Best Time to Call Los Angeles from Sydney
🕐 Live Timezone Overlap: Los Angeles & Sydney
Los Angeles and Sydney sit on opposite sides of the date line, and that shapes every conversation between the two cities. Sydney is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles under current offsets, which means a 9am start in Sydney falls on the previous evening in Los Angeles. There is no overlap between standard working hours in either city. Every call requires one side to work outside their normal day, so deciding early who takes the unsociable slot saves friction later.
Time Difference: Los Angeles and Sydney
Sydney is currently 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles. The live offsets are Los Angeles UTC-7 and Sydney UTC+10. Los Angeles observes daylight saving and Sydney also observes daylight saving, so the offset shifts twice a year if both sides aren't already aligned.
Los Angeles is currently on UTC-7, having moved from its standard UTC-8 under US daylight saving, which runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. Sydney is currently on AEST, UTC+10, its standard offset. Sydney does observe DST, shifting to AEDT at UTC+11 from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April. Because the two cities change clocks on different schedules, the gap between Los Angeles and Sydney shifts across the year, widening from 17 hours to 18 hours when Sydney enters AEDT while Los Angeles remains on standard time.
Best Times to Meet
With zero hours of working-hour overlap between Los Angeles and Sydney, every meeting requires a compromise. The least disruptive arrangement is typically an 8am to 9am slot in Los Angeles, which lands at 1am to 2am the following day in Sydney, or an end-of-day window around 5pm to 6pm in Sydney, which corresponds to roughly midnight to 1am in Los Angeles. LA media and tech offices often run later, sometimes starting at 10am, which only pushes the Sydney side further into the night. Neither option is comfortable; rotate the burden where possible.
Working Hours Overlap Explained
Los Angeles operates on America/Los_Angeles (currently UTC-7). Sydney operates on Australia/Sydney (currently UTC+10). The table below maps a standard 9:00 AM–6:00 PM day in Los Angeles to Sydney's local time.
| Los Angeles time | Sydney time | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 2:00 AM | Sydney outside hours |
| 10:00 AM | 3:00 AM | Sydney outside hours |
| 11:00 AM | 4:00 AM | Sydney outside hours |
| 12:00 PM | 5:00 AM | Sydney outside hours |
| 1:00 PM | 6:00 AM | Sydney outside hours |
| 2:00 PM | 7:00 AM | Sydney outside hours |
| 3:00 PM | 8:00 AM | Sydney just starting |
| 4:00 PM | 9:00 AM | Sydney in business hours |
| 5:00 PM | 10:00 AM | Sydney in business hours |
| 6:00 PM | 11:00 AM | Sydney in business hours |
Tips for Scheduling Across Los Angeles and Sydney
- Rotate who takes the out-of-hours call; Sydney should not always bear the midnight slot.
- Avoid scheduling calls with Sydney during late November to late January, when Sydney offices run on skeleton staff.
- Los Angeles Friday afternoons are often quiet; Sydney Saturday morning calls may find LA colleagues unavailable.
- When Sydney shifts to AEDT in October, the gap widens to 18 hours: update your calendar invites immediately.
- Confirm the Sydney date separately from the Los Angeles date; the 17-hour gap means the two cities are rarely on the same calendar day.
Public Holidays and Working Weeks
Both cities follow a standard Monday to Friday working week with hours of 9am to 6pm. Key holidays to watch include Independence Day on 4 July and Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November for Los Angeles, and Australia Day on 26 January and ANZAC Day on 25 April for Sydney. Both observe Christmas Day on 25 December. Sydney offices also run on reduced staffing from Christmas through to Australia Day, so meetings scheduled in that window need early confirmation from the Sydney side.