Pacific Time vs Eastern Time - What's the Difference?

Pacific Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Time. Always. No exceptions.

When New Yorkers eat lunch at noon, people in LA are still drinking their morning coffee at 9 AM. When San Francisco wraps up at 5 PM, New York's already into evening at 8 PM.

This 3-hour gap defines how American businesses schedule meetings, how TV networks broadcast shows, and how sports fans on opposite coasts watch the same game at wildly different times of day.

Here's what you actually need to know.

The Gap Never Changes (Unlike International Timezones)

Pacific and Eastern both observe Daylight Saving Time on the exact same dates. Second Sunday in March, first Sunday in November. Both spring forward together, both fall back together.

That's huge. It means the 3-hour difference never shifts.

Compare that to scheduling between New York and London, where the gap bounces between 4, 5, and 6 hours depending on which side's done their DST switch. Or US-Australia, where the gap changes four times a year because their seasons are backwards.

PT-ET? Rock solid. 3 hours, 365 days a year.

In 2026, both coasts change clocks on March 8 (spring forward) and November 1 (fall back). Mark those dates for the lost/gained hour, but don't worry about the gap between coasts changing.

Abbreviations: PST, PDT, EST, EDT

You'll see four abbreviations:

PST (Pacific Standard Time) = UTC-8, used November through March

PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) = UTC-7, used March through November

EST (Eastern Standard Time) = UTC-5, used November through March

EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) = UTC-4, used March through November

For daily use, just say PT and ET. Everyone understands that PT means PST in winter and PDT in summer. You don't need to specify unless you're doing technical work that requires exact UTC offsets.

Major PT cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas

Major ET cities: New York, Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami

The Golden Meeting Window: Noon to 5 PM ET

If you're scheduling coast-to-coast, aim for noon to 5 PM Eastern. That's 9 AM to 2 PM Pacific.

Both sides are awake. Both sides are working. Nobody's taking a call at 6 AM or staying late.

| Eastern Time | Pacific Time | Notes |

|--------------|--------------|-------|

| 12:00 PM ET | 9:00 AM PT | West Coast starting their day |

| 1:00 PM ET | 10:00 AM PT | Perfect for everyone |

| 2:00 PM ET | 11:00 AM PT | Still great |

| 3:00 PM ET | 12:00 PM PT | Lunch hour on West Coast |

| 4:00 PM ET | 1:00 PM PT | Excellent |

| 5:00 PM ET | 2:00 PM PT | East Coast leaving soon |

I've worked with distributed US teams for years. The 1-2 PM ET slot gets the most traction. That's 10-11 AM Pacific — West Coasters are caffeinated, East Coasters haven't checked out yet.

Early Morning Calls Hit West Coast Hard

9 AM ET is 6 AM PT. Don't schedule recurring 9 AM ET calls unless you want your West Coast colleagues to hate you.

I've been on teams where the East Coast executives kept booking 9 AM ET standups. Half the Pacific team stopped showing up. Eventually leadership learned to rotate times.

10 AM ET (7 AM PT) is borderline. Some West Coasters are fine with it. Others aren't morning people and will resent it.

11 AM ET (8 AM PT) works better. Still early for Pacific, but manageable.

Late Calls Hit East Coast Hard

6 PM ET is 3 PM PT. East Coasters are done for the day, West Coasters are mid-afternoon.

If you schedule regular 6 PM ET calls, expect East Coast people to be distracted or skip entirely.

7 PM ET (4 PM PT) is after-hours for ET. Don't make it a habit.

Industry-Specific Patterns

Finance: The NYSE runs 9:30 AM to 4 PM ET. That's 6:30 AM to 1 PM PT. West Coast finance people start early to catch market hours. I know traders in San Francisco who hit their desk at 5:30 AM.

Tech: Silicon Valley runs on flexible schedules. Many West Coast tech companies schedule key meetings between 10 AM and 2 PM PT (1-5 PM ET) to accommodate East Coast offices.

Media: TV shows air at "8 PM ET / 8 PM PT" — meaning the same local time on both coasts. West Coast viewers watch 3 hours later in real time. Live sports scheduled for 7 PM ET start at 4 PM PT, often during West Coast work hours. I've watched plenty of playoff games at my desk because they started at 4 PM Pacific.

Simple Conversion: Add or Subtract 3

Pacific to Eastern: Add 3 hours

• 9 AM PT = 12 PM ET
• 2 PM PT = 5 PM ET

Eastern to Pacific: Subtract 3 hours

• 3 PM ET = 12 PM PT
• 6 PM ET = 3 PM PT

Watch the date line for late-night conversions:

• 10 PM PT = 1 AM ET next day
• 11 PM PT = 2 AM ET next day

Most calendar apps handle this automatically, but I've seen people miss meetings because they didn't realize their 11 PM Pacific call was actually 2 AM Eastern the next day.

Mountain and Central Time Sit in the Middle

The US has four main continental timezones:

Pacific (PT): UTC-8/-7

Mountain (MT): UTC-7/-6 — Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City

Central (CT): UTC-6/-5 — Chicago, Houston, Dallas

Eastern (ET): UTC-5/-4

When it's noon ET:

• 11 AM Central
• 10 AM Mountain
• 9 AM Pacific

Phoenix is weird — Arizona doesn't observe DST (except the Navajo Nation). So Phoenix is MST year-round, which means during summer it aligns with Pacific Time, and during winter it aligns with Mountain Time.

Scheduling Tips That Actually Work

Rotate sacrifice if you can't hit the golden window. Early one week (10 AM ET), late the next week (5 PM ET). Share the pain.

Always specify both timezones in meeting invites. Write "3 PM ET / 12 PM PT" so nobody has to convert.

Respect Friday afternoons. West Coast offices wind down early on Fridays. A 5 PM PT Friday meeting won't get good attendance.

Use async for non-urgent stuff. Recorded video updates or Slack threads work better than live calls when the topic doesn't need real-time discussion.

Check your calendar app's timezone settings. I once had Outlook set to "Eastern" when I was in Pacific. Every invite I sent confused people because the times were wrong.

The Bottom Line

Pacific Time is always 3 hours behind Eastern Time. Period.

Best meeting window: noon to 5 PM ET (9 AM to 2 PM PT).

Don't schedule recurring 9 AM ET calls unless you want West Coast resentment. Don't schedule 6 PM ET calls unless you want East Coast no-shows.

Both timezones change clocks on the same dates, so the 3-hour gap never shifts.

Always write both timezones in meeting invites to avoid confusion.

Use our timezone converter for quick conversions. For California-specific details, check the California timezone guide.