Time Difference Between London and Sydney
Sydney is 9h ahead of London.
This is the standard-time difference as of 2026. If either city observes daylight saving time, the actual difference can shift by up to an hour for part of the year — the live clocks below always show the current real-time difference.
Working Hours Overlap
For each hour of London's working day (9:00-18:00), here is the corresponding local time in Sydney. Rows highlighted green fall within standard working hours (9:00-18:00) in both cities.
| London | Sydney | Both working hours? |
|---|---|---|
| 9 AM | 6 PM | No |
| 10 AM | 7 PM | No |
| 11 AM | 8 PM | No |
| 12 PM | 9 PM | No |
| 1 PM | 10 PM | No |
| 2 PM | 11 PM | No |
| 3 PM | 12 AM | No |
| 4 PM | 1 AM | No |
| 5 PM | 2 AM | No |
| 6 PM | 3 AM | No |
Best Time to Meet
London and Sydney don't share a standard 9 AM-6 PM working-hours window. The least disruptive compromise is around 6 AM in London, which falls at 3 PM in Sydney — expect one side to take an early or late call.
How the Difference Changes in 2026
Because the two cities change their clocks on different dates, the gap is not one number. Here is how Sydney stands relative to London through 2026:
| Period | Sydney vs London |
|---|---|
| Jan 1 – Mar 28 | 11h ahead |
| Mar 29 – Apr 4 | 10h ahead |
| Apr 5 – Oct 3 | 9h ahead |
| Oct 4 – Oct 24 | 10h ahead |
| Oct 25 – Dec 31 | 11h ahead |
London changes its clocks on Mar 29 (clocks forward) and Oct 25 (clocks back); Sydney changes its clocks on Apr 5 (clocks back) and Oct 4 (clocks forward). Dates use the UTC calendar; the switch takes effect early that morning local time.
Working Across London and Sydney
This is a nine-hour gap that behaves like a much larger one, because it falls the wrong way across both working days. Sydney is finishing as London starts. At 9 hours, 8 AM in London is 5 PM in Sydney, which leaves an hour or two in London's early morning against Sydney's late afternoon. Everything outside that is dead. Sydney's morning is London's night, and London's afternoon is the small hours in Sydney. Teams that work this corridor well tend to stop scheduling live meetings altogether and hand work over instead. London writes at the end of its day, Sydney picks it up at the start of its own, and the two sides speak once a week.
Both ends move their clocks in opposite seasons, so the difference cycles through 9, 10 and 11 hours. It is 11 hours from October 25 to March 28, when Sydney is on daylight saving and London is not, and 9 hours from April 5 to October 3, when that flips. The two 10-hour bridges are lopsided: one week from March 29 to April 4, then three weeks from October 4 to October 24. Eleven hours is the setting to watch, because it drags the shared window earlier still. At 11 hours a 7 AM start in London is 6 PM in Sydney, about the last moment anyone will pick up.
Sydney is roughly as far from London as it is possible to get, and the trip shows it. One stop in Singapore or the Gulf is the normal routing and comes close to a full day of travel; the Qantas nonstop from Perth to London is about 17 hours by itself, which is a long time to sit still even by the standards of this route. A shift of 9 to 11 hours is about the maximum a body can be asked to absorb, and settling into it takes most people the better part of a week. On a trip shorter than that you will not adjust at all, and the usual approach is to stay on London hours and accept being awake at strange times.
London
London uses the Europe/London IANA time zone, currently at UTC+1. This zone observes daylight saving time.
Sydney
Sydney uses the Australia/Sydney IANA time zone, currently at UTC+10. This zone observes daylight saving time.