Last updated: October 2026
How to find overlapping working hours across time zones
Short answer: add each person's city, pick the date, and read the green columns — every green column is a UTC hour that falls inside working hours for everyone. The planner highlights the longest stretch as the best meeting window.
Manually converting times city by city is where mistakes happen — someone adds when they should subtract, or forgets a city is on daylight saving. The grid removes the arithmetic: each row is one city, each column is one UTC hour, and a column turns green only when every city is inside its local working day at that hour.
- Add cities — type to search, up to six participants.
- Pick the date — offsets change with daylight saving, so the date matters.
- Read the grid — green columns are your overlap; the panel above names the best window with each city's local time.
- Share it — copy the link, the invite text, or download the .ics file.
What is the best time for a meeting across time zones?
Short answer: the best time is the longest block where every participant is inside local working hours (9 AM–5 PM by default). The planner computes it for your exact cities and date, because the answer shifts with daylight saving time.
There is no universal "best" meeting hour — it depends entirely on the city combination. A few patterns hold up well:
- US East Coast + Western Europe: late morning US time usually works — roughly 8–11 AM in New York, which is 1–4 PM in London.
- Europe + Asia: European mornings meet Asian afternoons — 9 AM in Berlin is 4 PM in Singapore.
- US + Asia: the hardest pairing; the overlap is thin or zero, so expect someone to meet early or late, and rotate who takes the awkward slot.
Rather than memorizing offsets, let the grid find the exact window for your cities — then widen the workday controls if you need more options.
How daylight saving time affects meeting planning
Short answer: daylight saving moves local working hours relative to UTC, so a slot that works in July can fail in January. This planner looks up each city's real UTC offset for the date you pick, so DST is handled automatically.
Most scheduling mistakes come from stale offsets: New York is UTC-5 in winter but UTC-4 in summer, and the switch happens on different weekends than Europe's. The planner uses the browser's built-in tz database — the same source operating systems use — to resolve every city's offset for the exact date selected, including the day a city springs forward or falls back.
How to share a meeting time across time zones
Short answer: use the share link (it encodes your cities and date so anyone opening it sees the same grid) or download the .ics invite — the calendar file stores the meeting in UTC, so every invitee's calendar shows it in their own local time.
Never send "let's meet at 3 PM" without a time zone — it is the single most common cause of missed international meetings. The invite text the planner copies lists the meeting in every city's local time, so there is nothing to convert and nothing to misread.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find a meeting time that works in multiple time zones?
Add each participant's city, choose the date, and look for the green overlap columns on the 24-hour grid. The planner names the longest overlap as the best window and converts it into every city's local time.
What are overlapping working hours?
The hours that fall inside everyone's local working day at once — by default 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM in each city. You can widen or narrow the working day with the start/end controls.
What if there is no overlapping working hour?
With a wide spread (for example New York and Sydney) no single hour may fit everyone. The planner then shows the closest compromise: the hours where the most cities overlap, so you can pick the least painful option or rotate the inconvenience.
Does the planner account for daylight saving time?
Yes. It reads each city's UTC offset for the exact date you select from the browser's time zone database, so DST start/end days are handled correctly — including the date a city springs forward or falls back.
How do I share the suggested meeting time?
Two ways: the share link encodes your cities and date so anyone opening it sees the same grid, and the invite text lists the meeting in every city's local time for pasting into email or chat.
Can I add the meeting to my calendar?
Yes — download the .ics invite for the suggested window. It stores the meeting in UTC, so Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar each display it in the invitee's local time.
Which cities can I add?
The city picker covers major business cities on every continent, each mapped to its official IANA time zone. Add up to six cities per plan.
Is my data private?
Completely. All time zone math runs locally in your browser with JavaScript — nothing you enter is sent to a server, stored, or tracked.
