PST to KST Converter (Pacific Time to Korea Time)

Mid-January 2026: KST is 17 hours ahead of PST. Mid-July 2026: KST is 16 hours ahead of PDT.

Pacific Time is the clock of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Portland and Las Vegas. Korea Standard Time is UTC+9, so Seoul is 17 hours ahead of the Pacific coast in winter. When California switches to daylight saving time, the gap shrinks to 16 hours.

A gap of more than 16 hours is nearly a full day, which is why the dates look so strange. A Monday afternoon in Los Angeles is already Tuesday morning in Seoul, and it is easier to think of the Korean clock as "tomorrow, minus seven or eight hours".

How to use this tool

1. Pick a date and time in PST. The date matters when daylight saving time is in force.
2. Read the matching time in KST, with both UTC offsets.
3. Use "Use current time" for now, or the tables below for a quick look.

Formula

KST time = PST time − (PST UTC offset) + (KST UTC offset)

The converter looks up both UTC offsets for the actual instant in the saved IANA time zone rules, so daylight saving changes are included automatically.

Example

Worked with the saved rules:

9:00 AM PST on March 2, 2026 = 2:00 AM KST (next day)

6:30 PM PDT on August 3, 2026 = 10:30 AM KST (next day)

Time difference through the year

The difference depends on the date when either place moves its clocks. These are the offsets on two reference days, from the saved IANA rules:

Clock changes in 2026

Between these dates the difference shifts by the size of the change.

PST to KST time table

Each hour in Pacific Time with the matching Korea Standard Time time in winter and summer (reference days in January and July).

KST to PST time table

Each hour in Korea Standard Time with the matching Pacific Time time in winter and summer (reference days in January and July).

Hours that work in both places

Hours (on the January reference day) that fall between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM in both PST and KST:

Check the summer column above when one of the places is on daylight saving time.

A day that begins on opposite ends

For a team in San Francisco and a team in Seoul, the Pacific late afternoon is the Korean morning of the next day. A 5 p.m. call in California is 9 a.m. the next morning in Seoul while the US is on daylight saving time, and 10 a.m. the next morning in winter, when the gap is one hour wider.

Technology, game and entertainment companies on the West Coast with Korean partners often set a fixed rule: California owns the late afternoon, Korea owns the early morning, and anything urgent is handled in the shared hours listed in the table below.

Flights across the Pacific

Nonstop flights link Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle with Incheon, outside Seoul. Because Korea is almost a day ahead, a flight leaving the West Coast on an afternoon arrives in Korea in the evening of the next calendar day, and the return flight can land on the same date it left.

Visitors to Korea tend to feel the time change most in the first two days, as the body clock stays on Pacific time. Plan a light first day and book meetings from the second day.