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Paris vs New York Time Difference
Paris runs five to six hours ahead of New York — a gap rooted partly in a 1940 wartime decision that put France on Central European Time despite sitting at a UK-like longitude.
Paris
Europe/Paris
New York
America/New_York
Calculating the live gap…
A wartime decision that never got reversed
Geographically, mainland France sits almost entirely within the same band of longitude as the United Kingdom, and for much of its history France kept a time closer to what is now GMT. That changed in 1940: during the German occupation, France adopted Central European Time to align with the time zone used across German-controlled Europe. When the war ended, the clock was never switched back. France has run on UTC+1 — one hour ahead of London despite sitting at a similar longitude — ever since, a rare case of a wartime administrative decision quietly becoming permanent.
The same DST mismatch, one hour removed
Because Paris runs on Central European Time (one hour ahead of London) but shares the EU's daylight saving calendar, the Paris-New York gap follows the same pattern as the New York-London pairing, just shifted up by an hour: normally six hours, narrowing to five for a few weeks each spring and autumn while the EU and US clocks are briefly out of sync with each other.
Best time to call, hour by hour
The table below runs through a full Paris day and shows the matching New York time for each hour, with the rows where both cities fall inside a typical 9:00–17:00 workday highlighted.
| Paris time | New York time | Both in business hours? |
|---|---|---|
| Calculating… | ||
For most of the year that leaves a workable window from about 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Paris (9:00 a.m. to noon in New York) — check the dates above if you're scheduling near a US or EU clock-change weekend.
How we calculate this page: both live clocks, the current gap, the DST transition dates, and the hour-by-hour overlap table are all computed directly from the IANA Europe/Paris and America/New_York time zone data via your browser on every page load — nothing here is a fixed, hard-coded figure.
Frequently asked questions
What is the time difference between Paris and New York?
Usually six hours, with Paris ahead, narrowing to five hours for a few weeks each spring and autumn because the US and EU change their clocks on different dates.
Why isn't the Paris-New York time difference always six hours?
The European Union changes its clocks on the last Sundays of March and October, while the US changes on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November. In the gap between those dates, only one side has shifted, temporarily narrowing the usual six-hour difference to five.
Why is Paris one hour ahead of London if they're geographically close?
Mainland France sits largely within the same longitude band as the UK and would naturally align with GMT, but France adopted Central European Time in 1940, during the German occupation, to match the time zone used across German-controlled Europe. It never reverted afterward, leaving France on UTC+1 (one hour ahead of its UK neighbor) to this day.
What is the best time to schedule a call between Paris and New York?
Roughly 9:00 a.m. to noon in New York, which lands at 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Paris most of the year — a solid stretch that covers New York's morning and Paris' afternoon simultaneously.
Does either Paris or New York have unusual daylight saving rules?
No, both observe conventional daylight saving, just on different calendar dates — the EU and the US each set their own start and end dates independently, which is the entire source of the seasonal mismatch in this pairing.
How do I convert Paris time to New York time?
Subtract five or six hours from Paris time, depending on the date. For a guaranteed-accurate conversion, use the time zone converter on WatchTime Online.
Need a different pairing? Try the meeting planner or see all cities on the world clock.