UtilibyWritten by the Utiliby editorial team · Last updated October 12, 2026 · Rules and formulas reviewed October 2026
What is a meeting time zone planner?
When people work in different places, the hardest part of scheduling is not the meeting itself but the arithmetic: what time is 3:00 p.m. in New York in Lagos, Mumbai and Sydney, and is anyone being asked to join in the middle of the night? A meeting time zone planner, also called a world clock meeting planner or time zone converter for meetings, does that arithmetic for you and shows the answer as a picture.
This free online meeting time zone planner puts up to eight cities on one timeline. Each row is a location, each column is a 30-minute slot, and the colour tells you whether that time is inside working hours, a stretch, or night. The best overlap is listed for you, you can click any slot to see the exact local times for everyone, and you can copy an invitation, download a calendar file or share a link to the plan. It runs in your browser, so nothing you enter is sent to a server.
How to find the best meeting time across time zones
- Add everyone's location. Your device's zone is added automatically. Use the search or the quick buttons to add the rest.
- Choose the date and length. The date matters because of daylight saving. The length matters because a two-hour meeting needs a longer overlap than a quick call.
- Set working hours if they differ. The defaults are 9:00 to 17:00 for work and 7:00 to 21:00 as acceptable. Change them for any location.
- Read the grid. Look for columns that are green in every row. The best times are listed above the grid.
- Pick a time. Click a column or use the slider to see each person's local date and time.
- Share it. Copy the invitation, download the .ics file or copy the plan link.
If nothing is green for everyone, the planner tells you so and suggests the least bad option. That is useful information: it means someone must stretch, so rotate who does it.
Reading the colour grid
The top of the grid shows the hours of the reference location's day. Every other row shows what the local clock reads at the same moment. A bold weekday label shows where a row moves to a different date. The meeting length is taken into account, so a one-hour meeting starting at 16:30 is not green in a location whose workday ends at 17:00.
| Colour | Meaning | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Inside the working hours you set | Ideal for everyone |
| Amber | Early morning or evening within the acceptable range | A reasonable stretch, shared fairly |
| Grey | Night | Avoid, except for rare emergencies |
The bottom row summarises the whole group. A green cell means every person is in working hours for the full meeting. A number tells you how many people would be in the night.
Daylight saving time and why differences change
About a third of countries change their clocks for part of the year, but not on the same dates. The United States moves on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. The European Union and the United Kingdom move on the last Sunday of March and, for the United Kingdom, the last Sunday of October. Many Southern Hemisphere places change in the opposite direction. India, Japan, China and most of Africa and the Middle East do not change at all.
The result is that the gap between two cities is not constant. Always plan a meeting using the date of the meeting, not the date today. The planner shows a clock change notice if one happens within a few days of your date, and a note if a change in the next two weeks will alter the difference between your cities.
Common time zone pairs and their usual overlap
| Pair | Typical gap | Usual shared working window |
|---|---|---|
| New York and London | 5 hours (4 for a few weeks) | 9:00 to noon in New York |
| Los Angeles and New York | 3 hours | 9:00 a.m. Pacific to 5:00 p.m. Pacific, minus the early part |
| London and Dubai | 3 or 4 hours | Late morning to mid afternoon in London |
| London and Mumbai | 4.5 or 5.5 hours | Early morning in London to early afternoon |
| New York and Mumbai | 9.5 or 10.5 hours | Very small; 8:00 a.m. New York is 5:30 p.m. Mumbai |
| Singapore and Sydney | 2 or 3 hours | Almost the full working day |
| San Francisco and Tokyo | 16 or 17 hours | None; one side takes an early or late slot |
These are rules of thumb. Use the planner for the exact answer on your date.
Scheduling fairly for global teams
When overlap is poor, someone always pays the cost. Good global teams treat that as a shared burden: they rotate the inconvenient slot, record decisions in writing and hold fewer, better-prepared meetings. A few habits help.
- Rotate the stretch. If one meeting is at 7:00 a.m. for one site, make the next one a late evening for another.
- Prefer asynchronous updates. Use a written update for information and a meeting for decisions.
- Record the meeting so people outside the overlap can catch up.
- Protect the night. Use the grey cells as a hard limit for routine meetings.
- Write times in two zones. For example, "3:00 p.m. London / 10:00 a.m. New York", to avoid mistakes.
Sending a clear invitation
The most common cause of missed meetings across zones is an invitation that gives one time and one zone. The invitation text from the planner lists the time for each location, with the weekday and zone abbreviation, plus the time in UTC. The downloadable .ics file stores the meeting in UTC, so calendar apps show it correctly in each person's own zone, and the Google Calendar button opens a prefilled event.
Sharing a plan link
The Copy link to this plan button writes the date, cities, time and length into the part of the address after the # sign. When a teammate opens the link, the planner restores the same view. Browsers do not send the part after the # to the website, so the plan stays private. Working hours settings are not stored in the link, so teammates see the defaults.
Time zone names, abbreviations and offsets
A time zone has three kinds of names. An IANA name, such as Europe/Paris or America/Chicago, identifies a place and its history of rules. An abbreviation, such as CET or CST, is a short label, but many abbreviations are ambiguous: CST can mean Central Standard Time in North America, China Standard Time or Cuba Standard Time. A UTC offset, such as UTC+5:30, is the difference from UTC at a given moment. The planner searches by all three, shows the offset and the abbreviation in the table tab, and stores the IANA name in the plan link. When you write a time for others, a city name or an offset is safer than an abbreviation.
Who uses a meeting time zone planner
- Remote and hybrid teams choosing a weekly meeting slot.
