Convert GMT to WET Greenwich Mean Time ↔ Western European Time Free Online Secure
Greenwich Mean Time and Western European Time read the same on the clock — the offset is zero. Type a time in GMT and it comes back unchanged in WET, which is the honest answer; what differs between the two names is explained below.
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Through the day — Convert GMT to WET (Greenwich Mean Time ↔ Western European Time)
| GMT | WET |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | 00:00 |
| 03:00 | 03:00 |
| 06:00 | 06:00 |
| 09:00 | 09:00 |
| 12:00 | 12:00 |
| 15:00 | 15:00 |
| 18:00 | 18:00 |
| 21:00 | 21:00 |
Where these units come from
Until the middle of the nineteenth century every town kept its own noon, set by the sun overhead, and nobody minded that the next town was four minutes behind. Railways ended that: a timetable cannot be written for a hundred local noons. Britain put its railways on Greenwich time in 1847, and in 1884 the International Meridian Conference in Washington chose Greenwich as the prime meridian and sketched the twenty-four-hour scheme we still use. Greenwich Mean Time was the world's reference until 1972, when Coordinated Universal Time replaced it: UTC is kept by atomic clocks and tied back to the turning Earth by leap seconds. The abbreviations on this page name standard time — the winter setting — which is why each one is a fixed number of hours rather than something that drifts through the year.
Where you meet them
A time zone becomes real the moment two people in different places have to agree on one moment: a call between offices, a flight that lands before it took off, a market that opens while you are asleep, a deadline written in somebody else's afternoon. Server logs, train and flight schedules and anything stamped with a time are kept in UTC precisely so that the question can always be settled, no matter whose clock was on the wall.
Questions people ask
What about summer time?
The offsets here are standard-time offsets, the ones a zone keeps in winter. Where summer time is observed, the same places move one hour further on for part of the year and take a different name: Central European Time becomes Central European Summer Time, Eastern Standard Time becomes Eastern Daylight Time. The switching dates are not the same in every country, and the two hemispheres change in opposite months, so for a date inside a summer-time period add an hour to whichever side observes it.
Why isn't every difference a whole number of hours?
Because offsets are decided by governments, not by geometry. India is half an hour off the hour, at UTC+05:30; Nepal is three quarters, at UTC+05:45; the Chatham Islands are at UTC+12:45. Any of these can be changed by law, and several countries have moved their offset within living memory.
Is the answer exact?
Where both units are defined in terms of one another by whole numbers, yes — the page says so above the figure, and the only rounding is in how many digits are shown. Where the ratio has no finite decimal, the page shows twelve significant digits and says the relation is approximate rather than pretending otherwise.
Does anything I type leave my device?
No. The arithmetic runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded and there is no server to upload it to. Load the page once and it keeps working with the network switched off.
The most boring and most useful conversion
Most time zone conversions involve a sum, a date check and a moment of doubt. This one involves none of the three. London and Lisbon read the same hour on the clock all year, and the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Faroe Islands read it too. If you need to convert GMT to WET, copy the time exactly as it is: 08:15 GMT is 08:15 WET, 17:40 GMT is 17:40 WET, and 23:59 GMT is 23:59 WET on the same date. The offset is zero, and the labels are the only difference.
That makes this page a useful place to learn why the two names exist, where they stop being equivalent, and what to watch for if you work with partners in Portugal, Spain’s Atlantic islands, the Azores or Morocco. It also covers some practical cases, from digital nomads to subsea cables. The calculation takes place in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent to a server.
How to convert GMT to WET
Copy, do not calculate
Western European Time is UTC+0, just as Greenwich Mean Time is. You convert GMT to WET by carrying the reading across unchanged. 00:10 GMT is 00:10 WET, 12:00 GMT is 12:00 WET, and 22:35 GMT is 22:35 WET. The date never changes, and the minutes never change either.
Eight readings, all alike
00:30 GMT is 00:30 WET. 06:15 GMT is 06:15 WET. 09:00 GMT is 09:00 WET. 12:00 GMT is 12:00 WET. 15:45 GMT is 15:45 WET. 18:00 GMT is 18:00 WET. 21:30 GMT is 21:30 WET. 23:45 GMT is 23:45 WET. If any row in the converter above shows something different, it is not this pair.
