Western European (WET/WEST)
Lisbon operates on Western European (WET/WEST). Lisbon observes summer time (DST), shifting clocks forward one hour in March and back in October.
Time Zone: Western European Time / Western European Summer Time — Standard Offset: UTC+0 (WET) — DST Offset: UTC+1 (WEST)
Country: Portugal
This city observes Daylight Saving Time, so the UTC offset changes twice per year. Always verify the current offset when scheduling across time zones.
Lisbon shares its time zone with London — WET (UTC+0) in winter and WEST (UTC+1) in summer. Despite being geographically further west than most of Western Europe, Portugal chose to align with GMT/UTC rather than CET. This means Lisbon is 1 hour behind Madrid and Paris, despite sharing a border with Spain. The alignment with London time has commercial advantages, particularly for Lisbon's growing tech scene and its ties to the UK market.
Lisbon has emerged as one of Europe's hottest startup destinations. Web Summit, one of the world's largest tech conferences, relocated permanently to Lisbon in 2016. The city's time zone alignment with London gives it direct market overlap with the UK's financial and tech sectors, while its GMT offset means favorable overlap with US East Coast hours — 9 AM ET is just 2 PM in Lisbon.
Portugal follows EU DST rules, switching to WEST (UTC+1) on the last Sunday of March and back to WET on the last Sunday of October. During summer time, Lisbon matches CET — briefly aligning with Madrid and Paris. The Azores, a Portuguese archipelago, runs on UTC-1 (its own time zone), which is 1 hour behind mainland Portugal.
Lisbon's westernmost position in continental Europe gives it the best overlap with the Americas of any European capital. When London closes at 5 PM GMT, it's only noon in New York. This makes Lisbon ideal for companies serving both European and American markets. The city's historical ties to Brazil (same language, shared BRT overlap of just 3 hours) add another dimension to this Atlantic bridging role.