Time in Panama City Now — Current Local Time. Panama City is on UTC−05:00 right now — Panama City stays on UTC−05:00 all year — it does not observe daylight saving, so its offset from UTC never changes. The current local time, date and daylight saving status are shown live by the world clock, which is worked out from the IANA time zone database (America/Panama), not from a printed table.
Try the tool: World Clock — see the current time in Panama City and 99 other cities, side by side, with each city's UTC offset.
What time is it in Panama City now?
The world clock shows the current time in Panama City live — the time, the date and the day of the week — updated every second from your device's clock and the IANA time zone database. It is the time in the America/Panama zone, which covers Panama City and the surrounding region. The clock does not use a fixed offset: it asks the database what the offset is on today's date, so it is right whether daylight saving is in effect or not. That matters more than it sounds, because Panama City's offset never changes, which is one reason the time in Panama City is easy to remember.
If you need the time in Panama City for a meeting or a flight, use the live clock rather than a remembered offset. The remembered offset is right most of the year and wrong for a few weeks — the weeks when Panama City is on the same time it is always on, while the place you are calling from has just changed its clocks. The time zone converter handles the date as well as the cities, so it is right on the awkward dates too.
Panama City's UTC offset
Panama City stays on UTC−05:00 all year — it does not observe daylight saving, so its offset from UTC never changes.
| Period | Offset | In effect |
|---|---|---|
| All year | UTC−05:00 | The offset never changes |
| Right now (11 November 2026) | UTC−05:00 | The offset never changes |
The offset is the whole story for conversions. To get the time in Panama City from UTC, add the offset: when it is 12:00 UTC, it is 07:00 in Panama City in January and 07:00 in July. To go the other way, subtract it. The UTC converter does the arithmetic for any hour, and the UTC to Panama City page has the full 24-hour conversion table for this city.
Daylight saving in Panama City
Panama City does not observe daylight saving time, and its offset never changes. Panama sits close to the equator, where day length is nearly constant all year, so daylight saving has never been adopted. That makes Panama City one of the easiest cities in the world to schedule with: the time difference between Panama City and anywhere else only changes when the other place changes its clocks. The Panama City DST 2026 page explains the history, and the daylight saving checker confirms the status for any zone.
Panama City working hours in other cities
The table below converts Panama City's working day — 09:00 to 17:00 local time — into the time in four reference points: UTC, New York, London and Tokyo. It is the table to use when you are working out whether someone in Panama City is at their desk.
January (northern winter) — when it is the time in the first column in Panama City, it is the time shown in each other city.
| Time in Panama City | UTC | New York | London | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 | 14:00 | 09:00 | 14:00 | 23:00 |
| 12:00 | 17:00 | 12:00 | 17:00 | 02:00 |
| 15:00 | 20:00 | 15:00 | 20:00 | 05:00 |
| 17:00 | 22:00 | 17:00 | 22:00 | 07:00 |
July (northern summer) — when it is the time in the first column in Panama City, it is the time shown in each other city.
| Time in Panama City | UTC | New York | London | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 | 14:00 | 10:00 | 15:00 | 23:00 |
| 12:00 | 17:00 | 13:00 | 18:00 | 02:00 |
| 15:00 | 20:00 | 16:00 | 21:00 | 05:00 |
| 17:00 | 22:00 | 18:00 | 23:00 | 07:00 |
Read the table from left to right: find the time in Panama City, then read across to see what time it is in each other city. If the January and July tables differ, the difference is daylight saving — one or more of the cities has changed its clocks between the two dates. The meeting planner does the same conversion for any two cities and any date, and the meeting time finder finds the hours when everyone is available.
Best time to call Panama City
The best windows to call Panama City — the hours when Panama City is in its working day and New York, London and Tokyo are most likely to be awake — are 07:00–22:00 Panama City time (January, when the offsets are as shown in the table above). These are the hours when at least two of the three hubs are between 07:00 and 22:00 local time, so the call is inside the working day in Panama City and at a reasonable hour for the other side. Outside these windows, the call is either before the working day in Panama City or in the middle of the night somewhere else.