Why two names persist
GMT belongs to Britain’s tradition and WET to the continental scheme of three European zones: Western, Central and Eastern. The two coincide, so people in Lisbon and London can use whichever label their documents prefer. Software, however, tends to display one or the other, and that is why people search for the conversion.
Greenwich Mean Time
A British name with a global reach
GMT is the standard time in Britain and Ireland during the winter months, and in Iceland, Ghana and several other countries all year round. On computers it also designates the zero-offset reference used in headers and logs. It is the older label, tied to the observatory in Greenwich and to the nineteenth-century railways that needed one national time.
Where it parts company with WET
It does not. Both are UTC+0. A difference appears only in what they are called when clocks go forward: Britain calls the summer clock BST, and Portugal calls it WEST, but both are UTC+1.
Western European Time
The places on WET
WET is the winter clock of mainland Portugal and Madeira, the Spanish Canary Islands and the Faroe Islands. The cities are Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal, Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Tórshavn. In summer these territories change to Western European Summer Time, WEST, UTC+1.
Close neighbours that differ
The Azores, which are Portuguese, are one hour behind: UTC−1 in winter and UTC+0 in summer. Morocco keeps UTC+1 for most of the year and falls back to UTC+0 only during Ramadan. Iceland stays on UTC+0 all year and has no summer time at all. In each of these places you cannot copy the time without checking the date.
When the day is identical
Same office hours
An office in London open from 09:00 to 17:00 GMT is open at exactly the same hours as an office in Lisbon open from 09:00 to 17:00 WET. The overlap is the whole working day. Teams spread across the two cities can hold a call at any time of the day with no mental arithmetic.
Habits are different
Portuguese lunches are usually later and longer, between 12:30 and 14:00, and dinner often starts after 20:00. British lunches are between 12:00 and 13:30. A meeting at 13:00 may therefore fall in the middle of lunch for one party but not the other.
A short flight
A flight from London that leaves at 10:00 and takes about two hours forty minutes lands in Lisbon at 12:40 on the local clock. Both the ticket and the airport board use the same hours, so the printed duration is the real one, a rarity on European routes.
Clocks that always move together
A common calendar
Portugal follows the European Union rule for summer time, which runs from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, with each change taking place at 01:00 UTC. Britain kept the same dates after leaving the Union. In 2026 the changes are on 29 March and 25 October, and in both cities the clock moves at the same instant.
New labels, same hour
In summer, London reads BST and Lisbon reads WEST. Both are UTC+1, so 14:00 BST is 14:00 WEST. If you convert GMT to WET for a date in July, you still copy the time.
Exceptions worth remembering
The exceptions are the Azores (an hour behind), Morocco (an hour ahead most of the year) and Iceland (no summer change). A person working with colleagues in one of these places should not assume that “Atlantic” means “same as London”.
Digital nomads in Lisbon and Madeira
A village on the island
Madeira has promoted a village for remote workers on its southern coast, and Lisbon is a regular choice for people who work for companies in London, New York or Berlin. A nomad in Lisbon who works for a London firm keeps the same hours as the office, 09:00 to 17:00. A nomad who works for a firm in Berlin starts and finishes an hour earlier on the Portuguese clock.
Planning across the Atlantic
A call with a client in New York at 10:00 EST is at 15:00 GMT, which is also 15:00 WET. For the nomad, the American working day starts in the afternoon. Anyone who wants to convert GMT to WET before arranging such calls will find the conversion trivial.
Lisbon’s technology conference
A November fixture
Each autumn Lisbon hosts one of Europe’s largest technology gatherings, with stages and start-up exhibits open from about 10:00 to 18:00 local time. For a visitor from Britain, the programme is on the same clock as the hotel back home. A talk at 15:30 WET is at 15:30 GMT, and the last session of the evening at 20:00 is at 20:00.
Remote attendees
Attendees in Germany or France must move one hour ahead, and those in Romania two hours ahead. A talk at 15:30 WET is at 16:30 CET and at 17:30 in Bucharest. The organisers’ schedule is usually printed in local time.
Subsea cables landing at Sines
The Atlantic gateway
Several submarine telecommunications cables come ashore near Sines, on the coast of Portugal, linking Europe to the Americas and Africa. Operators publish maintenance notices in local time, which is WET in winter. A notice for 01:00 to 05:00 WET describes the same window as 01:00 to 05:00 GMT.
