Time zone abbreviations explained
An abbreviation like PST or CET is a label people use, not a precise identifier: several of them mean different things in different parts of the world. Each page below says which meaning it uses, what the offset from UTC actually is, whether the clocks change during the year, and which cities keep it.
Every abbreviation on this site
| Code | Name | In January | In July | Used in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HST | Hawaii Standard Time | UTC-10 | UTC-10 | Hawaii, United States |
| PST | Pacific Time | UTC-8 | UTC-7 | United States and Canada |
| MST | Mountain Time | UTC-7 | UTC-6 | United States and Canada |
| CST | Central Time | UTC-6 | UTC-5 | United States and Canada |
| EST | Eastern Time | UTC-5 | UTC-4 | United States and Canada |
| BRT | Brasilia Time | UTC-3 | UTC-3 | Brazil |
| BST | British Time | UTC+0 | UTC+1 | United Kingdom |
| GMT | Greenwich Mean Time | UTC+0 | UTC+0 | fixed UTC+0 offset, all year |
| UTC | Coordinated Universal Time | UTC+0 | UTC+0 | the world time standard |
| CET | Central European Time | UTC+1 | UTC+2 | most of continental Europe |
| WAT | West Africa Time | UTC+1 | UTC+1 | West and Central Africa |
| EET | Eastern European Time | UTC+2 | UTC+3 | Eastern Europe |
| SAST | South Africa Standard Time | UTC+2 | UTC+2 | South Africa |
| EAT | East Africa Time | UTC+3 | UTC+3 | East Africa |
| GST | Gulf Standard Time | UTC+4 | UTC+4 | United Arab Emirates and Oman |
| PKT | Pakistan Standard Time | UTC+5 | UTC+5 | Pakistan |
| IST | India Standard Time | UTC+5:30 | UTC+5:30 | India |
| AWST | Australian Western Standard Time | UTC+8 | UTC+8 | Western Australia |
| HKT | Hong Kong Time | UTC+8 | UTC+8 | Hong Kong |
| SGT | Singapore Time | UTC+8 | UTC+8 | Singapore |
| JST | Japan Standard Time | UTC+9 | UTC+9 | Japan |
| KST | Korea Standard Time | UTC+9 | UTC+9 | South Korea |
| ACST | Australian Central Time | UTC+10:30 | UTC+9:30 | central Australia |
| AEST | Australian Eastern Time | UTC+11 | UTC+10 | eastern Australia |
| NZST | New Zealand Time | UTC+13 | UTC+12 | New Zealand |
Offsets are sampled in January and July, so a zone whose two columns differ is one that changes its clocks. Every offset comes from the IANA time zone database rather than a hand-kept list.
Convert between them
Conversion charts for every pair · Meeting time finder · Current time by city