- Freelancers and agencies arranging client calls abroad.
- Webinar and event organisers picking a time that suits a global audience.
- Teachers and tutors booking lessons with students overseas.
- Families and friends calling across continents.
- Traders and support teams checking market and service hours.
Common time zone mistakes
- Using today's offset for a future date. A clock change in between can move the meeting by an hour.
- Trusting an ambiguous abbreviation such as IST or CST.
- Forgetting weekends that differ. Some countries work Sunday to Thursday.
- Ignoring the date line. A Monday morning for one person can be Sunday for another.
- Booking a long meeting in a short overlap. Check the meeting length, not only the start time.
- Not stating the time zone in the invitation.
Privacy
The planner runs in your browser. The locations, dates and meeting title you enter are not sent to a server or stored. The plan link keeps them in the address after the # sign, which stays on your device unless you share the link. Reloading the page returns to the default view.
Frequently asked questions
What is a meeting time zone planner?
A meeting time zone planner shows the local time for several places side by side and highlights the hours when everyone is awake or at work. It helps you choose a meeting time for a team, class, client call or event that spans more than one time zone.
How do I find a meeting time that works across time zones?
Add each person's city, choose the date, and look for the green columns where every row is inside working hours. The planner also lists the best start windows for you and updates them if you change the meeting length.
How many locations can I compare?
Up to eight at once, which is enough for most distributed teams. The first location is the reference that sets the date and the order of the columns, and you can make any location the reference.
What do the colours mean?
Green is inside the working hours you set, amber is outside working hours but within the acceptable range, for example a 7:00 a.m. start, and grey is night. The last row shows when everyone fits, and the number in a column tells you how many people would be in the night.
Can I set different working hours for each city?
Yes. Each location has its own start and end time under the list. Change a value and the colours update. The defaults come from the Working hours used for the colours option.
Does the planner handle daylight saving time?
Yes. It uses the browser's time zone database, so every time is correct for the date you choose, including spring and autumn clock changes. A notice appears when a clock change happens close to the meeting date.
Why is the time difference between two cities not always the same?
Countries change their clocks on different dates, and some do not change them at all. The United States and the United Kingdom, for example, are 5 hours apart for most of the year but 4 hours apart for a few weeks in March and October or November.
Can I search by abbreviation such as EST, PST or IST?
Yes, you can search by abbreviations like EST, PST, CET, JST or AEST and by city, country or time zone name. Be careful with IST, which can mean India, Ireland or Israel. Use the city name when the abbreviation could be ambiguous.
Can I add a time zone that is not in the list?
Yes. Type an IANA time zone name such as Africa/Accra or America/Argentina/Cordoba and the planner offers to add it.
How do I share the plan with my team?
Open the Invite and share tab and press Copy link to this plan. The link contains the date, cities, chosen time and length, so anyone who opens it sees the same plan. You can also copy the invitation text, which lists the time in every location.
Can I send a calendar invite?
You can download an .ics file with the meeting in UTC, which calendar apps convert to each person's own time zone, or open a prefilled Google Calendar event. The planner does not send emails.
What is the best time for a meeting between the US and Europe?
Late morning on the US East Coast is early to mid afternoon in Western Europe, so about 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Eastern is the usual window. West Coast overlap with Europe is short, often only the early morning there and late afternoon in Europe.
What is the best time for a meeting between the US and India?
There is no time when both sides are in normal working hours. The usual compromise is early morning in the US, for example 8:00 a.m. Eastern, which is early evening in India, or the reverse. The planner shows which side takes the compromise.
How do I schedule a meeting across the International Date Line?
A meeting can fall on different dates for different people. The planner shows the weekday next to each time and marks the day change in the row, so you can see, for example, a Monday morning in Sydney that is Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles.
What is UTC and why does it matter?
UTC, Coordinated Universal Time, is the reference clock that all time zones are based on. Writing a meeting time in UTC is unambiguous, which is why the invitation includes it, and why calendar files store events in UTC.
What is the difference between GMT and UTC?
For everyday scheduling they are the same time. GMT is a time zone used in the United Kingdom in winter, while UTC is the international standard. The UK uses British Summer Time, one hour ahead of GMT, in summer.
Does the planner know about public holidays and weekends?
No. It shows the weekday, but it does not know local holidays or weekends that fall on different days, such as Friday and Saturday in some countries. Check those separately.
Why does the day change in one of my rows?
When a time in the reference location is late at night or early in the morning, the other location may already be on the next or previous day. The cell shows the weekday where the date changes, and the pick table shows the full date.
Can I plan a meeting for a different date?
Yes. Choose any date and the whole grid recalculates, including daylight saving changes. This is useful for planning around a clock change or for events months ahead.
Is my data private?
Yes. The planner runs in your browser. The cities and times are not sent to a server or stored. A plan link keeps the details in the address after the #, which browsers do not send to the website.
Is the meeting planner free?
Yes. It is free to use online with no sign-up and no limit.
How accurate is the time zone data?
It uses the time zone database in your browser, which is generally kept up to date by the browser vendor. It can lag behind very recent government changes, so double-check unusual cases.
Sources and further reading
- IANA Time Zone Database (tz database) documentation and release notes, the basis of the zone names and rules used by browsers.
- ECMAScript Internationalization API (Intl.DateTimeFormat) specification for time zone support in browsers.
- U.S. Department of Transportation: Daylight saving time and U.S. time zones.
- UK Government (GOV.UK): when the clocks change.
- European Commission: summertime arrangements in the European Union.
- Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM): Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Sources were consulted in October 2026. Standards and rules can change, so always check the official page for your situation.