Current time in San Francisco
San Francisco keeps Pacific Standard Time, UTC−8, from November to March and Pacific Daylight Time, UTC−7, from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. The clock below shows the exact local time and today's sun times over the Bay.
- Time zone
- —
- Abbreviation
- —
- UTC offset
- —
- Daylight saving
- —
- Compared with your clock
- —
- IANA time zone:
- America/Los_Angeles
- Country:
- United States
- Coordinates:
- 37.77° N, 122.42° W
- Clock changes in 2026:
- forward on March 8, 2026 · back on November 1, 2026 (UTC−8 / UTC−7)
Sunrise and sunset in San Francisco
Sunday, October 18, 2026, local time
- Sunrise
- 7:21 AM
- Sunset
- 6:27 PM
- Day length
- 11 h 7 min
- Solar noon
- 12:54 PM
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset | Day length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun, Oct 18 | 7:21 AM | 6:27 PM | 11 h 7 min |
| Mon, Oct 19 | 7:22 AM | 6:26 PM | 11 h 4 min−3′ |
| Tue, Oct 20 | 7:23 AM | 6:25 PM | 11 h 2 min−2′ |
| Wed, Oct 21 | 7:24 AM | 6:23 PM | 11 h 0 min−2′ |
| Thu, Oct 22 | 7:25 AM | 6:22 PM | 10 h 58 min−2′ |
| Fri, Oct 23 | 7:26 AM | 6:21 PM | 10 h 55 min−3′ |
| Sat, Oct 24 | 7:27 AM | 6:20 PM | 10 h 53 min−2′ |
Approximate times (usually within two minutes), calculated from the city's coordinates with the NOAA solar equations. Hills, tall buildings and unusual air refraction can shift what you see.
Time in San Francisco when it is 9:00, 12:00, 17:00 or 21:00 elsewhere
Each cell is the time in San Francisco at that hour in the city on the left, using today's offsets.
| When it is … in | 9:00 AM | 12:00 PM | 5:00 PM | 9:00 PM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 6:00 AM | 9:00 AM | 2:00 PM | 6:00 PM |
| London | 1:00 AM | 4:00 AM | 9:00 AM | 1:00 PM |
| Paris | 12:00 AM | 3:00 AM | 8:00 AM | 12:00 PM |
| Dubai | 10:00 PM−1 | 1:00 AM | 6:00 AM | 10:00 AM |
| Mumbai | 8:30 PM−1 | 11:30 PM−1 | 4:30 AM | 8:30 AM |
| Singapore | 6:00 PM−1 | 9:00 PM−1 | 2:00 AM | 6:00 AM |
| Tokyo | 5:00 PM−1 | 8:00 PM−1 | 1:00 AM | 5:00 AM |
| Sydney | 3:00 PM−1 | 6:00 PM−1 | 11:00 PM−1 | 3:00 AM |
Where Pacific Time came from
US standard time began on November 18, 1883, when the railroads replaced dozens of local sun times with four zones; at noon that day clocks across the West were reset to the new Pacific standard. Congress gave the zones legal force in 1918. In 2018 California voters approved Proposition 7, which lets the legislature choose year-round daylight time if federal law ever allows it, but no such law has passed, so the city still switches twice a year.
Every Pacific Time city changes together: Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Vancouver always match San Francisco, and New York is always three hours ahead.
Fog, sunrise and day length
At 37.8° north, San Francisco gets about 14 hours 45 minutes of daylight in late June, with sunrise near 5:48 AM and sunset around 8:35 PM. Around the December solstice the sun rises about 7:20 AM and sets near 4:55 PM, a day of about 9 hours 35 minutes. Summer fog often hides the sunset on the western side of the city while the East Bay stays clear, but the times in the table above are astronomical and do not depend on weather.
Bay Area hours for distributed teams
Engineering teams in the Bay Area often span Europe and India. Dublin and London are eight hours ahead for most of the year, so a 9:00 AM stand-up in San Francisco is 5:00 PM in London. Bengaluru is 12 hours 30 minutes ahead in summer and 13 hours 30 minutes in winter, which makes 8:00 PM in California a morning slot in India. Taipei and Singapore are 15 or 16 hours ahead. For Pacific–Eastern hours in a full table, open PST to EST; for more cities at a glance, use the world clock.
Time zone converters for San Francisco
Frequently asked questions
- Is San Francisco on PST or PDT today?
- The clock card at the top of the page says which. PDT, UTC−7, applies from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, and PST, UTC−8, the rest of the year.
- Does San Francisco have the same time as Los Angeles?
- Yes. All of California is on Pacific Time and the whole state changes on the same night, so there is never a difference between the two cities.
- What did California's Proposition 7 change?
- It allowed the state legislature to adopt permanent daylight time by a two-thirds vote, subject to federal approval. Neither step has happened, so clocks still change.
- How many hours ahead of San Francisco is London?
- Eight hours for most of the year. For a few weeks in March and around late October, the gap is seven hours because the US and UK change clocks on different dates.
- When is sunset in San Francisco in December?
- Close to 4:55 PM around the solstice. The earliest sunsets of the year actually fall in early December, a few days before the shortest day.