Best Meeting Time: Sydney to Los Angeles
🕐 Live Timezone Overlap: Sydney & Los Angeles
Sydney and Los Angeles sit on opposite sides of the date line, and the gap between them is one of the widest you will encounter in global scheduling. At 17 hours, the two cities share no overlap between their standard 9am to 6pm working days. Every meeting requires one team to work outside normal hours. That reality shapes everything: which city takes the early call, who sends the agenda the night before, and how urgently replies can be expected.
Time Difference: Sydney and Los Angeles
Los Angeles is currently 17 hours behind Sydney. The live offsets are Sydney UTC+10 and Los Angeles UTC-7. Sydney observes daylight saving and Los Angeles also observes daylight saving, so the offset shifts twice a year if both sides aren't already aligned.
Sydney currently observes UTC+10, its standard offset. Los Angeles is currently on UTC-7, having shifted from its standard UTC-8 under US daylight saving, which begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Sydney observes its own DST, running from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April, moving to UTC+11. Because the two changeover weekends rarely coincide, the gap between Sydney and Los Angeles alternates between 17 and 19 hours depending on the time of year.
Best Times to Meet
There is no overlap between Sydney working hours (9am to 6pm) and Los Angeles working hours (9am to 6pm). Zero hours of shared daytime exist. One city must concede. The practical compromise is a Sydney early morning, around 7am to 8am, which lands at 2pm to 3pm the previous day in Los Angeles, comfortably within the LA afternoon. Note that LA media and tech offices often run until 7pm, so a 5pm or 6pm LA slot can also work, reaching Sydney at 10am to 11am the following morning.
Working Hours Overlap Explained
Sydney operates on Australia/Sydney (currently UTC+10). Los Angeles operates on America/Los_Angeles (currently UTC-7). The table below maps a standard 9:00 AM–6:00 PM day in Sydney to Los Angeles's local time.
| Sydney time | Los Angeles time | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | 4:00 PM | Los Angeles in business hours |
| 10:00 AM | 5:00 PM | Los Angeles in business hours |
| 11:00 AM | 6:00 PM | Los Angeles wrapping up |
| 12:00 PM | 7:00 PM | Los Angeles outside hours |
| 1:00 PM | 8:00 PM | Los Angeles outside hours |
| 2:00 PM | 9:00 PM | Los Angeles outside hours |
| 3:00 PM | 10:00 PM | Los Angeles outside hours |
| 4:00 PM | 11:00 PM | Los Angeles outside hours |
| 5:00 PM | 12:00 AM | Los Angeles outside hours |
| 6:00 PM | 1:00 AM | Los Angeles outside hours |
Tips for Scheduling Across Sydney and Los Angeles
- Sydney callers taking the early slot should send agendas the evening before to give Los Angeles time to prepare.
- Between Christmas and 26 January, Sydney offices run reduced staff: avoid scheduling critical calls during this window.
- The gap shifts between 17 and 19 hours when one city changes clocks before the other: re-check times around each DST weekend.
- Los Angeles media and tech teams often work until 7pm, making a 6pm LA slot a reasonable concession for Sydney mornings.
- Friday afternoons in Los Angeles are notably quiet: schedule your Sydney-morning call on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday instead.
Public Holidays and Working Weeks
Both cities follow a standard Monday to Friday working week. Sydney offices thin out significantly between Christmas and Australia Day on 26 January, running on skeleton staff during that period. Los Angeles observes Independence Day on 4 July and Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November, when many LA offices effectively shut down. Any cross-city meeting schedule should flag both holiday calendars well in advance, since a public holiday in either Sydney or Los Angeles will break an otherwise reliable recurring call.