For people who write incident reports
Engineers in the United Kingdom who must convert GMT to WET for a notice can copy it straight into their change log. The only extra step is for customers outside the zone, who add their own offset.
The Irish case
Ireland’s odd legal wording
Irish law defines summer time as the standard time and winter time as GMT, which the time zone database represents with a negative saving. In practice the clock is the same as in London all year: UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer. Dublin, Lisbon and London are therefore on one clock, though under three different sets of labels.
A message for organisers
An event announced for “14:00 Irish time” is at 14:00 GMT in winter and 14:00 on the British summer clock in summer. A single invitation works for all three capitals.
Football in Portugal
Local kick-offs
Many league matches in Portugal kick off around 20:30 local time. Because London and Lisbon share the clock, that is 20:30 GMT in winter and 20:30 BST in summer. A British viewer does not need to change the time on the programme guide.
Continental competitions
Portuguese clubs playing in European competitions start at 21:00 CET, which is 20:00 WET and 20:00 GMT. The match is therefore an hour earlier on the local clock than the official time printed by the organisers.
Universities and exchange students
Lectures at the same hour
A student from Britain attending a university in Lisbon sets no new alarm: an 08:30 lecture is at 08:30 at home. A student from Poland or Germany must subtract an hour from the clock in the home timetable, and a student from Romania two hours.
Exam dates
Exam schedules are often posted in advance. When you convert GMT to WET for a shared exam board, there is nothing to alter, but check that the board has not used the time in Madrid, which is on Central European Time.
Every hour in one table
GMT to WET
00:00 GMT becomes 00:00 WET. 01:00 GMT becomes 01:00 WET. 02:00 GMT becomes 02:00 WET. 03:00 GMT becomes 03:00 WET. 04:00 GMT becomes 04:00 WET. 05:00 GMT becomes 05:00 WET. 06:00 GMT becomes 06:00 WET. 07:00 GMT becomes 07:00 WET. 08:00 GMT becomes 08:00 WET. 09:00 GMT becomes 09:00 WET. 10:00 GMT becomes 10:00 WET. 11:00 GMT becomes 11:00 WET. 12:00 GMT becomes 12:00 WET. 13:00 GMT becomes 13:00 WET. 14:00 GMT becomes 14:00 WET. 15:00 GMT becomes 15:00 WET. 16:00 GMT becomes 16:00 WET. 17:00 GMT becomes 17:00 WET. 18:00 GMT becomes 18:00 WET. 19:00 GMT becomes 19:00 WET. 20:00 GMT becomes 20:00 WET. 21:00 GMT becomes 21:00 WET. 22:00 GMT becomes 22:00 WET. 23:00 GMT becomes 23:00 WET.
Reading the table
Both columns show the same hours because the offset is zero. The table is still useful, since it confirms that no hour crosses a date boundary when you convert GMT to WET.
Ten readings with minutes
Examples
01:05 GMT becomes 01:05 WET. 03:20 GMT becomes 03:20 WET. 05:50 GMT becomes 05:50 WET. 07:35 GMT becomes 07:35 WET. 10:10 GMT becomes 10:10 WET. 13:25 GMT becomes 13:25 WET. 16:40 GMT becomes 16:40 WET. 19:55 GMT becomes 19:55 WET. 22:15 GMT becomes 22:15 WET. 23:05 GMT becomes 23:05 WET.
No change in hours or minutes
Neither the hour nor the minute changes in any row, and the date stays the same.
Which part of the day is it?
The rhythm of Lisbon and London
06:00 GMT becomes 06:00 WET (early morning). 08:00 GMT becomes 08:00 WET (morning). 10:00 GMT becomes 10:00 WET (morning). 12:00 GMT becomes 12:00 WET (around midday). 14:00 GMT becomes 14:00 WET (afternoon). 16:00 GMT becomes 16:00 WET (afternoon). 18:00 GMT becomes 18:00 WET (evening). 20:00 GMT becomes 20:00 WET (evening). 22:00 GMT becomes 22:00 WET (night).
How to use the list
Because the two clocks agree, the words in brackets describe the part of the day in London and in Lisbon alike.
Zones around the Atlantic
The ladder
From GMT, add nothing for Lisbon, the Canaries, Madeira, the Faroes and Dublin in winter. Subtract one for the Azores. Add one for Madrid, Paris and Berlin, and two for Bucharest. For Morocco, check Ramadan, because the clock moves.
