It is 8:58 a.m. in Seattle and the invite says the call starts at noon Eastern — which sounds like you have hours until you remember it doesn't. Eastern time runs exactly three hours ahead of Pacific: 9 a.m. in Los Angeles or Seattle is 12 p.m. in New York, and unlike most timezone pairs, that gap never shifts, because both coasts change their clocks on the same Sundays in March and November. The clocks above run live in both cities. Type an hour into the converter for any date you like, or read straight down the 24-hour chart if you'd rather see the whole day at once.
What People Convert PST to EST For
Standup meetings that land on lunch
A 9 a.m. standup called from San Francisco arrives at noon in New York, exactly when the east-coast half of the team wants to eat. Distributed companies usually pin recurring syncs between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Pacific — 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern — late enough that engineers in Oakland aren't dialing in from the train and early enough that nobody in Brooklyn stays past normal hours.
Market hours for west-coast traders
The NYSE and Nasdaq open at 9:30 a.m. Eastern — 6:30 a.m. on the west coast, before sunrise for much of the year. Jobs numbers and CPI releases at 8:30 a.m. Eastern print at 5:30 a.m. Pacific, and the 4 p.m. closing bell rings at 1 p.m., which is why many California traders start before dawn and finish by early afternoon. After-hours earnings calls at 5 p.m. Eastern are a civilized 2 p.m.
Game launches, patches, and stream schedules
Publishers often unlock releases at 9 p.m. Pacific so the whole country starts playing the same night — midnight on the east coast. Patch notes and maintenance windows tend to be posted in PT because many studios sit in Los Angeles, Irvine, and Seattle, so downtime starting at 10 a.m. Pacific hits east-coast players at 1 p.m. A streamer going live at 6 p.m. Pacific reaches New York at 9 p.m., peak viewing time.
Prime time, kickoffs, and award shows
Live television is scheduled in Eastern time. Prime time opens at 8 p.m. ET, so award shows and playoff broadcasts start at 5 p.m. on the west coast, before many viewers are home. Sunday's early NFL window kicks off at 1 p.m. Eastern — 10 a.m. Pacific — and a 7:30 p.m. Eastern tipoff starts at 4:30 in Los Angeles. Convert before you set the recording or plan the watch party.
Red-eye flights between the coasts
A red-eye that leaves LAX at 10:45 p.m. and lands at JFK at 7:00 a.m. was only in the air about five hours and fifteen minutes — the missing three hours are the clock change hidden in the itinerary. Flying west, the trick reverses: a six-hour 8 a.m. departure from New York touches down in Los Angeles at 11 a.m., seemingly three hours after leaving.
Deadlines published in Eastern time
Federal agencies, courts, exchanges, and most corporate head offices write deadlines in Eastern time. A brief due at 5 p.m. ET must be filed by 2 p.m. in Los Angeles, which quietly removes the west-coast afternoon. Application portals that close at 11:59 p.m. Eastern lock out Californians at 8:59 p.m., so the safe habit is converting every published deadline to Pacific the moment you read it.
Calling family on the other coast
Ringing grandparents in Florida at 8 p.m. after a Pacific-coast dinner reaches them at 11 p.m., usually past bedtime — and an east-coast sibling who calls at 9 a.m. wakes the West at 6. The comfortable shared window runs roughly 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific, noon to 9 p.m. Eastern. The two live clocks answer "is it too late to call?" faster than counting on fingers.
How the Conversion Works
The converter does not apply a hard-coded three-hour shift from a lookup table. It reads the IANA timezone database — the same reference your operating system uses — and computes the UTC offset of America/Los_Angeles and America/New_York for the exact date you enter: UTC−8 or UTC−7 in the west, UTC−5 or UTC−4 in the east. Both zones spring forward on the second Sunday of March and fall back on the first Sunday of November, so the difference works out to three hours on every date. Everything runs locally in your browser; nothing you enter leaves your device.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is EST always 3 hours ahead of PST?
Yes — and unlike many timezone pairs, the gap never changes. Pacific and Eastern both spring forward on the second Sunday of March and both fall back on the first Sunday of November, so in winter you compare PST with EST and in summer PDT with EDT, three hours apart either way. There is no season when the difference becomes two or four hours.
What is 9 a.m. PST in EST?
Noon. Add three hours to any Pacific time to get Eastern: 9 a.m. becomes 12 p.m., 2 p.m. becomes 5 p.m., and 10 p.m. becomes 1 a.m. the next day. The rule is identical in summer, when the zones are technically PDT and EDT — so the date you pick changes which abbreviation is correct, never the answer.
Do Pacific and Eastern time change clocks on the same day?
Yes. Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, all US zones that observe daylight saving move together: clocks jump forward one hour at 2 a.m. local time on the second Sunday of March and fall back one hour at 2 a.m. local time on the first Sunday of November. Because both coasts shift by the same amount in the same direction, the three-hour Pacific–Eastern gap survives every changeover. In 2026 that means March 8 and November 1.
Should I write PST or PDT — and EST or EDT?
From the first Sunday of November to the second Sunday of March, the standard labels apply: PST (UTC−8) and EST (UTC−5). The rest of the year both coasts run on daylight time: PDT (UTC−7) and EDT (UTC−4). Most people write PST and EST year-round anyway; this page reads the actual date and shows whichever abbreviation is in force, so the conversion is right even when the label in your email isn't.
What time does the stock market open in Pacific time?
The NYSE and Nasdaq open at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, which is 6:30 a.m. Pacific, and close at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific. Pre-market economic data at 8:30 a.m. Eastern lands at 5:30 a.m. on the west coast. These conversions hold in every season, since the exchanges and both coasts follow the same daylight-saving calendar.
Which states use Pacific and Eastern time?
Pacific time covers California, Washington, most of Oregon, nearly all of Nevada, and the northern Idaho panhandle around Coeur d'Alene. Eastern is the most populous US zone: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, all of New England, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Ohio, and most of Michigan, Indiana, and Florida — Michigan's four Wisconsin-border counties, Indiana's northwest and southwest corners, and the Florida panhandle west of the Apalachicola River run on Central instead. Kentucky and Tennessee are split down the middle: Louisville, Lexington, Knoxville, and Chattanooga keep Eastern time, while Bowling Green, Paducah, Nashville, and Memphis are Central.