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What is my timezone?
See the time zone, UTC offset, and daylight saving status reported by your browser, then compare any two places. Detection stays in the browser and does not ask for location permission.
Browser time zone
You are on
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Local time—
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The dot is the representative city for this IANA identifier. It is not a GPS fix and it is not the whole time-zone boundary.
IP time zone
Optional. Estimates a time zone from the network exit, so you can compare it with the browser. The lookup runs only after you click. This page does not show your IP address.
Time difference calculator
Pick two IANA time zones. The difference uses today’s date. If either side observes daylight saving, winter and summer can differ by one hour.
China compared with common places
Figures are calculated in your browser from IANA rules, not hardcoded hours. The United States has more than one time zone, so New York and Los Angeles are separate rows.
Pair
Right now
Mid-January
Mid-July
China ↔ Germany
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China ↔ Japan
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China ↔ New York
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China ↔ Los Angeles
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China ↔ United Kingdom
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China ↔ France
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China ↔ Toronto
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China ↔ Sydney
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Japan (Asia/Tokyo) is UTC+9 all year, one hour ahead of China, with no daylight saving. The UK is GMT (UTC+0) in winter and BST (UTC+1) in summer, so China is 8 hours ahead, then 7. France shares Central European Time with Germany. Toronto and New York share US Eastern Time: China is 13 hours ahead in winter and 12 in summer. Los Angeles is another 3 hours behind New York. Sydney is in the southern hemisphere: around January it is often UTC+11, and around July UTC+10. The United States is not one time zone.
What a time zone is
A time zone is a rule set for civil time. The IANA time zone database names each rule set, for example Asia/Shanghai, Europe/Berlin, or America/New_York. The name means “how far from UTC, and when the clocks change,” not a fixed number of hours. When a government changes the law, the database is updated and operating systems follow.
The browser time zone on this page is the setting already stored on the device. It is read with Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone. The math stays in your browser, does not ask for location permission, and is not uploaded. The list comes from the browser’s own IANA data. Older browsers fall back to a shorter city list; the calculation is the same.
What a UTC offset is
UTC is the reference the rest of civil time is compared with. The offset says how far a local clock is from UTC. China’s legal time is currently UTC+8 all year, also written +08:00: 20:00 in Beijing is 12:00 UTC. An offset is not the same thing as an IANA identifier. Europe/Berlin is UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer, so “how many hours between China and Germany” needs a date. Some offsets are 30 or 45 minutes, such as India at UTC+5:30.
How daylight saving changes the gap
Daylight saving moves clocks forward, usually by one hour, for part of the year. Whether a country uses it, and on which dates, is a legal choice and has changed before. Much of the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and parts of Australia still use it. China, Japan, and South Korea do not. In the southern hemisphere, Sydney’s daylight saving falls roughly from October to April.
This tool does not hardcode offsets. It takes the date you care about, computes each side’s offset in minutes from the browser’s IANA data, and subtracts. The page shows now, 15 January, and 15 July so the other season is visible. Those two sample days are mid-month noon UTC, not the exact transition day.
Why China uses one legal time zone
China has one legal civil time, Asia/Shanghai, currently UTC+8 all year. Daylight saving was used from 1986 through 1991 and stopped in 1992, so today’s dates do not spring forward. Xinjiang’s solar time is about two hours behind Beijing. Daily life there often follows Ürümqi time, about UTC+6, while railways, flights, and most computers still use Beijing time. IANA also lists Asia/Urumqi at UTC+6 with no daylight saving, but the China default on major operating systems is Asia/Shanghai.
Why the China–Germany gap changes
China (Asia/Shanghai) is currently UTC+8 all year. Germany (Europe/Berlin) follows EU rules: daylight saving CEST (UTC+2) runs from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, and standard time CET (UTC+1) covers the rest. Under today’s rules China is 7 hours ahead of Germany in winter and 6 hours ahead in summer. The calculator shows today’s gap and the January and July samples. If the law changes, the browser’s IANA data changes with it. Do not hardcode 6 or 7 into another system.
What a mismatch means
Browser time zone
This is the setting already stored on the device. It answers where this clock is set, appears as soon as the page opens, and does not ask for location permission.
IP time zone
This is an estimate from a geolocation database for the network exit. It runs only after you click. This page does not show the IP address; use the IP address test for the address and the carrier.
A mismatch is not a failed test. A VPN, a corporate proxy, a remote desktop, or a system time zone you changed for a trip will split the two. A match only means both sources currently name the same IANA identifier. IP address test
Questions
Why is my browser time zone different from the IP time zone?
The browser reads the operating system setting. The IP time zone is an estimate from a geolocation database for the network exit. A VPN, a proxy, a corporate network, a remote desktop, or a system zone you changed by hand will split them. That is not a failed test. This page says whether the two IANA identifiers match. To see the IP address itself, open the IP address test.
Does China observe daylight saving time?
Not currently. Legal time is Asia/Shanghai, UTC+8 all year. China did observe daylight saving from 1986 through 1991 and stopped in 1992. A date today will not add an hour in summer. A historical date in 1986–1991 can still follow the rules stored in the browser’s IANA data.
What is the difference between UTC and GMT?
People often treat the labels as interchangeable, but they are not the same definition. UTC is the modern reference, kept with atomic clocks and occasional leap seconds. GMT originally meant mean solar time at Greenwich. In the UK, winter civil time is called GMT and sits at UTC+0; summer civil time is BST at UTC+1, so “London is GMT” is wrong in summer. This tool always shows a UTC offset.
Can a time zone change?
Yes. A government can drop daylight saving, move the transition dates, or change the standard offset. The IANA identifier usually stays; the rules inside it change. Browsers pick up new rules through operating system updates. Calculate a difference for a specific date instead of hardcoding one year’s hours.
Why do people in Xinjiang use Ürümqi time?
Solar time in Xinjiang is about two hours behind Beijing, so daily schedules often run two hours later. That local practice is close to UTC+6. It is not a second legal time zone. Railways, flights, and most computers still use Beijing time (Asia/Shanghai, UTC+8). IANA’s Asia/Urumqi is UTC+6, but it is not the usual China default on phones and computers.
Does a VPN change the time zone check?
A VPN does not rewrite the system time zone the browser reads, so the browser result usually stays put. It does change the network exit, so the IP time zone you choose to look up can move to the exit region. A mismatch is often exactly that. This page does not show the IP address.
How do I set a meeting across time zones?
Agree a date and a clock time, then convert it. Do not stop at “eight hours apart.” Use the calculator, check today, and check whether January and July differ. Meetings in a daylight-saving transition week need the date written down. A workable window is where both local 09:00–17:00 ranges overlap. China and Germany share only about an hour of afternoon in summer, and almost no shared office hours in winter.
Why do abbreviations like CST and PST collide?
Three-letter abbreviations are not unique. CST can mean China Standard Time (UTC+8), US Central Standard Time (UTC−5), or Cuba Standard Time. PST can mean Pacific Standard Time or be used for the Philippines. The same letters can be many hours apart. Use an IANA identifier such as Asia/Shanghai or America/Chicago.
