🗓️ Meeting Planner
Compare times across multiple time zones to find the best meeting slot for everyone.
What is this tool?
The Meeting Planner is a free online tool designed to help distributed teams find a suitable meeting time across different time zones. Instead of mentally calculating offsets for each participant, simply select the time zones of your team members, and the tool displays a visual comparison showing the local time for each person at any given moment. This is invaluable for global companies, remote-first teams, international client meetings, and cross-border collaboration. You can quickly identify overlapping working hours, spot participants who would need to join early morning or late at night, and adjust the meeting time to find the most balanced slot. The visual layout makes it immediately clear who might be inconvenienced, enabling fair scheduling decisions for the entire team.How it works
The Meeting Planner uses the browser's Intl.DateTimeFormat API to render times in each selected time zone. When you choose a reference time and time zone, the tool creates a Date object for that instant and formats it simultaneously across all selected zones. The time grid displays several hours around the chosen time, with color-coded indicators showing whether each time falls within typical business hours (green), early morning or evening (yellow), or nighttime (red). This visual coding helps you instantly spot which participants face inconvenient times. All timezone data comes from the IANA Time Zone Database embedded in the browser, ensuring accuracy including current daylight saving time rules for every region.How to use
- Select the time zones for all participants using the dropdown.
- Click Add to include each participant time zone in the comparison.
- Set a reference date and time for the proposed meeting.
- View the time grid showing local times for each participant.
- Adjust the time to find a slot that works for everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How many time zones can I compare at once?
You can compare as many time zones as needed. Simply add each participant's time zone to the list.
Does it account for daylight saving time?
Yes. Each time zone is evaluated for its current DST status, so the displayed times are always correct for the selected date.
What do the colors mean?
Green indicates business hours (9 AM - 5 PM), yellow means early morning or evening, and red means nighttime (before 7 AM or after 10 PM).
Can I use this for recurring meetings?
Yes. However, for recurring meetings near DST transition dates, re-check the times as offsets may change seasonally.
Tips & Advice
When planning global meetings, aim for overlap windows where all participants are within reasonable hours. The most challenging combinations are typically US West Coast to East Asia (look for early morning / late evening slots) and Europe to Australia (midday UTC is often a good compromise). For teams spanning more than 8 time zones, consider rotating meeting times so the same people are not always inconvenienced. Always confirm the meeting time with a timezone-specific notation like "14:00 UTC" to avoid ambiguity.