Current Time in Denver

Quick Time Zone Facts

Time Zone: Mountain Time (MT) — Standard Offset: UTC-7 (MST) — DST Offset: UTC-6 (MDT)

Country: United States

This city observes Daylight Saving Time, so the UTC offset changes twice per year. Always verify the current offset when scheduling across time zones.

Mountain Time Zone

Denver operates on Mountain Time, covering the Rocky Mountain states including Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and parts of several others. Mountain Time is the least populated of the four major US time zones, but it's growing rapidly — Colorado, Utah, and Idaho are among the fastest-growing states. Denver's tech scene (Oracle, Arrow Electronics, and a growing startup ecosystem) has made MT increasingly relevant in national business scheduling.

Between the Coasts

Mountain Time sits neatly between Pacific and Central, which gives Denver surprisingly good overlap. A 9 AM MT meeting is 11 AM in New York, 10 AM in Chicago, and 8 AM in LA — everyone is within comfortable business hours. This has contributed to Denver's appeal for companies with distributed workforces. A growing number of remote workers and company headquarters are settling in the Mountain zone for this scheduling advantage.

Daylight Saving Time

Colorado observes DST from the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November, shifting from MST (UTC-7) to MDT (UTC-6). Neighboring Arizona (except the Navajo Nation) does not observe DST, which creates an interesting dynamic — during summer, Denver and Phoenix are on the same time, but during winter, Denver falls 1 hour behind.

Outdoor & Aerospace

Denver's time zone is also relevant for aerospace and defense — Buckley Space Force Base, Lockheed Martin Space, and the US Space Command (relocated to Colorado Springs) operate on MT. Scheduling with the Pentagon (ET) and Pacific-based military installations is routine. The region's outdoor recreation industry also runs on MT, with ski resorts, national parks, and adventure tourism all following Mountain hours.