Getting Started

The Google Maps Time Zone API provides time offset data for locations on the surface of the earth. You request the time zone information for a specific latitude/longitude pair and date. The API returns the name of that time zone, the time offset from UTC, and the daylight savings offset.

Sample request and response

You access the Google Maps Time Zone API through an HTTPS interface, with requests constructed as a URL string, using latitude/longitude coordinates to specify the location, a timestamp to specify the date, and your API key.

The following example requests the time zone data for Washington, DC, USA, on March 15, 2016, in JSON format:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/timezone/json?location=38.908133,-77.047119&timestamp=1458000000&key=YOUR_API_KEY

You can test this by entering the URL into your web browser (be sure to replace ‘YOUR_API_KEY’ with your actual API key). The response includes the time zone data for the specified location and date (timestamp).

View the developer's guide for more information about building request URLs and available parameters and understanding the response.

Below is a sample response, in JSON:

{
   "dstOffset" : 3600,
   "rawOffset" : -18000,
   "status" : "OK",
   "timeZoneId" : "America/New_York",
   "timeZoneName" : "Eastern Daylight Time"
}

Start coding with our client libraries

Client libraries make developing with the Google Maps web service APIs easier by providing simple, native implementations of common tasks, such as authentication, request throttling and automatic retry. The Google Maps Time Zone API is available in the Java Client, Python Client, Go Client and Node.js Client for Google Maps Services.

Authentication, quotas, and policies

Activate the API and get an API key

To use the Google Maps Time Zone API, you must first activate the API in the Google API Console and obtain the proper authentication credentials. You need to provide an API key in each request (or a client ID if you have a Premium Plan).

Click the button below to flow through a process where you will:

1. Create or select a project
2. Enable the API
3. Get an API key

Learn more about authentication credentials.

Quotas

Review the usage limits page for details on the quotas set for the Google Maps Time Zone API.

Policies

Use of the Google Maps Time Zone API must be in accordance with the API policies.

Learn more

In the Time Zone API, you can also set a language parameter to return results in languages other than the default of English. See the Time Zone API developer’s guide for more examples and other details.