EST to PST: EST is 3 hours ahead of PST
Eastern Time is 3 hours ahead of Pacific Time, on every day of the year. It is 3:36 pm EDT in Eastern and 12:36 pm PDT in Pacific.
Convert a specific time from EST to PST
Pick any time and date to convert it both ways. The conversion runs in your browser against the real zone rules, so a date inside a daylight saving period gets that period's offset rather than today's.
What is the time difference between EST and PST?
Pacific Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Time. To go from EST to PST you subtract 3 hours. That gap holds on all 365 days of 2026: both zones move their clocks, but on the same dates and in the same direction, so the distance between them never changes.
EST to PST conversion table
Every hour of Wednesday, September 23, 2026 in Eastern, with the matching reading in Pacific. 3 of the 24 hours land on a different calendar date in Pacific, which is the part people get wrong when they schedule across this pair.
| EST | EST 24h | PST | PST 24h | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 am | 00:00 | 9:00 pm | 21:00 | the previous day |
| 1:00 am | 01:00 | 10:00 pm | 22:00 | the previous day |
| 2:00 am | 02:00 | 11:00 pm | 23:00 | the previous day |
| 3:00 am | 03:00 | 12:00 am | 00:00 | same day |
| 4:00 am | 04:00 | 1:00 am | 01:00 | same day |
| 5:00 am | 05:00 | 2:00 am | 02:00 | same day |
| 6:00 am | 06:00 | 3:00 am | 03:00 | same day |
| 7:00 am | 07:00 | 4:00 am | 04:00 | same day |
| 8:00 am | 08:00 | 5:00 am | 05:00 | same day |
| 9:00 am | 09:00 | 6:00 am | 06:00 | same day |
| 10:00 am | 10:00 | 7:00 am | 07:00 | same day |
| 11:00 am | 11:00 | 8:00 am | 08:00 | same day |
| 12:00 pm | 12:00 | 9:00 am | 09:00 | same day |
| 1:00 pm | 13:00 | 10:00 am | 10:00 | same day |
| 2:00 pm | 14:00 | 11:00 am | 11:00 | same day |
| 3:00 pm | 15:00 | 12:00 pm | 12:00 | same day |
| 4:00 pm | 16:00 | 1:00 pm | 13:00 | same day |
| 5:00 pm | 17:00 | 2:00 pm | 14:00 | same day |
| 6:00 pm | 18:00 | 3:00 pm | 15:00 | same day |
| 7:00 pm | 19:00 | 4:00 pm | 16:00 | same day |
| 8:00 pm | 20:00 | 5:00 pm | 17:00 | same day |
| 9:00 pm | 21:00 | 6:00 pm | 18:00 | same day |
| 10:00 pm | 22:00 | 7:00 pm | 19:00 | same day |
| 11:00 pm | 23:00 | 8:00 pm | 20:00 | same day |
What are the best hours to schedule a call between EST and PST?
5 hours of the standard 9:00 am to 5:00 pm working day line up in both zones, from 12:00 pm EST to 5:00 pm EST. In Pacific that window reads 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Outside it, one side is either not yet at their desk or already gone.
| EST | PST | Working hours | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 pm | 9:00 am | both sides | noon in Eastern, mid morning in Pacific |
| 1:00 pm | 10:00 am | both sides | afternoon in Eastern, mid morning in Pacific |
| 2:00 pm | 11:00 am | both sides | afternoon in Eastern, mid morning in Pacific |
| 3:00 pm | 12:00 pm | both sides | afternoon in Eastern, noon in Pacific |
| 4:00 pm | 1:00 pm | both sides | afternoon in Eastern, afternoon in Pacific |
Does daylight saving change EST to PST?
Eastern Time is currently on EDT and changes next on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when the clock falls back from 1:59 am to 1:00 am and the offset moves from UTC-4 to UTC-5.
Pacific Time is currently on PDT and changes next on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when the clock falls back from 1:59 am to 1:00 am and the offset moves from UTC-7 to UTC-8.
Is EST ahead of or behind PST?
EST is ahead of PST by 3 hours: when it is 12:00 pm in Eastern, it is 9:00 am in Pacific. One wrinkle worth knowing: EST and EDT are two names for the same zone, not two zones. Eastern Time reads EST in winter and EDT in summer. When somebody types "est to pst" they nearly always mean the zone rather than the literal winter offset, so this page resolves EST to America/New_York and PST to America/Los_Angeles and applies whichever offset is genuinely in force on the day.
Eastern Time covers New York, Toronto, Atlanta and Miami. Pacific Time covers Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver. The identifiers behind them are America/New_York and America/Los_Angeles, which is what any calendar or scheduling system should be storing rather than a fixed number of hours.
Questions
- What is EST in PST?
- EST is 3 hours ahead of PST. 9:00 am EST is 6:00 am PST.
- How many hours ahead is PST of EST?
- PST is 3 hours behind EST.
- What time is it in Pacific right now?
- 12:36 pm PDT on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.
- When can Eastern and Pacific meet during working hours?
- Between 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm EST, which is 9:00 am to 2:00 pm PST.
- Does this account for daylight saving?
- Yes. Every reading is computed from the IANA database for the actual date, so EDT and PDT are the abbreviations genuinely in force today rather than a fixed assumption.
EST to PST by the hour
Other conversions
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