Reference

Best Working-Hour Overlaps for Common Remote Team Regions

Published August 2026

These are rough, general-purpose overlap windows for common remote team pairings, assuming a standard 9am–6pm working day. Actual overlap shifts with daylight saving — always confirm with the overlap tool for exact dates.

US East Coast ↔ Western Europe

This is one of the easier pairings. US East Coast (UTC-5/-4) and Western Europe (UTC+0/+1) typically share a window in the late morning for the US side, which lands in the afternoon for Europe — roughly a 3–4 hour overlap on a standard working day.

US West Coast ↔ Western Europe

With a wider gap (UTC-8/-7 vs UTC+0/+1), overlap shrinks to a narrower window, usually early morning for the US West Coast meeting late afternoon in Europe. Teams in this pairing often protect a single short daily block rather than expecting flexible scheduling throughout the day.

US ↔ India / South Asia

US time zones and India Standard Time (UTC+5:30) are close to twelve hours apart for the US East Coast, meaning overlap is minimal or nonexistent during standard hours. Teams here typically rely heavily on async work, with occasional early-morning or late-evening calls for one side.

Europe ↔ East Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo)

Western Europe and East Asia (UTC+8/+9) are roughly 7–8 hours apart, which usually allows a short overlap in the Europe morning meeting East Asia's afternoon — often just an hour or two, so this window tends to fill up fast on shared calendars.

Australia ↔ Europe

Australia (UTC+10/+11) and Western Europe are close to opposite sides of the clock. Overlap is typically very limited, often just a narrow band in the Australian evening meeting the European morning — teams in this pairing benefit most from the async-first approach covered in our async work and overlap hours guide.

When there's genuinely no overlap

Some combinations — particularly US West Coast with East Asia or Australia — can have effectively no shared standard working hours. In these cases, the fairest long-term approach is usually a rotating meeting time, so the inconvenience of an early or late call moves around the team rather than falling on the same person every time. See our step-by-step approach in how to find a meeting time that works across time zones.