As a rule of thumb, the kindest time to call Panama City from the United States is late morning in New York, which is the afternoon or evening in Panama City for most of the world east of the Atlantic — and the kindest time from Europe is mid-morning in London, which is late morning or afternoon in Panama City for most of Asia. The worst time to call is the hour that is 03:00 somewhere: check the tables above before you dial.
About Panama City and its time zone
Panama City is on Eastern Standard Time, UTC−05:00, all year — the same time as New York in winter, and an hour behind New York in summer. Panama sits close to the equator, so daylight saving has never been adopted.
Panama City is in the Americas region, and its IANA time zone is America/Panama. That name is the identifier computers use: when your phone, your calendar or this website works out the time in Panama City, it looks up America/Panama in the IANA Time Zone Database and applies the rules for that zone on the date you asked about. The rules include the standard offset, the daylight saving dates and the whole history of changes — which is why the answer is right even for dates in the past, when the rules were different.
The practical consequence is that the time in Panama City is not a fixed number. It is a single number, all year, which is the simplest case in time-zone work. The time in Panama City is UTC−05:00 on every day of the year, and the only thing that changes is the time in the place you are calling from. The time zone list shows every zone in the database with its current offset, and the guides explain how the system works.
Panama City compared with the world's major cities
When it is 12:00 in Panama City, it is:
| City | January | July |
|---|---|---|
| New York | 12:00 | 13:00 |
| London | 17:00 | 18:00 |
| Paris | 18:00 | 19:00 |
| Dubai | 21:00 | 21:00 |
| Mumbai | 22:30 | 22:30 |
| Singapore | 01:00 | 01:00 |
| Tokyo | 02:00 | 02:00 |
| Sydney | 04:00 | 03:00 |
The January and July columns differ wherever one of the cities observes daylight saving and the other does not, or where they change their clocks on different dates.
How to convert Panama City time
Three worked examples, all for January, when Panama City is on UTC−05:00: 09:00 in Panama City is 14:00 UTC, 14:00 in London and 09:00 in New York. 12:00 in Panama City is 17:00 UTC and 02:00 in Tokyo. 17:00 in Panama City — the end of the working day — is 22:00 UTC and 17:00 in New York. In July, when Panama City is on UTC−05:00, add or subtract the difference between the two offsets — there is none, because the offset does not change — from each of those answers.
Frequently asked questions
What time is it in Panama City right now?
The world clock shows the current time in Panama City live, with the date and the day of the week. It is worked out from the IANA time zone database (America/Panama), so it is right whether daylight saving is in effect or not.
What is Panama City's UTC offset?
Panama City is on UTC−05:00 in standard time, all year. Right now (11 November 2026) it is on UTC−05:00.
Does Panama City observe daylight saving time?
No. Panama City does not observe daylight saving, so its offset of UTC−05:00 never changes. See the Panama City DST 2026 page for the full explanation.
What is the time difference between Panama City and London?
In January, Panama City is 5 hours behind London; in July it is 6 hours behind London. The difference changes with daylight saving.
What is the time difference between Panama City and New York?
In January, Panama City is the same time New York; in July it is 1 hour behind New York. See the time difference pages for the full comparison.
What time zone is Panama City in?
Panama City is in the IANA time zone America/Panama, in Panama. The zone's standard offset is UTC−05:00, and it does not observe daylight saving.
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, via Node.js Intl (
Intl.DateTimeFormatwithtimeZone) — offsets, daylight saving dates and local times in this article were worked out from the IANA database, not typed from memory. - TimeFlow's own time-zone data (
data/cities.ts,data/dst.ts), computed from the IANA database. - TimeFlow's world clock and time zone converter — the live tools behind the numbers on this page.
- Time-zone and daylight saving rules are set by governments and can change. For flights, deadlines and meetings that cannot move, confirm the time with an official source.