EST Time Now

EST right now

EST stands for Eastern Standard Time, the winter clock of the US East Coast, five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. It is the time on the wall in New York, Washington, Atlanta and Boston from the first Sunday of November until the second Sunday of March.

In the other half of the year the same cities move to Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, UTC−4). Many people still say “EST” all year round, which is why a calendar invite marked EST in July is often ambiguous. The clock on this page always shows true UTC−5, so in summer it will read one hour earlier than a New York wall clock.

When this page was last built (Friday, November 6, 2026, 12:00 UTC) it was 7:00 AM on Friday in Eastern Standard Time. The offset for EST is UTC−5. The live clock above takes over as soon as the page loads and shows the exact current time.

Where EST is used

EST is used across the eastern United States and Canada, plus a few places that stay on UTC−5 permanently.

• New York
• Washington, DC
• Boston
• Philadelphia
• Atlanta
• Miami
• Detroit
• Charlotte
• Toronto
• Ottawa
• Montreal
• Pittsburgh
• Orlando

Panama, Jamaica and parts of Colombia and Ecuador keep UTC−5 all year, so for them EST is the permanent time rather than a seasonal one. Most of the eastern US observes it for about four months of the year, from early November to mid March.

When EST matters in practice

Eastern time is the default clock of American business. The NYSE and Nasdaq open at 9:30 AM Eastern and close at 4:00 PM, federal agencies publish releases at set Eastern times, and most national broadcast schedules are written for the East Coast first. If a deadline says “5 PM ET” with no further detail, it is 5 PM New York time whether that is EST or EDT on the day.

For people working with US colleagues from India or Europe the practical question is how many hours separate you in winter. India is 10 hours 30 minutes ahead of EST, the UK is 5 hours ahead, and Central European Time is 6 hours ahead. Those gaps shrink by an hour in summer for countries that do not change their clocks, because New York moves forward.

Booking recurring meetings in EST is risky. A weekly call fixed at 9 AM EST stays correct only until March, when New York becomes EDT and an unchanged invite shifts by an hour for anyone outside the US. Pick a named city such as New York in your calendar instead of the abbreviation, and the invite follows the real clock.

EST, ET and EDT: which one do you mean?

“ET” means Eastern Time and covers whichever of EST or EDT is currently in force. “EST” is strictly the winter offset, UTC−5. “EDT” is the summer offset, UTC−4. Writing “EST” for a July meeting is technically wrong, although software usually forgives it and treats it as New York time.

There is a second, less obvious clash: Australia uses EST for Eastern Standard Time too, meaning UTC+10 in Sydney and Melbourne. An invite from Australia marked EST is 15 hours ahead of an American one. If the sender is not in the US, ask which Eastern they mean, or use the full city name.

When you must write an unambiguous time, give the UTC offset or use “ET”. Offsets such as UTC−5 cannot be misread, and ET always follows the daylight saving rules of the eastern US.