the EST and EDT offsets and the daylight saving rule, and it is what drives the live clock on this page. Other US zones use identifiers like America/Chicago and America/Los_Angeles.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), home of the America/New_York, America/Chicago, and other US identifiers. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. U.S. Code, Title 15, Section 260a: Advancement of time or changeover dates. The Uniform Time Act of 1966, as amended by Section 110 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-58), which sets the daylight saving dates. Office of the Law Revision Counsel. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title15-section260a
3. U.S. Department of Transportation. Uniform Time, and the official listing of the nation's time zones under 49 CFR Part 71, Standard Time Zone Boundaries. https://www.transportation.gov/regulations/time-act
4. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Time and Frequency Division, the source of official time for the United States. https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division