Los Angeles is 10 hours behind Cairo for most of the year: when it is 10:00 am in Cairo it is 12:00 am in Los Angeles. In offset terms Cairo is on UTC+02:00 and Los Angeles is on UTC-08:00 in January, and UTC+03:00 and UTC-07:00 in July. The converter above works from your browser’s own time zone data, so the figure it shows is the one in force today rather than the one that was in force when this page was written.
The difference is not constant, because both cities observe daylight saving but not on the same dates. In 2026, Cairo changes on 24 April and 30 October and Los Angeles changes on 8 March and 1 November. That leaves 5 distinct periods in the year, including 1 short one of a few weeks, and the table below gives the exact dates. It is the short windows that catch people out: a recurring call booked in one city’s clock silently moves in the other’s.
There is no overlap in office hours at all. Cairo works 09:00 to 17:00 and Los Angeles works 09:00 to 18:00, and with 10 hours between them one city has closed before the other opens. Anything live has to be early for one side or late for the other; 17:00 to 18:00 in Cairo, which is 07:00 to 08:00 in Los Angeles, is usually the least painful compromise. The working weeks differ: Cairo works Sunday to Thursday while Los Angeles works Monday to Friday, which leaves three shared days at each end of the week and two mismatched ones.
Two local details worth knowing. Egypt reinstated daylight saving in 2023 after eight years without it, so older conversion tables for Cairo are wrong for part of the year. The working day starts late and runs late, so a 09:00 Pacific call is already lunchtime on the US east coast.
The safest way to write a time for these two cities is to give both, as in "10:00 Cairo / 00:00 Los Angeles", or to give the UTC offset. Abbreviations are the trap: Cairo is on EET for part of the year and EEST for the rest, and the same three letters are reused in other parts of the world for entirely different offsets.
The formula
local Cairo- The time you enter, on the Cairo clock
offset- Each city’s UTC offset at that moment, read live from the IANA time zone database in your browser
−10- The difference in hours that holds for most of 2026: Los Angeles is 10 hours behind Cairo
day shift- Whether the converted time falls on the previous, same or next calendar day in Los Angeles
How it works, step by step
- Enter a time in Cairo using the 24-hour hour box and the minute box — 15:30 is hour 15, minute 30.
- Your browser reports the UTC offset in force in Cairo and in Los Angeles for that moment, so a date near a daylight saving transition is handled correctly rather than with a fixed 10 hour rule.
- The second offset minus the first gives the difference, which is added to the time you entered. A result past midnight is marked as the next or previous day, because that is where most conversion mistakes live.
- The panel also shows the current time in both cities, the date in Los Angeles, and whether the two offices are open at the same moment.
Worked examples
09:00 in Cairo
09:00 in Cairo is 23:00 in Los Angeles (previous day) — late at night in Los Angeles. In 12-hour terms, 9:00 am against 11:00 pm (previous day). Only one of the two offices is open at that moment, so it is worth offering rather than assuming.
12:00 in Cairo
12:00 in Cairo is 02:00 in Los Angeles — the middle of the night in Los Angeles. In 12-hour terms, 12:00 pm against 2:00 am. Only one of the two offices is open at that moment, so it is worth offering rather than assuming.
16:00 in Cairo
16:00 in Cairo is 06:00 in Los Angeles — before the working day starts in Los Angeles. In 12-hour terms, 4:00 pm against 6:00 am. Only one of the two offices is open at that moment, so it is worth offering rather than assuming.
The 8 March window, when the usual answer is wrong
Between 8 March and 23 April the difference is -09:00 rather than -10:00, because one city has changed its clocks and the other has not. In that window 10:00 in Cairo is 01:00 in Los Angeles, an hour away from where a fixed-offset table would put it.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many hours behind Cairo is Los Angeles?
Los Angeles is 10 hours behind Cairo for most of 2026, so 09:00 in Cairo is 23:00 in Los Angeles (previous day). The difference changes during the daylight saving changeovers, and the table on this page lists every period in the year with its exact dates.
