How to Make a Calendar Invite Use Your Real Time Zone

You send an invite for 9 AM and the other person shows up an hour early, or your own calendar shows a meeting at a time you never picked. Google Calendar stores every event in a time zone, and if your calendar's zone or the event's zone does not match where the meeting actually happens, everyone sees it shifted. Fix the calendar's zone once, then set the event zone for anything that happens somewhere else.

Set your primary time zone

In Google Calendar on the web, click the gear icon, then Settings, General, Time zone. Set Primary time zone to where you are. If the zone keeps changing on its own, uncheck Ask to update my primary time zone to current location.

Show a second zone for travel or remote teammates

On the same page, check Display secondary time zone and choose the zone. Both columns of hours appear beside the day view, so the time in the other place is visible while scheduling.

Set the event's time zone for meetings elsewhere

Open the event editor and click Time zone next to the date and time. Choose the zone the event happens in, then enter the time as it is there. A 9 AM meeting in another city is entered as 9 AM in that city's zone, and Calendar shows it at the correct local time for you and for every guest. Start and end zones can differ, which is useful for flights.

Match your computer's clock

The browser reports the operating system's zone, and Calendar warns when it differs from your primary zone. On Windows, open Settings, Time & language, Date & time, and set Time zone. On a Mac, open System Settings, General, Date & Time, and set the zone there.

Check the phone app

The Google Calendar app follows the phone's zone by default. To pin it, open the app's Settings, General, turn off Use device time zone, and choose the zone.

If invitees still see a different time. That is expected. Each guest sees the event in their own calendar's zone, so an event with the correct zone set shows correctly for everyone; only a wrong zone shifts it.

If an existing invite is already wrong. Edit the event, set the correct zone and time, save, and choose to send the update so guests get the corrected time.