Best Time to Meet Between New York and London

The standard 5-hour gap

For most of the year, London is five hours ahead of New York. When New York is at 9:00 AM, London is at 2:00 PM. When New York is at 12:00 PM, London is at 5:00 PM. That leaves a roughly four-hour window in which both cities are within the conventional 9:00 AM–6:00 PM working day. The sweet spot is the middle of that window: New York morning, London afternoon.

Recommended meeting windows

Each of the slots below is inside standard working hours for both cities during the normal 5-hour offset. Pick the one that suits your team's rhythm.

Times above assume the standard 5-hour offset. During DST mismatch weeks the gap is 4 hours and every entry shifts by an hour relative to the other city — confirm with the New York → London converter on the day you book.

Who each window works best for

• US-led teams: 10:00 or 11:00 AM New York. The team has settled into the day and London is in their second half.
• UK-led teams: 8:00 or 9:00 AM New York / 1:00–2:00 PM London. The UK side is fresh, post-lunch, and not at the end of the day.
• Recurring weekly all-hands: 10:00 AM New York / 3:00 PM London. It is the most balanced slot — mid-morning for one side, mid-afternoon for the other, leaving London time to finish the day after the call.
• Customer or external calls: Default to 11:00 AM New York / 4:00 PM London if the customer is in either zone — both sides are in the working day but neither is at a peak-focus hour.
• Last-resort late slots: 12:00 PM New York / 5:00 PM London is the latest reliable window. Skip if anyone on the UK side leaves at 5 sharp.

The DST mismatch weeks

The US starts daylight saving time on the second Sunday of March and ends it on the first Sunday of November. The UK starts British Summer Time on the last Sunday of March and ends it on the last Sunday of October. Because the start and end dates do not line up, there are two short windows each year — one in March and one in late October — when the gap drops from five hours to four. During those weeks the overlap widens slightly: 9:00 AM–1:00 PM New York lines up with 1:00–5:00 PM London.

The exact dates change every year, so this guide does not hardcode them. The live converter always reflects the correct current offset, derived from the IANA time zone database. See the methodology page for how DST transitions are computed.

Scheduling checklist

1. Pick the city whose calendar is the source of truth for the meeting (the anchor). For most US-headquartered teams, that is New York.
2. Choose a slot from the table above. For recurring meetings, default to 10:00 AM New York / 3:00 PM London.
3. Book the calendar invite in the anchor city's time zone. Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar all let you set the time zone explicitly — use it.
4. Confirm the slot with the live New York → London converter before sending the invite. It will show the actual current offset, including DST.
5. Around the second week of March and the last week of October, re-check the converter the day before the meeting. The gap may be 4 hours instead of 5 for that week.
6. Avoid 8:00 AM New York / 1:00 PM London for meetings that involve London-based managers — it is a common lunch hour. Move to 9:00 or 10:00 AM New York instead.
7. For one-off meetings, share the time in both local zones in the invite body, e.g. "10:00 AM ET / 3:00 PM BST." That removes ambiguity if anyone's calendar shows a different zone.

Use the live tools

For the exact current offset, a draggable overlap view, and an hour-by-hour meeting suitability table, open the New York → London converter or the London → New York converter. For other city pairs, browse all conversion pages on the time zone converter hub or see the meeting planner.