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Time Difference Between Cities

Compare the time difference, working-hours overlap and UTC offsets between major world cities.

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Abu Dhabi

Addis Ababa

Alexandria

Understanding Time Zones & UTC

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the global reference from which every time zone is measured. It is not adjusted for daylight saving and never changes with the seasons, which makes it the anchor the entire world's clocks are built around. A city's local time is simply its offset from UTC — for example, UTC+2 means two hours ahead of the reference. When you compare two cities, what you're really comparing is the gap between their two UTC offsets.

For remote teams and global travelers, this matters enormously. Knowing that a colleague is at UTC−5 while you're at UTC+2 instantly tells you there's a seven-hour gap — and that the overlap for live collaboration is narrow. Working in UTC offsets, rather than guessing the time elsewhere, removes the most common cause of missed meetings across borders.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is UTC and why is it important?

UTC is the primary time standard the world uses to regulate clocks. Every time zone is defined as a positive or negative offset from UTC, so it acts as a neutral reference that avoids confusion between regions and seasons.

What is the difference between UTC and GMT?

In everyday use they point to the same clock time, but UTC is a precise standard kept by atomic clocks, while GMT is a time zone based on the historical mean solar time at the Greenwich meridian.

How do time zones affect remote work?

The larger the gap between two cities' UTC offsets, the smaller the window of shared working hours. Checking the offset before scheduling helps teams find a fair overlap and avoid meetings in the middle of someone's night.