Counting down to five o'clock
Five o'clock is the finish line of the classic nine-to-five: eight hours with an hour for lunch. Offices empty, out-of-office replies switch on, and the evening rush hour starts to build.
It's a cut-off, too. Plenty of businesses and government offices close their doors at 5, and “by close of business” in an email usually means 5 PM in the sender's time zone — worth checking if they're in another one.
- On a 24-hour clock
- 5 PM is 17:00.
- Across the US
- 5 PM Eastern is 2 PM Pacific, so “by 5 ET” arrives three hours earlier on the West Coast.
- Finishing at 5:30?
- Type 5:30, or any other time, in the box and the countdown switches to it.
5 PM questions
How many minutes until 5 PM?
The tiles show the hours and minutes left, and the line under them adds it up into a single number of minutes, updated every second. Once 5 PM has passed it counts to 5 PM tomorrow.
What does close of business mean?
Usually 5 PM on a working day in the sender's own time zone. If you're somewhere else, count to the matching local time: 5 PM Eastern is 4 PM Central, 3 PM Mountain and 2 PM Pacific.
Can I keep the countdown on a second screen?
Yes. Press Fullscreen for big digits on a dark background; the screen stays awake while it's fullscreen, where the browser supports it.
Count down to another time
The other times people search for most — or type any time on How long until…?