Time difference between the United States and Canada

no difference to 6 hours, depending on the city

Why there is no single answer

The United States spans 6 different offsets in this data — New York at UTC−5, Chicago at UTC−6, Denver at UTC−7, Los Angeles at UTC−8, Anchorage at UTC−9, Honolulu at UTC−10; and Canada spans 2 different offsets in this data — Toronto at UTC−5, Vancouver at UTC−8. One number cannot cover 6 and 2 offsets, so any single figure for "the United States to Canada" is a choice of city — declared or not. That is why two sources can both be right and still disagree, and why the useful answer is the table rather than the number.

Every combination

When the gap moves

2 of these 12 combinations change by an hour at some point in the year. New York, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Anchorage, Toronto and Vancouver go forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November; Honolulu does not change its clocks. Where the two sides change on different weekends, there is a stretch of days when the difference is what neither party expects.

Frequently asked questions

About these places

New York. New York is UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 from March to November, and it changes clocks on different weekends from Europe — a fortnight in March and a week in autumn when the transatlantic gap is an hour off what everyone expects.

Chicago. Chicago is UTC−6 in winter, the US Central zone, and the one people most often mean by an unqualified "CST" — a reading that collides with China Standard Time fourteen hours the other way.

Denver. Denver is UTC−7 in winter, the US Mountain zone, and the smallest of the four continental US zones by population. Arizona, in the same zone, does not change its clocks, so for half the year Denver and Phoenix are an hour apart.

Los Angeles. Los Angeles is UTC−8 in winter and UTC−7 from March to November. California voted in 2018 to move to permanent daylight saving and has not been able to: the change needs an act of Congress, which has not come.

Anchorage. Alaska is UTC−9 in winter, one hour behind the US Pacific coast, and covers a longitude range that would justify four zones. The state consolidated into one in 1983 so that Anchorage business hours would overlap with the rest of the country.

Honolulu. Hawaii is UTC−10 and does not change its clocks, so it drifts an hour further from the mainland every March. It is the furthest behind of any populated US zone, and the overlap with a European working day is essentially nil.

Toronto. Toronto keeps the same clock as New York and changes on the same dates, so the two cities are never apart. Canada follows the US daylight-saving schedule rather than the European one, which is why Toronto and London drift for the same weeks New York and London do.

Vancouver. Vancouver keeps the same clock as Los Angeles and Seattle and changes on the same dates. British Columbia legislated for permanent daylight saving in 2019, conditional on the US west coast doing the same, and is still waiting.

The same pair from the other end

This page reads the difference as Canada against the United States. Canada to the United States states the same gap the other way round, which is the one to send someone if they are the one doing the travelling.

Other country pairs

• the United States to the United Kingdom
• the United States to Ireland
• the United States to Portugal
• the United States to France
• the United States to Germany
• the United States to Spain
• the United States to Italy
• the United States to the Netherlands
• the United States to Sweden
• the United States to Poland

Every the United States pair · Every Canada pair · All country pairs · City pairs