Date.getTimezoneOffset()

Returns the time difference between UTC time and local time, in minutes

The getTimezoneOffset() method returns the time zone difference, in minutes, from current locale (host system settings) to UTC.

var date1 = new Date('August 19, 1975 23:15:30 GMT+07:00');
var date2 = new Date('August 19, 1975 23:15:30 GMT-02:00');

console.log(date1.getTimezoneOffset());
// expected output: your local timezone offset in minutes
// (eg -120). NOT the timezone offset of the date object.

console.log(date1.getTimezoneOffset() === date2.getTimezoneOffset());
// expected output: true

Syntax

dateObj.getTimezoneOffset()

Return value

A number representing the time-zone offset, in minutes, from the date based on current host system settings to UTC.

Description

The time-zone offset is the difference, in minutes, from local time to UTC. Note that this means that the offset is positive if the local timezone is behind UTC and negative if it is ahead. For example, for time zone UTC+10:00 (Australian Eastern Standard Time, Vladivostok Time, Chamorro Standard Time), -600 will be returned.

Current Locale	UTC-8	UTC	UTC+3
Return Value	480	0	-180

The time zone offset returned is the one that applies for the Date that it's called on. Where the host system is configured for daylight saving, the offset will change depending on the date and time that the Date represents and that daylight saving applies.

Examples

Using getTimezoneOffset()

// Get current timezone offset for host device
var x = new Date();
var currentTimeZoneOffsetInHours = x.getTimezoneOffset() / 60;
// 1

// Get timezone offset for International Labour Day (May 1) in 2016
// Be careful, the Date() constructor uses 0-indexed month so May is
// represented with 4 (and not 5)
var labourDay = new Date(2016, 4, 1)
var labourDayOffset = labourDay.getTimezoneOffset() / 60;

References

Date.prototype.getTimezoneOffset() - JavaScript | MDN

Contributors to this page

Uros Durdevic