One moment on six clocks
When London reads 12:00, Lisbon reads 12:00, Ponta Delgada 11:00, Paris 13:00, Bucharest 14:00 and Casablanca 13:00 outside Ramadan. A written note of these six saves readers from having to convert GMT to WET on their own.
Dated examples
January
On Monday 19 January, 09:30 GMT is 09:30 WET. Neither country is on summer time.
The first Monday of summer time
On Monday 30 March, 09:30 BST is 09:30 WEST. Both moved their clocks the day before.
July
On Monday 20 July, 09:30 BST is 09:30 WEST. The offset remains zero.
The first Monday after the return
On Monday 26 October, 09:30 GMT is 09:30 WET. Both moved back the day before.
Checklist: how to convert GMT to WET
Before
Check the place
Mainland Portugal, Madeira, the Canaries and the Faroes are WET. The Azores are not.
Check the label
In summer WET becomes WEST and GMT becomes BST, but the hour stays the same.
After
Copy the hour
Do not add or subtract anything.
Keep the date
The date is the same on both sides.
Flights across the Atlantic from Lisbon
Westbound to Boston and New York
Lisbon is the closest major European capital to the east coast of North America. A flight that leaves Lisbon at 11:00 and takes about eight hours lands at 19:00 GMT, which is 14:00 EST. Because the departure hour is identical on the Lisbon and London clocks, an itinerary built in London needs no adjustment at the Portuguese end. The only conversion that matters is the one that follows when you convert GMT to WET and then move on to the American clock.
Southbound to Brazil
A night flight to São Paulo that leaves at 22:00 arrives about eleven hours later, at 09:00 GMT, which is 06:00 in Brazil. Passengers sleep through the Atlantic crossing and wake up in the early morning at the other end.
Surf, swell and the Nazaré season
Forecasts in universal time
Big-wave surfers follow swell forecasts published in UTC, which is the same as GMT. A swell predicted for 10:00 UTC reaches the Portuguese coast at 10:00 on the local clock in winter, and at 11:00 WEST in summer. The giant-wave season runs from autumn to early spring, when the local clock is on WET and the label matches GMT exactly.
Planning a trip to watch
A visitor from Britain who wants to be on the cliff at first light should note that sunrise in January is around 07:45 WET, or 07:45 GMT. A “convert GMT to WET” calculation here is a formality, and the work is in the drive from Lisbon, about an hour and a half.
Eating out on Lisbon time
Late meals, same clock
Restaurants in Lisbon serve lunch from about 12:30 and dinner from about 19:30, with many locals sitting down after 20:30. The hours are on the same clock as London, so a table booked for 20:00 is at 20:00 GMT in winter. British visitors often find that the room is nearly empty at 19:30, even though it would be a normal dinner hour at home.
Live music
Fado houses begin performances around 21:00 and run until after midnight. A show that ends at 00:30 WET ends at 00:30 GMT, and the last tram home has long since departed. Taxis are the only practical option.
Mistakes when you convert GMT to WET
Adding an hour out of habit
Many people add an hour for any mainland European country. Portugal is the exception: it follows London.
Mixing up Madrid and the Canaries
Madrid is on Central European Time, an hour ahead. The Canary Islands are on WET, like Lisbon.
Forgetting the Azores
In winter the Azores are an hour behind. Do not apply the zero offset to Ponta Delgada.
Assuming Morocco is WET
Morocco is on UTC+1 for most of the year and drops to UTC+0 only in Ramadan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between GMT and WET?
None in hours: both are UTC+0. They are different names.
How do I convert GMT to WET?
Copy the reading. Add and subtract nothing.
Why are there two names?
GMT is the British and historical name, while WET belongs to the continental scheme of three European zones.
Do the clocks diverge in summer?
No. Lisbon and London change on the same night and read the same hour all year.
Is my input uploaded?
No. It stays in your browser.
More time zone converters
Related pages: Convert GMT to EET, Convert GMT to CET, Convert UTC to WET, Convert PST to WET, Convert WET to EET, Convert EET to GMT, Convert WET to CET, Convert EET to WET, Convert UTC to GMT. For the reverse direction, open Convert WET to GMT.
To convert GMT to WET, in short, you leave the reading alone and watch only for the Azores, Morocco and the habit of calling London’s summer clock GMT. The work is done locally, with no sign-up and no upload.