EDT time now (Eastern Daylight Time)

What EDT means

EDT stands for Eastern Daylight Time, UTC−4. It is used in the eastern United States and Canada.

It is a summer time: the daylight saving form of EST (UTC−5), one hour ahead. In New York it applies from March to October/November: from the second Sunday of March at 2:00 AM to the first Sunday of November at 2:00 AM.

EST or EDT? The most common mistake

EST is a fixed offset: UTC−5, all year. New York, Toronto, Miami and the rest of the eastern US and Canada use it only in winter. From the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November their clocks are on Eastern Daylight Time, EDT, UTC−4 (15 U.S.C. §260a sets those dates for the US).

So “3 PM EST” in July is, strictly, 4 PM on a New York wall clock. Most people who write EST in summer mean New York time, but software takes the letters literally: a calendar invitation for “15:00 EST” on a July day lands an hour off. If you mean the local time on the US East Coast whatever the season, write ET (Eastern Time) or name the city, and let the calendar apply the right offset.

A few places stay on EST all year and never switch to EDT: Panama, Jamaica, the Mexican state of Quintana Roo with Cancún (since 2015), and, since 2026, Manitoba: its clocks went forward in March 2026 and stayed, and tzdata now calls Winnipeg’s time EST all year. For these places “EST” is correct in July too, and in summer they are one hour behind New York.

How to write Eastern times so nobody misreads them

For a single moment, give the offset: “15:00 UTC−4” or the ISO 8601 form 2027-07-15T15:00−04:00 cannot be misread. For a recurring meeting, give the city or the IANA zone America/New_York; the offset then follows daylight saving time automatically. Avoid “EST/EDT” in the same string, and avoid “Eastern” alone in international mail: Australia has an Eastern time too (AEST, UTC+10).

Where and when EDT is used

14 zones use it for part of the year only, switching back to standard time in the other months. Computed from tzdata under the current rules.

How long EDT has been used

In the tzdata record, New York City has used EDT since 1918, Toronto has used EDT since 1918 and Detroit has used EDT since 1948.

EDT in the past

Zones whose tzdata history shows EDT before 2025 but that no longer use it:

• America/Cancun (Cancún): 1998
• America/Jamaica (Kingston): 1974–1983
• America/Indiana/Tell_City (Tell City): 1969–1970
• America/Santo_Domingo (Santo Domingo): 1966–1967

EDT converted to other zones

Every column is a fixed offset, so this table is valid on any date. Remember that the regions behind some columns switch to summer time (EST to EDT, CET to CEST, GMT to BST); the clock in those cities is then an hour later than the column.

Related zones and conversions

• EST time
• America/New_York time zone
• UTC−4 time
• IST to EDT
• Time zones of the world
• Daylight saving time
• Time zone converter