PDT — Pacific Daylight Time
See where PDT is used, when it applies during daylight saving time, and compare it with other time zones worldwide.
Countries: Canada, Mexico, United States
How to Convert PDT to Other Time Zones
Open the PDT converter page: Go to https://www.xconvert.com/time-converter/pdt-time-zone to open the visual comparison grid with Pacific Daylight Time as the starting reference. This page is useful when you are planning a sales call with a client in New York, coordinating a software release between Seattle and London, or checking whether a same-day handoff from San Francisco to Tokyo is realistic.
Add comparison cities: Click + Add City and search for cities that commonly interact with the U.S. and Canadian Pacific coast, such as New York, London, and Tokyo. These are practical comparisons for finance, SaaS support, cloud operations, e-commerce logistics, and media teams because West Coast companies regularly coordinate with East Coast headquarters, European partners, and Asia-Pacific engineering or manufacturing teams.
Select a time range on the grid: Click Select if needed, then drag across the PDT row to highlight a working window such as 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM PDT. That selection shows immediately across other rows, so you can see that 9:00 AM PDT is 12:00 PM EDT in New York, 5:00 PM BST in London, and 1:00 AM JST the next day in Tokyo, which quickly confirms that a West Coast morning works for New York and London but not for Japan.
Export or share the result: After selecting the range, use the export options shown on the page: ICS download, Google Calendar, Gmail, Copy to clipboard, or Share link. This is especially useful for sending a confirmed meeting block to a distributed team, dropping the time into an email thread with clients, or generating a calendar event that automatically appears in each participant’s local time zone.
About Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) is the daylight saving time version of the Pacific Time Zone and has an exact offset of UTC−07:00. It is used during the warmer part of the year in parts of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including major metro areas such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, Rosarito, and Tecate.
PDT is the seasonal counterpart to Pacific Standard Time (PST). When daylight saving time is active, clocks in Pacific Time move one hour forward from PST (UTC−08:00) to PDT (UTC−07:00), which means PDT is always 1 hour ahead of PST; for example, when it is 9:00 AM PDT, it would be 8:00 AM PST if standard time were still in effect.
In practical terms, PDT covers some of North America’s most economically active corridors. The time zone includes major technology and startup centers in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, entertainment and media operations in Los Angeles, defense and biotech activity in San Diego, and high-volume cross-border manufacturing and logistics in Baja California cities such as Tijuana and Mexicali. This makes PDT especially important for scheduling software deployments, customer support coverage, market communications, and international freight coordination.
PDT also appears alongside other abbreviations that can share the same UTC−07:00 offset at certain times of year, including MST, MT, PT, and T. However, the abbreviation alone does not always guarantee the same daylight saving rules, so using a city-based comparison on the converter is more reliable than assuming every UTC−07:00 region changes clocks on the same dates.
PDT and Daylight Saving Time
PDT exists only during the daylight saving period and then switches back to PST when daylight saving time ends. In the Pacific Time Zone areas of the United States and Canada, clocks move forward in spring and back in autumn, changing the offset from UTC−08:00 (PST) to UTC−07:00 (PDT) and later returning to standard time.
For 2026, Pacific Time switches from PST to PDT on Sunday, March 8, 2026, when clocks move forward at 2:00 AM local time to 3:00 AM. It switches from PDT back to PST on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when clocks move back at 2:00 AM local time to 1:00 AM. That means the daylight saving season in 2026 runs from March 8 through November 1 in most Pacific Time jurisdictions that observe DST.
These clock changes matter for real scheduling. A recurring 9:00 AM PDT meeting in San Francisco during July becomes a 12:00 PM EDT call for New York, but after the November switch, a 9:00 AM PST meeting is still 12:00 PM EST because both coasts revert to standard time; by contrast, meetings with places that do not change clocks on the same dates can shift by an hour temporarily. This is why teams in software, customer success, video production, and global operations often confirm meeting times using a date-specific converter rather than relying on memory.
Mexico’s daylight saving rules have changed in recent years, and border cities can follow different schedules tied to economic integration with the United States. Cities such as Tijuana, Mexicali, Tecate, Ensenada, and Rosarito are commonly treated with Pacific-border time rules for business and cross-border commuting, so checking the exact city and date on the converter is the safest option when arranging trucking, factory pickups, medical travel, or binational meetings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does PDT stand for?
PDT stands for Pacific Daylight Time. It is the daylight saving version of Pacific Time and uses an exact offset of UTC−07:00, which is one hour ahead of Pacific Standard Time during the months when daylight saving time is active.
Is PDT the same as PST?
No, PDT and PST are not the same. PDT is UTC−07:00 and is used during daylight saving time, while PST is UTC−08:00 and is used during standard time; that means PDT is always 1 hour ahead of PST, so 9:00 AM PDT equals 8:00 AM PST.
Which cities use PDT?
Major cities that use PDT during daylight saving time include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Seattle in the United States, along with Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, Rosarito, and Tecate in northwestern Mexico. These cities are important for industries such as technology, entertainment, aerospace, tourism, manufacturing, and cross-border logistics, so accurate PDT conversion is often needed for meetings, shipments, and customer support coverage.
What is the UTC offset for PDT?
The UTC offset for PDT is UTC−07:00. This means Pacific Daylight Time is 7 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, so when it is 12:00 PM UTC, it is 5:00 AM PDT on the same day.
When does PDT change?
In the Pacific Time Zone areas that observe daylight saving time, PDT begins when clocks move forward in spring and ends when clocks move back in autumn. For 2026, the change to PDT happens on Sunday, March 8, 2026, and the return to PST happens on Sunday, November 1, 2026, with the clock adjustment occurring at 2:00 AM local time on both dates.
How far behind UTC is Pacific Daylight Time?
Pacific Daylight Time is 7 hours behind UTC. In scheduling terms, if a server log, flight system, or trading platform shows 18:00 UTC, that corresponds to 11:00 AM PDT, which is useful when matching global timestamps with West Coast business hours.
Is PDT used in California and Washington?
Yes, California and Washington use PDT during the daylight saving portion of the year. That includes major population and business centers such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, and Seattle, where many companies in tech, film, cloud infrastructure, retail, and international trade operate on Pacific Time.
Why does PDT matter for business scheduling?
PDT matters because it affects coordination between the U.S. West Coast and other major business regions. For example, 9:00 AM PDT is 12:00 PM in New York, 5:00 PM in London during British Summer Time, and 6:00 PM in Paris during Central European Summer Time, making it a strong overlap window for North America and Europe but usually too late for same-day collaboration with East Asia.