What is 2 pm Cairo time in Los Angeles?
4:00 am, the middle of the night in Los Angeles. In 24-hour form 14:00 in Cairo is 04:00 in Los Angeles, and that is outside working hours in Los Angeles.
What is the best time to call between Cairo and Los Angeles?
There is no time when both offices are open, so one side has to step outside its normal hours. The two least disruptive options are 08:00 in Cairo, which is 22:00 in Los Angeles, or 17:00 in Cairo, which is 07:00 in Los Angeles.
Is Los Angeles ahead of or behind Cairo?
Los Angeles is behind. Cairo is at UTC+02:00 and Los Angeles is at UTC-08:00 in mid-January, and UTC+03:00 and UTC-07:00 in mid-July. The clock moves back going from Cairo to Los Angeles, which is why Cairo reaches the end of its working day first.
Do Cairo and Los Angeles change their clocks on the same date?
No. In 2026, Cairo changes on 24 April 2026 and 30 October 2026, and Los Angeles changes on 8 March 2026 and 1 November 2026. That is why the difference between them takes 2 different values across the year rather than one.
What do the abbreviations for Cairo mean?
Cairo is on EET in winter and EEST in summer, while Los Angeles uses PST and PDT. Abbreviations are the least reliable way to write a time: several are ambiguous between regions, and the summer and winter forms are an hour apart. A UTC offset, or the time given in both cities, cannot be misread.
Does this converter stay correct after the clocks change?
Yes. It does not use a stored number for the difference. Each time you change a value it asks your browser for the UTC offset that Africa/Cairo and America/Los_Angeles are on at that moment, using the IANA time zone database that ships with your operating system, and takes the difference. The tables on this page are computed from the same database for 2026.
Are the working weeks the same in Cairo and Los Angeles?
No. Cairo works Sun-Thu and Los Angeles works Mon-Fri, so part of one city’s week falls on the other’s weekend. Check the day as well as the hour before proposing a slot.
Cairo to Los Angeles: every hour, every period of 2026, and meeting slots
| Cairo (24h) | Cairo (12h) | Los Angeles (24h) | Los Angeles (12h) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 12:00 am | 14:00 (previous day) | 2:00 pm (previous day) | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 01:00 | 1:00 am | 15:00 (previous day) | 3:00 pm (previous day) | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 02:00 | 2:00 am | 16:00 (previous day) | 4:00 pm (previous day) | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 03:00 | 3:00 am | 17:00 (previous day) | 5:00 pm (previous day) | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 04:00 | 4:00 am | 18:00 (previous day) | 6:00 pm (previous day) | outside office hours |
| 05:00 | 5:00 am | 19:00 (previous day) | 7:00 pm (previous day) | outside office hours |
| 06:00 | 6:00 am | 20:00 (previous day) | 8:00 pm (previous day) | outside office hours |
| 07:00 | 7:00 am | 21:00 (previous day) | 9:00 pm (previous day) | outside office hours |
| 08:00 | 8:00 am | 22:00 (previous day) | 10:00 pm (previous day) | outside office hours |
| 09:00 | 9:00 am | 23:00 (previous day) | 11:00 pm (previous day) | office hours in Cairo |
| 10:00 | 10:00 am | 00:00 | 12:00 am | office hours in Cairo |
| 11:00 | 11:00 am | 01:00 | 1:00 am | office hours in Cairo |
| 12:00 | 12:00 pm | 02:00 | 2:00 am | office hours in Cairo |
| 13:00 | 1:00 pm | 03:00 | 3:00 am | office hours in Cairo |
| 14:00 | 2:00 pm | 04:00 | 4:00 am | office hours in Cairo |
| 15:00 | 3:00 pm | 05:00 | 5:00 am | office hours in Cairo |
| 16:00 | 4:00 pm | 06:00 | 6:00 am | office hours in Cairo |
| 17:00 | 5:00 pm | 07:00 | 7:00 am | outside office hours |
| 18:00 | 6:00 pm | 08:00 | 8:00 am | outside office hours |
| 19:00 | 7:00 pm | 09:00 | 9:00 am | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 20:00 | 8:00 pm | 10:00 | 10:00 am | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 21:00 | 9:00 pm | 11:00 | 11:00 am | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 22:00 | 10:00 pm | 12:00 | 12:00 pm | office hours in Los Angeles |
| 23:00 | 11:00 pm | 13:00 | 1:00 pm | office hours in Los Angeles |
Computed at a difference of -10 hours, which is the one that holds for most of 2026. During the transition windows in the table below, shift the right-hand columns by an hour.
