Is UTC-5 the same as EST?

EST (Eastern Standard Time) is UTC-5, but only during winter in the US and Canada. From mid-March to early November the same region shifts to EDT (UTC-4). For a year-round UTC-5 anchor use America/Bogota or America/Lima.

Is UTC-5 the same as GMT-5?

Yes — both mean 5 hours behind the zero meridian and are interchangeable in everyday usage. In code, prefer UTC.

How do I convert UTC-5 to a Unix timestamp?

Add 5 hours to the wall-clock time, then take the seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC. See the code examples above for one-liners.

Which countries use UTC-5 year-round?

Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico's Quintana Roo, and parts of Brazil (Acre) all stay on UTC-5 year-round. Unlike Eastern Time in the US, none of them observe daylight saving.

UTC-5 Time

Current UTC-5 Time — UTC time 5, time in UTC 5, UTC 5 timezone

Live UTC time 5 clock — time in UTC 5. Live UTC-5 clock with the current Unix timestamp. UTC-5 corresponds to Eastern Standard Time (EST) in the US and Canada, and is used year-round in Colombia and Ecuador.

Current Unix Timestamp

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seconds

Current time in UTC-5

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Source time

Enter the date and time you want to convert.

Target timezones

The same moment shown in each timezone.

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What time is it in UTC-5 right now?

The current UTC-5 time and matching Unix timestamp are shown live at the top of this page, updated every second. UTC-5 means the clock is 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time — when London (UTC+00) shows 17:00, UTC-5 shows 12:00 on the same date. UTC-5 is the offset for US Eastern Standard Time in winter, and for several South American countries year-round.

What is UTC-5?

UTC-5 is 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. In North America, UTC-5 corresponds to Eastern Standard Time (EST), active from November to March in states like New York, Florida, Georgia, and the New England region. Colombia (COT) and Ecuador (ECT) use UTC-5 year-round without daylight saving time.

What is on UTC-5

UTC-5 is the offset of US Eastern Standard Time (EST) in winter and several South American countries year-round. Eastern North America shifts to UTC-4 in summer (EDT).

United States and Canada: Eastern Time during winter (America/New_York, America/Toronto)
Caribbean and Central America: Panama, Jamaica, Cayman Islands — year-round UTC-5
South America (year-round UTC-5): Colombia (COT), Peru (PET), Ecuador, parts of Brazil (Acre, AMT)
Mexico: Quintana Roo (Cancún) uses UTC-5 year-round

EST and seasonal offset

For US/Canada Eastern Time, UTC-5 only applies in winter; the same region is UTC-4 from mid-March to early November. For year-round UTC-5, use America/Bogota, America/Lima, or America/Panama instead of America/New_York.

EST is the winter side; EDT (UTC-4) is the summer side of US Eastern
America/Bogota and America/Lima stay on UTC-5 year-round
The unrelated COT (Colombia Time) abbreviation is the same offset but should not be confused with EST

Convert UTC-5 to a Unix timestamp

Unix timestamps are zone-agnostic — the same instant has the same epoch value everywhere. To convert a UTC-5 wall-clock time, treat it as UTC and add 5 hours, or use a timezone-aware library. America/New_York only matches UTC-5 in winter; for a permanent UTC-5 anchor use America/Bogota or America/Lima.

JavaScript: new Date("2026-01-15T12:00:00-05:00").getTime() / 1000
Python: datetime(2026,1,15,12,0,tzinfo=timezone(timedelta(hours=-5))).timestamp()
Shell: TZ="America/Bogota" date -d "2026-01-15 12:00" +%s # fixed UTC-5

UTC-5 vs GMT-5 vs EST

UTC-5 and GMT-5 refer to the same offset for any practical purpose — 5 hours behind the zero meridian. EST (Eastern Standard Time) is US/Canada Eastern winter time and equals UTC-5, but switches to EDT (UTC-4) in summer. For a year-round UTC-5 without DST, use America/Bogota, America/Lima, or America/Panama.

UTC-5 ≡ GMT-5 — interchangeable
EST = UTC-5 in winter; EDT = UTC-4 in summer
America/Bogota and America/Lima are fixed UTC-5 year-round

UTC-5 as a UTC offset from Universal Time

UTC-5 is a UTC offset of -5 hours from Universal Time (UTC) — the global reference time against which all timezone offsets are measured. Universal Time is maintained by atomic clocks and is the unambiguous baseline for international timekeeping. UTC-5 means that local clocks read exactly 5 hours behind Universal Time at any given instant.

Universal Time (UTC) → UTC-5: subtract 5 hours
UTC-5 → Universal Time: add 5 hours
UTC offset is the signed integer hours from Universal Time — written as UTC-5 here
The UTC-5 UTC offset is fixed and does not change with daylight saving in any major jurisdiction at this offset
Universal Time (UTC) is the modern atomic-clock standard that replaced GMT for scientific and software use
UTC time 5 — the live clock above shows the current UTC time 5
time in UTC 5 = UTC-5 clock reading at the same instant
UTC 5 timezone reference — UTC-5 is the IANA offset name

FAQ

What time is it in UTC-5 right now?: The live UTC-5 clock at the top of this page updates every second. North American Eastern Time matches UTC-5 only during winter (roughly November to mid-March); outside that window the same region is UTC-4.
Is UTC-5 the same as EST?: EST (Eastern Standard Time) is UTC-5, but only during winter in the US and Canada. From mid-March to early November the same region shifts to EDT (UTC-4). For a year-round UTC-5 anchor use America/Bogota or America/Lima.
Is UTC-5 the same as GMT-5?: Yes — both mean 5 hours behind the zero meridian and are interchangeable in everyday usage. In code, prefer UTC.
How do I convert UTC-5 to a Unix timestamp?: Add 5 hours to the wall-clock time, then take the seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC. See the code examples above for one-liners.
Which countries use UTC-5 year-round?: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico's Quintana Roo, and parts of Brazil (Acre) all stay on UTC-5 year-round. Unlike Eastern Time in the US, none of them observe daylight saving.