Meeting Timezone Planner
Find the hours a distributed team can actually meet.
What you provide
IANA names such as Europe/London or America/Los_Angeles.
Leave blank for today. The date matters because daylight saving shifts the overlap.
Result
CHECKBest overlap covers 2 of 4 zones
No single hour is inside working hours for everyone, which is the normal outcome once a group spans more than about eight hours of longitude. The two honest options are to rotate which region takes the inconvenient slot, so the same people are not always up early, or to run the meeting asynchronously and use the live hour only for what genuinely needs discussion. The grid above shows the amber edge hours, which are often an acceptable compromise for one participant.
| Check | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe/London | 01issue | 02issue | 03issue | 04issue | 05issue | 06issue | 07issue | 08check | 09pass | 10pass | 11pass | 12pass | 13pass | 14pass | 15pass | 16pass | 17check | 18issue | 19issue | 20issue | 21issue | 22issue | 23issue | 00issue |
| America/New_York | 20issue | 21issue | 22issue | 23issue | 00issue | 01issue | 02issue | 03issue | 04issue | 05issue | 06issue | 07issue | 08check | 09pass | 10pass | 11pass | 12pass | 13pass | 14pass | 15pass | 16pass | 17check | 18issue | 19issue |
| Asia/Kolkata | 05issue | 06issue | 07issue | 08check | 09pass | 10pass | 11pass | 12pass | 13pass | 14pass | 15pass | 16pass | 17check | 18issue | 19issue | 20issue | 21issue | 22issue | 23issue | 00issue | 01issue | 02issue | 03issue | 04issue |
| Australia/Sydney | 10pass | 11pass | 12pass | 13pass | 14pass | 15pass | 16pass | 17check | 18issue | 19issue | 20issue | 21issue | 22issue | 23issue | 00issue | 01issue | 02issue | 03issue | 04issue | 05issue | 06issue | 07issue | 08check | 09pass |
- Zones compared
- 4
- Working day
- 09:00 to 17:00 local
- Best overlap
- 2 of 4
- Best UTC hoursLondon 05:00, New_York 00:00, Kolkata 09:00, Sydney 14:00
- 04:00, 05:00, 06:00, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00
- Europe/London8 working hours in the day
- 01:00 at UTC midnight
- America/New_York8 working hours in the day
- 20:00 at UTC midnight
- Asia/Kolkata8 working hours in the day
- 05:00 at UTC midnight
- Australia/Sydney8 working hours in the day
- 10:00 at UTC midnight
What this cannot tell you
- Calculated in your browser from the timezone rules your browser carries. It does not read any calendar or check anyone availability.
- Timezone rules change by government decision, sometimes at short notice. A date far in the future is calculated from the rules known today.
Take this with you
How this calculation works
For each timezone, every hour of the chosen UTC day is converted to the local time there, using the browser own timezone database so daylight saving is handled properly for that specific date. Hours inside your working day are marked as good, the hour on either side is marked as an edge, and everything else is out. The grid makes the shape of the problem visible, and the best overlap is picked out from it.
What the results mean
- Best overlap
- How many of the zones have that hour inside working hours. Anything short of all of them means someone is taking an early or late call.
- Edge hours
- The hour immediately before or after the working day, shown in amber. Often an acceptable compromise for one participant when nothing else fits.
- Best UTC hours
- Book against these rather than against a local time, since a recurring meeting fixed in local time drifts as daylight saving changes on different dates in different countries.
Common problems and fixes
- The overlap changes between two dates a few weeks apart
- Daylight saving, and the fact that countries change on different dates. Europe and North America are out of step for about three weeks each spring and autumn, so a meeting that works all year can break twice annually for a fortnight. Checking the specific date is exactly why the date field is here.
- No hour works for everyone
- Normal once a group spans more than about eight hours of longitude. Two approaches actually work: rotate which region takes the awkward slot so the same people are not always up early, or move the standing meeting to asynchronous updates and keep the live hour for what genuinely needs discussion.
Frequently asked questions
Should I schedule meetings in UTC?
For anything recurring across regions, yes. A meeting fixed at a local time shifts relative to every other zone when that region changes its clocks, and since the change dates differ by country, a series booked in one local time quietly rearranges itself twice a year.
Why use IANA names rather than abbreviations?
Because abbreviations are ambiguous. CST is Central Standard Time in North America, China Standard Time and Cuba Standard Time, and IST covers both India and Ireland. IANA names such as America/Chicago identify a place, and the place carries its own history of rule changes.
How far ahead can I trust this?
For the coming year, comfortably. Beyond that, governments change timezone rules with little notice, and several countries have moved permanently or abolished daylight saving in recent years. The calculation uses the rules your browser knows today, which is the best any tool can do.
Put this on your own site
Free to embed, no attribution required beyond the source link the frame carries itself. It runs entirely in your visitor's browser, sets no cookies and loads no third-party script.
<iframe src="https://runthetests.com/embed/meeting-planner/" width="100%" height="560" style="border:1px solid #e5e5e5;border-radius:8px" title="Meeting Timezone Planner" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Preview it at https://runthetests.com/embed/meeting-planner/. Embedded pages are marked noindex, so yours stays the canonical copy — not this one.