Time Difference Between London and São Paulo
São Paulo is 3h behind London in standard time, and 4h behind while London is on daylight saving time.
London clocks move forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October. São Paulo keeps the same clock all year. The figures above cover each part of the year. They do not come from the offset on the day the site was built. The live clocks use the current time.
Working Hours Overlap
For each hour of London's working day (9:00-18:00), here is the corresponding local time in São Paulo. Rows highlighted green fall within standard working hours (9:00-18:00) in both cities. Each block is one part of the year, so the table does not change with the day this page was built.
3h behind (standard time)
| London | São Paulo | Both working hours? |
|---|---|---|
| 9 AM | 6 AM | No |
| 10 AM | 7 AM | No |
| 11 AM | 8 AM | No |
| 12 PM | 9 AM | Yes |
| 1 PM | 10 AM | Yes |
| 2 PM | 11 AM | Yes |
| 3 PM | 12 PM | Yes |
| 4 PM | 1 PM | Yes |
| 5 PM | 2 PM | Yes |
| 6 PM | 3 PM | No |
4h behind (daylight saving time in London, while São Paulo is on standard time)
| London | São Paulo | Both working hours? |
|---|---|---|
| 9 AM | 5 AM | No |
| 10 AM | 6 AM | No |
| 11 AM | 7 AM | No |
| 12 PM | 8 AM | No |
| 1 PM | 9 AM | Yes |
| 2 PM | 10 AM | Yes |
| 3 PM | 11 AM | Yes |
| 4 PM | 12 PM | Yes |
| 5 PM | 1 PM | Yes |
| 6 PM | 2 PM | No |
Best Time to Meet
3h behind (standard time)
- 12 PM-6 PM in London (9 AM-3 PM in São Paulo) works for both sides. It falls within 9 AM-6 PM in both time zones.
4h behind (daylight saving time in London, while São Paulo is on standard time)
- 1 PM-6 PM in London (9 AM-2 PM in São Paulo) works for both sides. It falls within 9 AM-6 PM in both time zones.
How the Difference Changes
Only London changes its clocks, so the gap is not one number. The rules are above. The dates for the year you are reading this page load below.
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Working Across London and São Paulo
São Paulo's morning is London's afternoon, and British Summer Time makes it worse by an hour. Brazil abolished daylight saving in 2019, so São Paulo stays on one clock. London is four hours ahead from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October, and three hours ahead the rest of the year. At four hours, 1 PM in London is 9 AM in São Paulo. At three hours, 1 PM in London is 10 AM there. A 9 AM London start is 5 AM or 6 AM in São Paulo. Do not book it. The window is London after lunch.
The seasonal slide is London's alone, and it is easy to miss because three hours and four hours both 'feel fine' until the São Paulo side is suddenly at breakfast. An invite pinned to 2 PM London is 10 AM in São Paulo during summer time and 11 AM during the winter. Whichever city created the event keeps its hour. Carnival is the other break, and it is not a long weekend you can schedule through. The week of Carnival takes a real bite out of São Paulo offices, and Brazilian summer leave in January falls when London is back from its own Christmas shutdown and expecting answers.
The nonstop is about eleven or twelve hours, almost all of it north-south. You step off with the clock three or four hours from where you left it, which is a real shift but not a Pacific one. One proper night handles most of it. What you feel on arrival morning is the overnight flight, not a destroyed circadian clock. Do not spend the first day proving you can work through it, and do not land during Carnival week and expect the office you came to see.
London
London uses the Europe/London time zone. Standard time is UTC, and daylight saving time is UTC+1.
São Paulo
São Paulo uses the America/Sao_Paulo time zone, at UTC-3 all year. This zone does not observe daylight saving time.