EST to UTC time
To get UTC from New York time, add five hours from November to March and four hours from March to November: 2:00 PM Eastern is 19:00 UTC in winter and 18:00 UTC in summer. Times after 7:00 PM Eastern in winter (8:00 PM in summer) cross into the next UTC day.
Convert the other way: UTC → EST
Scheduling in UTC from the East Coast
Developers in New York, Boston or Atlanta often write cron jobs, release windows and database maintenance in UTC because servers run on it. A job meant to run "every weekday at 6:00 AM Eastern" cannot be written as a single fixed UTC time: it is 11:00 UTC in winter and 10:00 UTC in summer. Either update the schedule twice a year or use a scheduler that understands the America/New_York region.
Global events published from the US often quote both. The Federal Reserve releases its policy statements at 2:00 PM Eastern, which international readers see as 18:00 or 19:00 UTC depending on the season; markets in Asia then react at their own local hour.
EST to UTC conversion table
Every hour of the day, using today's offsets (daylight saving is applied automatically).
| EST | UTC |
|---|---|
| 12:00 AM | 4:00 AM |
| 1:00 AM | 5:00 AM |
| 2:00 AM | 6:00 AM |
| 3:00 AM | 7:00 AM |
| 4:00 AM | 8:00 AM |
| 5:00 AM | 9:00 AM |
| 6:00 AM | 10:00 AM |
| 7:00 AM | 11:00 AM |
| 8:00 AM | 12:00 PM |
| 9:00 AM | 1:00 PM |
| 10:00 AM | 2:00 PM |
| 11:00 AM | 3:00 PM |
| EST | UTC |
|---|---|
| 12:00 PM | 4:00 PM |
| 1:00 PM | 5:00 PM |
| 2:00 PM | 6:00 PM |
| 3:00 PM | 7:00 PM |
| 4:00 PM | 8:00 PM |
| 5:00 PM | 9:00 PM |
| 6:00 PM | 10:00 PM |
| 7:00 PM | 11:00 PM |
| 8:00 PM | 12:00 AM+1 |
| 9:00 PM | 1:00 AM+1 |
| 10:00 PM | 2:00 AM+1 |
| 11:00 PM | 3:00 AM+1 |
Working hours that overlap (9:00–17:00 on both sides)
EST 6 PM–10 PM
Daylight saving time
- Eastern TimeEST / EDT
UTC−5 in winter, UTC−4 in summer
US East Coast
- Coordinated Universal TimeUTC
No daylight saving; all year UTC+0
Worldwide reference
Turning an Eastern deadline into a universal one
If you organize an online event, hackathon or application round for people in many countries, convert the Eastern deadline into UTC and publish that. "11:59 PM Eastern on March 31" is 03:59 UTC on April 1 (summer offset), which already falls on the next day in Europe and Asia. Spelling out the UTC time avoids appeals from participants who read the date in their own zone.
The same caution applies when you count days to a deadline: the days between dates calculator counts calendar days, so make sure both dates are in the same zone first.
Other conversions with these zones
Frequently asked questions
- What is 2 PM Eastern in UTC?
- 19:00 UTC in winter (EST) and 18:00 UTC in summer (EDT).
- Why does my UTC cron job run an hour off after March?
- Because New York changes its offset and UTC does not. A job at 11:00 UTC runs at 6:00 AM Eastern in winter but 7:00 AM in summer.
- When does an Eastern evening become the next day in UTC?
- At 7:00 PM Eastern in winter and 8:00 PM in summer, because those moments equal 00:00 UTC.
- Should I publish global deadlines in Eastern time or UTC?
- Publish UTC, optionally with the Eastern time in brackets. UTC has no daylight saving and readers in every country can convert from it.
- Is ET the same as EST?
- ET (Eastern Time) means whatever the New York clock shows, EST in winter and EDT in summer. EST strictly means UTC−5 only.