ClockOrbit

Time zone comparison

BST vs UTC time zone comparison

British Summer Time (BST, UTC+00:00) vs Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, UTC+00:00). Right now BST is the same offset. BST is used in London, Birmingham and Manchester while UTC covers Global standard. Use the 24-hour grid below to find a meeting slot both sides will tolerate.

Live clocks

 

Right now in BST

--:--:--
UTC

 

Right now in UTC

--:--:--
UTC

Heads up: these zones diverge on daylight saving.

BST observes DST while UTC does not, so the gap shifts by an hour twice a year. In January the difference is 0h, in July it is 1h. If you are scheduling across the spring or autumn transitions, double-check the date.

Heads up: BST is only observed in summer.

Best meeting windows today

Hours where both sides sit inside 9-to-5 business hours.

24-hour comparison

Each row is one hour. Green rows are when both sides are inside 9 AM to 5 PM.

Convert exact time →
24-hour wall-clock comparison between British Summer Time and Coordinated Universal Time, with business-hour overlap highlighted.
HourBST (British Summer Time)UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)Overlap
12 AM00:00Mon00:00MonNo overlap
1 AM01:00Mon01:00MonNo overlap
2 AM02:00Mon02:00MonNo overlap
3 AM03:00Mon03:00MonNo overlap
4 AM04:00Mon04:00MonNo overlap
5 AM05:00Mon05:00MonNo overlap
6 AM06:00Mon06:00MonNo overlap
7 AM07:00Mon07:00MonNo overlap
8 AM08:00Mon08:00MonNo overlap
9 AM09:00Mon09:00MonBusiness overlap
10 AM10:00Mon10:00MonBusiness overlap
11 AM11:00Mon11:00MonBusiness overlap
12 PM12:00Mon12:00MonBusiness overlap
1 PM13:00Mon13:00MonBusiness overlap
2 PM14:00Mon14:00MonBusiness overlap
3 PM15:00Mon15:00MonBusiness overlap
4 PM16:00Mon16:00MonBusiness overlap
5 PM17:00Mon17:00MonNo overlap
6 PM18:00Mon18:00MonNo overlap
7 PM19:00Mon19:00MonNo overlap
8 PM20:00Mon20:00MonNo overlap
9 PM21:00Mon21:00MonNo overlap
10 PM22:00Mon22:00MonNo overlap
11 PM23:00Mon23:00MonNo overlap

How BST and UTC compare

British Summer Time (BST) sits at UTC+00:00 today, while Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is at UTC+00:00. The current gap is 0 hours, with BST ahead of UTC. In practical terms, if your morning starts at 9 AM in London, your counterpart in Global standard is seeing 09:00 on their own watch at that exact moment.

BST is the working clock for London, Birmingham and Manchester. BST also refers to Bangladesh Standard Time (Asia/Dhaka). UK usage dominates search volume. UTC covers Global standard. If your team is split between these two regions, the table above is the quickest way to spot the daily overlap window without doing the offset arithmetic in your head.

Daylight saving matters here. British Summer Time shifts forward an hour on the second Sunday of March (US) or the last Sunday of March (Europe) and back on the first Sunday of November or last Sunday of October. Coordinated Universal Time stays on a fixed offset year-round. The IANA tzdata baked into this page handles every transition automatically, so the table reflects the correct wall-clock times for today's date. For dates further out, use the converter linked above and pick the target date explicitly.

Common scheduling traps are easy to avoid here. Pick a wall-clock time on one side, read the matching wall-clock on the other from the table, and write both into the calendar invite, never just the difference. If the meeting falls in the week of a DST changeover and one of these zones shifts, the absolute clock will drift by an hour from what the recipient expects. The table is computed for today's date, so for a future meeting open the converter linked above and pick the exact date.

One last note for asynchronous teams: business-hour overlap is the wrong metric for handoff workflows. If you operate on a follow-the-sun model, you actually want zero overlap, with one team logging off as the other starts. BST and UTC share a clock, so this model does not apply between them. Pick distant zones instead.

Frequently asked questions

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