How to Convert UTC to EST in Excel (Simple Formula)

Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behind Coordinate Universal Time (UTC).

Thus, if it is 8:00 PM in UTC then it is 3:00 PM in EST.

To convert UTC datetimes to EST datetimes in Excel you can use the following simple formula:

=A2-5/24

This particular formula will convert the UTC datetime in cell A2 to a EST datetime.

Note: We must use 5/24 in the formula because datetimes are stored as days in Excel. If we just subtracted by 5 then we would instead subtract 5 days from the datetime.

The following example shows how to use this formula to convert UTC times to EST times in Excel in practice.

Example: Convert UTC to EST in Excel

Suppose we have a list of date and times in Excel that are currently in UTC:

Suppose we would like to convert each UTC time to EST time.

We can type the following formula into cell B2 to do so:

=A2-5/24

We can then click and drag this formula down to each remaining cell in column B:

Excel convert UTC to EST

Column B now displays each UTC time in column A in EST time.

For example:

1/20/2023 3:30 in UTC is equal to 1/19/2023 22:30 in EST.
1/10/2023 8:15 in UTC is equal to 1/10/2023 3:15 in EST.
1/12/2023 10:58 in UTC is equal to 1/12/2023 5:58 in EST.

And so on.

Notice that each datetime in column B is exactly five hours behind each datetime in column A.

If you would like to display each datetime with AM and PM values, then highlight the range A2:B8 and press Ctrl + 1.

In the Format Cells window that appears, choose Custom from the Category list, then type m/d/yy h:mm AM/PM;@ in the Type box:

Once you press OK, each datetime will be shown with AM and PM values:

Note: You can use a similar formula to convert any datetime to another time zone if you simply know the difference in hours between the two time zones.