| Period | Length | Cairo offset | Los Angeles offset | Difference | Abbreviations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Jan to 07 Mar | 66 days | UTC+02:00 | UTC-08:00 | -10:00 | EET / PST |
| 08 Mar to 23 Apr | 47 days | UTC+02:00 | UTC-07:00 | -9:00 | EET / PDT |
| 24 Apr to 29 Oct | 189 days | UTC+03:00 | UTC-07:00 | -10:00 | EEST / PDT |
| 30 Oct to 31 Oct | 2 days | UTC+02:00 | UTC-07:00 | -9:00 | EET / PDT |
| 01 Nov to 31 Dec | 61 days | UTC+02:00 | UTC-08:00 | -10:00 | EET / PST |
Every row is read from the IANA time zone database. Short periods appear where one city has changed its clocks and the other has not yet done so.
| Cairo | 12-hour | Los Angeles | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06:00 | 6:00 am | 20:00 (previous day) | Outside both |
| 06:30 | 6:30 am | 20:30 (previous day) | Outside both |
| 07:00 | 7:00 am | 21:00 (previous day) | Outside both |
| 07:30 | 7:30 am | 21:30 (previous day) | Outside both |
| 08:00 | 8:00 am | 22:00 (previous day) | Outside both |
| 08:30 | 8:30 am | 22:30 (previous day) | Outside both |
| 09:00 | 9:00 am | 23:00 (previous day) | After hours in Los Angeles |
| 09:30 | 9:30 am | 23:30 (previous day) | After hours in Los Angeles |
| 10:00 | 10:00 am | 00:00 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 10:30 | 10:30 am | 00:30 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 11:00 | 11:00 am | 01:00 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 11:30 | 11:30 am | 01:30 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 12:00 | 12:00 pm | 02:00 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 12:30 | 12:30 pm | 02:30 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 13:00 | 1:00 pm | 03:00 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 13:30 | 1:30 pm | 03:30 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 14:00 | 2:00 pm | 04:00 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 14:30 | 2:30 pm | 04:30 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 15:00 | 3:00 pm | 05:00 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 15:30 | 3:30 pm | 05:30 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 16:00 | 4:00 pm | 06:00 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 16:30 | 4:30 pm | 06:30 | Too early in Los Angeles |
| 17:00 | 5:00 pm | 07:00 | Outside both |
| 17:30 | 5:30 pm | 07:30 | Outside both |
| 18:00 | 6:00 pm | 08:00 | Outside both |
| 18:30 | 6:30 pm | 08:30 | Outside both |
| 19:00 | 7:00 pm | 09:00 | After hours in Cairo |
| 19:30 | 7:30 pm | 09:30 | After hours in Cairo |
| 20:00 | 8:00 pm | 10:00 | After hours in Cairo |
| 20:30 | 8:30 pm | 10:30 | After hours in Cairo |
| 21:00 | 9:00 pm | 11:00 | After hours in Cairo |
| 21:30 | 9:30 pm | 11:30 | After hours in Cairo |
Office hours taken as 09:00–17:00 in Cairo and 09:00–18:00 in Los Angeles, which are the customary hours in each city rather than a generic nine to five.