How to convert UTC to Eastern Time
- 1The source time zone is already set to UTC and the input shows the current UTC time. Change the date and time to the moment you want to convert.
- 2Read the America/New York card. It shows the Eastern time, the date (which can be the previous day), the offset, and EST or EDT.
- 3Turn on Live to follow the current time continuously, or click Set to Now to jump back to the present.
- 4Use Add Timezone to compare more zones, such as Chicago or London, or click the copy icon to copy the full converted timestamp.
EST, EDT and the UTC offset
The US Eastern time zone has two offsets from UTC. Eastern Standard Time (EST) is UTC-5 and applies in winter. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is UTC-4 and applies in summer. Going from UTC to EST means subtracting 5 hours, and UTC to EDT means subtracting 4, so 12:00 UTC is 7:00 a.m. EST in January but 8:00 a.m. EDT in July. Eastern Time (ET) is the umbrella name for both, and it covers New York, Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, and also Toronto and Montreal, which follow the same rules.
Since 2007, daylight saving time in the US starts at 2:00 a.m. local time on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2:00 a.m. local time on the first Sunday in November. In UTC terms, clocks spring forward at 07:00 UTC and fall back at 06:00 UTC. In 2026 EDT ran from March 8 to November 1; in 2027 it runs from March 14 to November 7. The converter uses your browser's time zone database, so it applies the correct offset for any date, past dates included.
Watch the date. Eastern Time is behind UTC, so any UTC time from 00:00 up to 04:59 (03:59 in summer) falls on the previous calendar day in New York. A deadline of 02:00 UTC on 15 January is 9:00 p.m. EST on 14 January. Converting from UTC is never ambiguous, even on the night clocks fall back, when 1:00 to 1:59 a.m. happens twice in New York: each UTC instant maps to exactly one Eastern time.
People often write EST all year when they mean Eastern Time, but strictly EST is only the winter offset; a summer meeting 'at 3 p.m. EST' is really 3 p.m. EDT. Not everywhere at UTC-5 changes clocks, either: Panama, Jamaica and Mexico's Quintana Roo (Cancún) stay on UTC-5 all year. In code, store times in UTC and convert with the IANA zone name America/New_York rather than a fixed 'EST' offset. The tz database's EST identifier is a fixed UTC-5 that never moves to EDT.
When you need UTC in Eastern Time
Reading server logs
Logs, error trackers and cloud consoles timestamp in UTC; convert an incident time to what US East Coast users saw.
Scheduling across teams
Go from UTC to New York time for a meeting, release or maintenance window without guessing the DST offset.
Markets and broadcasts
US stock markets open at 9:30 a.m. ET, which is 14:30 UTC in winter and 13:30 UTC in summer.
Launches and deadlines
Check whether a UTC deadline lands on the same day or the evening before on the East Coast.
Frequently asked questions
Is EST UTC-5 or UTC-4?
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EST, Eastern Standard Time, is UTC-5. During daylight saving the Eastern zone switches to EDT, which is UTC-4. The converter picks the right one for the date you enter.
What is 12:00 UTC in Eastern Time?
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7:00 a.m. EST when standard time applies (roughly November to March) and 8:00 a.m. EDT during daylight saving time (roughly March to November).
When does daylight saving time start and end in the Eastern time zone?
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It starts at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November. In 2027 that's March 14 and November 7.
Is GMT the same as UTC for this conversion?
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Yes. GMT and UTC differ by less than a second, so for converting clock times GMT to EST is the same as UTC to EST. Note that the UK itself uses BST (UTC+1) in summer.
How do I convert UTC to EST in code?
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Use the IANA zone America/New_York. In JavaScript: new Date(utc).toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'America/New_York' }). In Python: dt.astimezone(ZoneInfo('America/New_York')). Both apply daylight saving for you.