Live · ET · UTC−5 / UTC−4
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Eastern Time is UTC−5 in winter (EST) and UTC−4 in summer (EDT).
Eastern Time (ET) is the time zone used along the eastern coast of North America. It covers the most populous region of the United States and Canada, including New York City, Washington D.C., Toronto, Miami and Atlanta, and is the reference clock for Wall Street, US federal government, major broadcasters and most national event schedules.
Eastern Time is not a single fixed offset. It switches between two states during the year:
When you don't know (or don't want to say) which one applies, use the abbreviation ET. Writing "3 PM EST" in July is technically wrong – it's 3 PM EDT. Read the full EST vs EDT guide →
Pick a time in ET and see the equivalent elsewhere. Daylight saving on both sides is handled automatically.
Popular conversions: EST to PST · EST to CST · EST to GMT · EST to UTC · EST to IST · EST to CET · EST to JST · EST to AEST
Since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 took effect in 2007, the United States and Canada follow the same DST rule:
Because the transition happens at 2:00 AM local time, the whole zone switches at the same instant: 07:00 UTC in March and 06:00 UTC in November.
| Year | Spring forward → EDT | Fall back → EST |
|---|
The dashed band shows the solar zone centred on 75°W (UTC−5). Every dot is on Eastern Time: the legal boundary follows state and county lines, so it reaches far west of the band in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.
Full-screen map with every US & Canadian zone → · Why the boundaries are so irregular →
17 states entirely: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia – plus Washington D.C.
5 states partially: Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee.
All states on Eastern Time →Ontario (most), Quebec (most), and Nunavut's eastern region. Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal all observe EST/EDT with the same DST dates as the US.
Eastern Time in Canada →The Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba (own DST rules), Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru all sit at UTC−5 – but most never switch to daylight time.
Everywhere at UTC−5 →Roughly 47% of the US population lives in the Eastern Time Zone, and it hosts the capital, the financial markets and the headquarters of the major TV networks. That is why so many schedules are quoted in ET first:
| Zone | vs ET |
|---|---|
| Central (CT) | −1 h |
| Mountain (MT) | −2 h |
| Pacific (PT) | −3 h |
| London | +5 h |
| Central Europe | +6 h |
| India | +10.5 h (EST) / +9.5 h (EDT) |
| Tokyo | +14 h (EST) / +13 h (EDT) |
The clock at the top of this page shows the exact current Eastern Time. It is computed from your device clock using the IANA zone America/New_York, so it automatically reflects EST or EDT.
No. ET is the zone; EST (UTC−5) and EDT (UTC−4) are its winter and summer offsets. Use "ET" when you don't want to specify.
UTC−5 during standard time and UTC−4 during daylight time. Eastern Time is always 3 hours ahead of Pacific Time.
Second Sunday in March at 2:00 AM (spring forward) and first Sunday in November at 2:00 AM (fall back).
See the "Now in effect" indicator above – it updates live. New York, like the rest of the zone, is on EDT from March to November and EST the rest of the year.
No. Most of the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River is on Central Time. See the Florida time zone page.