Find the best meeting time across time zones
Add the cities you’re scheduling across, set each person’s working hours, and the planner suggests the three best times. When there’s no slot that suits everyone, it tells you who would be outside their hours and by how much.
Meeting details
“Morning” and “afternoon” refer to the first city on the list.
How the suggestions are ranked
There’s no magic here, and no AI. The planner tries every start time in 15-minute steps and scores each one the same way:
- Does it suit everyone? A slot where the whole meeting sits inside every person’s working hours beats any slot that doesn’t.
- If not, how bad is it, and for whom? Being an hour outside your normal day counts for less than being three hours outside it, and the score grows faster than the hours do. So two people each starting an hour early beats one person dialling in at 11 p.m.
- Your preference. If you’ve asked for mornings or afternoons, that breaks ties.
- Comfort. Among equal options, times nearer the middle of everyone’s day win over ones at the very edge.
The three results are kept at least an hour apart so you get real alternatives, not three versions of the same slot.
A few things that help
- Use real working hours. Plenty of teams don’t keep 9 to 5. If your colleague in Bangalore works 12 to 9, set that, and the results will be far more useful.
- Rotate the pain. For a recurring meeting with no good slot, alternate between the top two suggestions so the same people aren’t always on the late call.
- Check the date line. When a result says “next day” for someone, read the weekday. A Friday afternoon in California is already Saturday in Sydney.
- Mind the clock changes. In March and October/November, Europe and North America change clocks on different weekends. Run the planner for the actual meeting date, not just today.
Common questions
How does the planner choose the best time?
It checks every 15-minute start time across the day you pick and works out, for each person, whether the whole meeting falls inside their working hours. Slots that suit everyone come first. If there aren’t any, it looks for the slot where the inconvenience is smallest and most evenly shared, rather than pushing one person to midnight so everyone else is comfortable.
Does it look at my calendar?
No. It works only from the cities and working hours you enter. It doesn’t know about anyone’s other meetings, so treat the suggestions as times worth proposing, not confirmed availability.
What about weekends?
By default, weekend days are treated as outside working hours, using each country’s own weekend. Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for example, take Friday and Saturday off. Tick “Include weekends” if your team works them.
Can I save a group of cities?
Yes. On the main grid, add your cities and use “Save group”. Groups are stored in your browser, so there’s nothing to sign up for. The share link carries the cities with it, so a colleague can open the same set.
Planning between two cities?
These pages go into detail on the most common routes, including how the overlap moves through the year.