UTC to MST
Mountain Time is 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time for 238 days of the year, and takes 2 different values across the year.
UTC to MST conversion table
Every hour of the day at the difference that holds for 238 days of 2026 — 6 hours. See “When the difference changes” below for the rest.
| UTC | MST |
|---|---|
| 12:00 AM | 6:00 PM −1 day |
| 1:00 AM | 7:00 PM −1 day |
| 2:00 AM | 8:00 PM −1 day |
| 3:00 AM | 9:00 PM −1 day |
| 4:00 AM | 10:00 PM −1 day |
| 5:00 AM | 11:00 PM −1 day |
| 6:00 AM | 12:00 AM |
| 7:00 AM | 1:00 AM |
| 8:00 AM | 2:00 AM |
| 9:00 AM | 3:00 AM |
| 10:00 AM | 4:00 AM |
| 11:00 AM | 5:00 AM |
| UTC | MST |
|---|---|
| 12:00 PM | 6:00 AM |
| 1:00 PM | 7:00 AM |
| 2:00 PM | 8:00 AM |
| 3:00 PM | 9:00 AM |
| 4:00 PM | 10:00 AM |
| 5:00 PM | 11:00 AM |
| 6:00 PM | 12:00 PM |
| 7:00 PM | 1:00 PM |
| 8:00 PM | 2:00 PM |
| 9:00 PM | 3:00 PM |
| 10:00 PM | 4:00 PM |
| 11:00 PM | 5:00 PM |
Shared working hours
Taking a working day as 09:00–17:00 in each zone, Coordinated Universal Time and Mountain Time overlap for 2 hours.
3:00 PM–5:00 PM in UTC is 9:00 AM–11:00 AM in MST.
When the difference changes
The two zones move their clocks on different dates, so the gap takes more than one value. These are the stretches of 2026:
| Dates | MST is | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January – 8 March | 7 hours behind | — |
| 8 March – 1 November | 6 hours behind | Mountain Time clocks go forward one hour |
| 1 November – 31 December | 7 hours behind | Mountain Time clocks go back one hour |
Dates are Coordinated Universal Time local dates for 2026. Transition dates move by a few days from year to year; the rule each country follows does not.
About Coordinated Universal Time
UTC never shifts. It is the reference every other zone is defined against, which is why logs, flight schedules and protocol timestamps use it. GMT is the same clock for every civil purpose, so a query for one is answered by the other.
Cities on this clock: Reykjavik, Accra, Abidjan, Dakar.
Watch out: GMT is also used loosely to mean "UK time", and those are not the same thing for seven months of the year — the United Kingdom moves to BST (UTC+1) while UTC stays put.
About Mountain Time
Mountain Time is UTC−7 as MST and UTC−6 as MDT, on the same transition dates as the rest of the United States. Arizona is the exception worth knowing: almost all of it stays on MST all year, so for the eight months the rest of the zone is on MDT, Phoenix keeps the same clock as Los Angeles rather than Denver.
Cities on this clock: Denver, Salt Lake City, Calgary, Edmonton.
How the difference is worked out
The gap between Coordinated Universal Time and Mountain Time is not one number. The two zones change their clocks on different dates, so for part of the year the difference is 6 hours and for the rest it is something else — the table above lists each stretch of 2026 with the date it starts and which country's clocks moved.
With both zones on their own standard time — daylight saving not in force anywhere — Mountain Time is 7 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. That figure never changes; everything else on this page follows from it plus whichever clocks have moved.
Every figure here comes from the IANA time zone database via your browser's own Intl engine, using the zone ids UTC and America/Denver. Nothing is looked up on a server and nothing about your visit is recorded.
Is MST ahead of or behind UTC?
Mountain Time is 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time for 238 days of the year, and takes 2 different values across the year. The gap moves because the two zones change their clocks on different dates — on 8 March, Mountain Time clocks go forward one hour; on 1 November, Mountain Time clocks go back one hour (dates for 2026).
What time is 9 AM UTC in MST?
9:00 AM UTC is 3:00 AM MST for most of the year — see the table above for the 3 stretches of 2026 the gap holds different values.
When can Coordinated Universal Time and Mountain Time meet?
Taking a working day as 09:00–17:00 in each zone, the two overlap for 2 hours: 3:00 PM–5:00 PM in Coordinated Universal Time, which is 9:00 AM–11:00 AM in Mountain Time.
What does UTC stand for?
UTC is Coordinated Universal Time, also written GMT, Greenwich Mean Time, Zulu time. GMT is also used loosely to mean "UK time", and those are not the same thing for seven months of the year — the United Kingdom moves to BST (UTC+1) while UTC stays put.