How to use this page
There is nothing to fill in. As soon as the page opens, it shows:
- your IANA time zone, the identifier your device uses, such as Europe/Paris, America/New_York or Asia/Kolkata;
- the long name of the zone, such as Central European Summer Time;
- the current UTC offset and abbreviation, such as UTC+2 and CEST;
- your local time and the UTC time, both live to the second;
- whether daylight saving time is in effect now, not in effect, or not observed at all in your zone;
- the date and time of the next clock change, if your zone has one.
Nothing is sent anywhere: your browser already knows its time zone, and the page simply reads it.
Time zone names, offsets and abbreviations
The same time zone can be described in three ways, and they are not equally precise.
| Form | Example | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| IANA name | America/Chicago | A region with its complete history of clock rules |
| UTC offset | UTC−6 or UTC−5 | How far local time is from UTC right now |
| Abbreviation | CST or CDT | A short label, often shared by several zones |
The IANA time zone database is the standard list of zone names used by operating systems, phones and browsers. Each name, usually a continent and a large city, covers an area whose clocks have followed the same rules since 1970. When a government changes its time rules, the database is updated and devices receive the change in software updates.
Abbreviations are convenient but ambiguous: CST is Central Standard Time in North America and China Standard Time in China, and IST can mean India, Irish or Israel Standard Time. See time zone abbreviations for a full list. When precision matters, give the UTC offset or the IANA name.
If the result looks wrong
The page can only show what your device is set to. If the time zone is wrong:
- Open your device’s date and time settings.
- Turn on set time zone automatically, or choose the correct zone manually.
- Reload this page.
If the zone is right but the clock is a few minutes off, turn on automatic time setting as well. For background on summer time, see daylight saving time. To compare your time with other places, use the world clock or the time difference calculator.