US to India Time Difference and the Best Time to Call

Last updated October 9, 2026

India is between 9½ and 15½ hours ahead of the United States, so a normal working day in one country is mostly night in the other. There are still two short windows that work every day: early morning in the US, which is evening in India, and early evening in the US, which is the next morning in India.

The time difference by US city

All of India uses one time zone, India Standard Time (IST), at UTC+5:30. It does not change its clocks. The US does: daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. That is why the gap is one hour smaller from March to November than in winter.

Phoenix and Honolulu do not use daylight saving time, so their gap to India is the same all year. The half hour in India's offset means the minutes never line up with US times. A call at 9:00 in New York is at a :30 time in India.

Window 1: US morning, India evening

This is the window most teams use. From the East Coast, 8 to 10 a.m. falls between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. in India, depending on the season. The Indian side stays a little late and the American side starts the day with the call.

From the West Coast this window is harder. 8 a.m. in Los Angeles is already 8:30 or 9:30 p.m. in India. For California teams the second window is often better.

Window 2: US evening, India morning

A call at 7 or 8 p.m. in Los Angeles lands at 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. the next day in India. The American side gives up part of its evening and the Indian side starts work a little early. This suits short daily check-ins between a California team and an Indian team better than a late night in Bengaluru or Pune.

From New York the same idea means calling at 9 to 10 p.m., which is 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. in India, depending on the season. It works for occasional calls but is hard to keep up every day.

What changes in March and November

When US clocks spring forward in March, the gap shrinks by one hour. A meeting that stays at 9 a.m. in New York moves from 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in India. In November it moves back. If the meeting was set up in a US calendar, the Indian participants see it move by an hour twice a year. Mention it in the invitation, or set the recurring time in IST if the Indian side cares more about a fixed slot.

Weekends and holidays

• Monday morning in India is still Sunday night in the US, and Friday evening in the US is already Saturday morning in India. A "Friday afternoon" call from the US reaches India on its weekend.
• Many Indian offices close for Republic Day (January 26), Independence Day (August 15) and Gandhi Jayanti (October 2). Holi and Diwali move each year with the lunar calendar, and work slows for several days around Diwali in October or November.
• US holidays such as Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July are normal working days in India, which is useful for catching up, but expect no answers from the US side.

Tips that save time

• Write both times in the invitation, for example "9:00 a.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. IST". The half hour is easy to get wrong in your head.
• Say which IST you mean only if there is doubt. In a US–India context IST means India, but the same letters are used for Irish and Israel time.
• Rotate the inconvenient slot. If the Indian team always takes the evening call, move one meeting a week to the US evening.
• Use short written updates for anything that does not need a live discussion. A gap of ten hours or more makes an overnight hand-off natural: one team sends questions at the end of its day and finds answers in the morning.

To find a slot for your own cities and date, open the Meeting Planner with your US city and New Delhi. The scheduling guide covers how to share early and late calls fairly.

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