New York to London: The Complete Meeting Overlap Guide
Five hours apart, three good hours a day, and two weeks a year when the math quietly changes. Everything you need to schedule NY-London meetings without the 7 AM surprises.
New York to London is the most scheduled transatlantic meeting pair in the world, and it is also one of the friendliest: a five hour gap leaves a genuine three hour overlap inside normal business hours. I have run a standing NY-London call for two years, and the only times it went wrong were the two weeks a year when daylight saving changes the arithmetic. This guide covers the everyday window, the DST traps, and the scheduling habits that make the pair painless.
The everyday overlap: 9 AM to 12 PM New York
London is 5 hours ahead of New York for most of the year. When both sides keep 9 AM to 6 PM business hours, the shared window is:
- 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM in New York (EDT, UTC-4)
- 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM in London (BST, UTC+1)
That is 3 hours of overlap, and it is well placed: New York is past the morning rush, London is in the productive afternoon but not yet winding down. The middle of the window, 10:00 to 11:00 AM New York / 3:00 to 4:00 PM London, is the sweet spot I default to. It has the most buffer on both ends, so a meeting that runs 15 minutes long does not push anyone out of hours.
Want the exact overlap for today, with DST handled automatically? Run the overlap finder on the homepage; it computes the grid live for today's date.
The two weeks the gap changes
Here is the trap. The US and Europe do not change their clocks on the same weekend:
- Late October: the UK and EU fall back on October 25, 2026. The US does not fall back until November 1. For that one week, the gap is 4 hours, not 5. A standing 10:00 AM New York call lands at 2:00 PM London instead of 3:00 PM.
- March: the US springs forward on the second Sunday of March; Europe follows on the last Sunday. For about three weeks the gap is again 4 hours, and the overlap stretches to 4 hours: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM New York becomes 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM London.
I learned this the embarrassing way: a recurring invite I owned showed up an hour early for the London side for a week, and two people assumed I had moved it. Now I put a calendar note on both transition weeks. If you own a recurring NY-London meeting, check it in the last week of October and the second week of March, every year.
Scheduling habits that make this pair easy
Rotate who takes the edge. The overlap favors neither side brutally, but a 9:00 AM New York start is somebody's school run, and a 5:00 PM London end is somebody's commute. If you meet often, alternate between 9:00 AM and 11:30 AM New York starts so the inconvenience is shared.
Write both times, always. "2:00 PM ET / 7:00 PM London" in every invite. Time zone abbreviations are ambiguous (BST means British Summer Time in London and Bangladesh Standard Time in Dhaka), so pair them with the city or use the UTC offset during transition weeks.
Default recurring meetings to the middle. 10:00 AM New York / 3:00 PM London survives the DST transition weeks with the least disruption: when the gap narrows to 4 hours, the meeting just sits slightly differently inside the window instead of falling out of it.
Keep a second slot for overflow. Three hours is plenty for one meeting but tight for a meeting-heavy day. If your London colleagues stack calls in the overlap, book important NY-London time early in the week before the window fills.
When this pair gets hard
Honestly, it rarely does. NY-London is the easy mode of transatlantic scheduling. It gets hard when you add a third city: San Francisco is 8 hours behind London, so a three way NY-London-SF overlap shrinks to about an hour, and adding Singapore or Sydney kills it entirely. For those, stop hunting for a magic hour and split into two meetings or go async. The overlap finder will tell you plainly when cities share nothing; believe it.
What is the best time for a New York to London meeting?
10:00 to 11:00 AM New York time, which is 3:00 to 4:00 PM in London. It sits in the middle of the 3 hour overlap, giving both sides buffer against overruns and daylight saving shifts.
How many hours ahead is London from New York?
5 hours for most of the year. During the last week of October and about three weeks in March, when US and European daylight saving transitions do not line up, the gap narrows to 4 hours.
Why did my recurring NY-London meeting shift by an hour?
Almost certainly a daylight saving transition. The UK changes clocks on October 25 and the US on November 1 in 2026, and they spring forward on different March weekends. Check recurring invites during both transition windows.