Time in Toronto
Canada · America/Toronto · latitude 43.65°
Reading your clock…
Toronto changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC-05:00 and daylight saving time is UTC-04:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Toronto and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 1 November 2026 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC-05:00 |
| Sunday, 14 March 2027 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC-04:00 |
| Sunday, 7 November 2027 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC-05:00 |
Same clock, different sky: Montreal share America/Toronto. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Toronto
Where a range is shown, the gap genuinely changes during the year. That is not rounding or hedging — it is two governments moving their clocks on different weekends.
| City | Difference now | Across the year |
|---|---|---|
| London | 5 hours ahead | +4h / +5h |
| New York | the same time | constant |
| Los Angeles | 3 hours behind | constant |
| Chicago | 1 hour behind | constant |
| Paris | 6 hours ahead | +5h / +6h |
| Berlin | 6 hours ahead | +5h / +6h |
| Dubai | 8 hours ahead | +8h / +9h |
| Mumbai | 9 hours 30 minutes ahead | +9h30 / +10h30 |
| Singapore | 12 hours ahead | +12h / +13h |
| Hong Kong | 12 hours ahead | +12h / +13h |
| Tokyo | 13 hours ahead | +13h / +14h |
| Sydney | 14 hours ahead | +14h / +15h / +16h |
| Auckland | 16 hours ahead | +16h / +17h / +18h |
| São Paulo | 1 hour ahead | +1h / +2h |
| UTC | 4 hours ahead | +4h / +5h |
Daylight in Toronto through the year
From about 8.9 hours in December to 15.4 hours in June. This is the part a plain clock leaves out: 17:00 is a bright evening in one month and long dark in another.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 07:28 | 16:55 | 9h 27m |
| February | 06:52 | 17:37 | 10h 45m |
| March | 06:04 | 18:13 | 12h 9m |
| April | 05:10 | 18:49 | 13h 39m |
| May | 04:30 | 19:24 | 14h 54m |
| June | 04:18 | 19:45 | 15h 27m |
| July | 04:37 | 19:36 | 14h 59m |
| August | 05:11 | 18:57 | 13h 46m |
| September | 05:45 | 18:02 | 12h 17m |
| October | 06:20 | 17:09 | 10h 49m |
| November | 07:01 | 16:32 | 9h 31m |
| December | 07:30 | 16:26 | 8h 56m |
Daylight length is accurate. The clock times of sunrise and sunset assume each city sits at the centre of its time zone, which can put them up to about an hour and a quarter out for places near a zone's edge — Madrid being the standard example. Day length is unaffected.
Questions
About time in Toronto
What time zone is Toronto in?
Toronto uses the IANA time zone America/Toronto, which is UTC-05:00 in standard time and UTC-04:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers Montreal.
Does Toronto observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Toronto move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 1 November 2026.
Why does the time difference to Toronto keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. London is a clear example: it sits 4 hours ahead, then 5 hours ahead across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Toronto get?
Around 15.4 hours at the longest, in June, and about 8.9 hours at the shortest, in December. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Toronto's latitude of 43.65° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.