Is UTC-8 the same as PST?

PST (Pacific Standard Time) is UTC-8, but only during winter on the US/Canada west coast. From mid-March to early November the same region shifts to PDT (UTC-7). For a year-round UTC-8 anchor use Pacific/Tahiti or Etc/GMT+8.

Is UTC-8 the same as GMT-8?

Yes — both refer to 8 hours behind the zero meridian and are interchangeable in everyday usage. In code, prefer UTC.

How do I convert UTC-8 to a Unix timestamp?

Add 8 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.

Why does my America/Los_Angeles timestamp not match UTC-8 in July?

Because in July the West Coast is on Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7), not UTC-8. America/Los_Angeles auto-switches between PST and PDT — use Etc/GMT+8 if you want a permanently fixed UTC-8.

UTC-8 Time

Current UTC-8 Time — UTC time 8, time in UTC 8, UTC 8 timezone

Live UTC time 8 clock — time in UTC 8. Live UTC-8 clock with the current Unix timestamp. UTC-8 corresponds to Pacific Standard Time (PST), active in California, Oregon, and Washington from November to March.

Current Unix Timestamp

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seconds

Current time in UTC-8

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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-8 right now?

The current UTC-8 time and matching Unix timestamp are shown live at the top of this page, updated every second. UTC-8 means the clock is 8 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time — when London (UTC+00) shows 20:00, UTC-8 shows 12:00 on the same date. In North America, UTC-8 is Pacific Standard Time and only applies in winter; the same coast moves to UTC-7 (PDT) from mid-March to early November.

What is UTC-8?

UTC-8 is 8 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. In North America, UTC-8 corresponds to Pacific Standard Time (PST), used on the US west coast during winter. In summer, west coast states shift to PDT (UTC-7). Alaska Standard Time (AKST) uses UTC-9, and Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HAST) uses UTC-10.

What is on UTC-8

UTC-8 covers Pacific Standard Time (PST) on the North American west coast in winter, plus a handful of Pacific island groups year-round. From March through November, most of this region shifts to UTC-7 (PDT).

United States: California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, parts of Idaho — during winter as PST
Canada: most of British Columbia until BC adopted permanent UTC-7 in 2026
Mexico: Baja California (Tijuana) — synced with US DST
Year-round UTC-8: French Polynesia (Pacific/Tahiti)

PST and DST behavior

UTC-8 in North America is the winter standard only. Use America/Los_Angeles for code that needs to track DST; use Etc/GMT+8 if you specifically need a fixed UTC-8 offset that ignores DST.

PST is observed roughly five months a year (November through mid-March)
PDT (UTC-7) covers the remaining seven months
Pacific/Tahiti stays on UTC-10, not UTC-8 — do not confuse

Convert UTC-8 to a Unix timestamp

Unix timestamps are zone-agnostic — the same instant has the same epoch value everywhere. To convert a UTC-8 wall-clock time, treat it as UTC and add 8 hours, or use a timezone-aware library. Be careful with America/Los_Angeles if the date falls in summer — that switches to UTC-7, not UTC-8.

JavaScript: new Date("2026-01-15T12:00:00-08:00").getTime() / 1000
Python: datetime(2026,1,15,12,0,tzinfo=timezone(timedelta(hours=-8))).timestamp()
Shell: TZ="Etc/GMT+8" date -d "2026-01-15 12:00" +%s # fixed UTC-8, no DST

UTC-8 vs GMT-8 vs PST

UTC-8 and GMT-8 are interchangeable for everyday purposes — both mean 8 hours behind the zero meridian. PST (Pacific Standard Time) is the US/Canada west-coast winter offset that maps to UTC-8, but the same region uses PDT (UTC-7) in summer. For a fixed UTC-8 without DST, use Etc/GMT+8 (note the POSIX-inverted sign) or Pacific/Tahiti.

UTC-8 ≡ GMT-8 — interchangeable
PST = UTC-8 in winter only; PDT = UTC-7 in summer
Etc/GMT+8 and Pacific/Tahiti are fixed UTC-8 year-round

UTC-8 as a UTC offset from Universal Time

UTC-8 is a UTC offset of -8 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-8 means that local clocks read exactly 8 hours behind Universal Time at any given instant.

Universal Time (UTC) → UTC-8: subtract 8 hours
UTC-8 → Universal Time: add 8 hours
UTC offset is the signed integer hours from Universal Time — written as UTC-8 here
The UTC-8 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 8 — the live clock above shows the current UTC time 8
time in UTC 8 = UTC-8 clock reading at the same instant
UTC 8 timezone reference — UTC-8 is the IANA offset name

FAQ

What time is it in UTC-8 right now?: The live UTC-8 clock at the top of this page updates every second. North American Pacific Time matches UTC-8 only during winter (roughly November to mid-March); outside that window the same region is UTC-7.
Is UTC-8 the same as PST?: PST (Pacific Standard Time) is UTC-8, but only during winter on the US/Canada west coast. From mid-March to early November the same region shifts to PDT (UTC-7). For a year-round UTC-8 anchor use Pacific/Tahiti or Etc/GMT+8.
Is UTC-8 the same as GMT-8?: Yes — both refer to 8 hours behind the zero meridian and are interchangeable in everyday usage. In code, prefer UTC.
How do I convert UTC-8 to a Unix timestamp?: Add 8 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.
Why does my America/Los_Angeles timestamp not match UTC-8 in July?: Because in July the West Coast is on Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7), not UTC-8. America/Los_Angeles auto-switches between PST and PDT — use Etc/GMT+8 if you want a permanently fixed UTC-8.