San Francisco to Denver (SFO–DEN): distance and flight time

Flight time each way

SFO → DEN

2 h 40 min

Estimated gate-to-gate scheduled time. Initial heading 75° (ENE).

Leave San Francisco Sat 7 Nov, 10:00 local → arrive Denver Sat 7 Nov, 13:40 local.

DEN → SFO

3 h

Estimated gate-to-gate scheduled time. Initial heading 266° (W).

Leave Denver Sat 7 Nov, 10:00 local → arrive San Francisco Sat 7 Nov, 12:00 local.

SFO-bound flights are the slower direction by about 25 minutes in our estimate: the route runs mostly east–west through latitudes where the prevailing westerly winds at cruise height are strong, so heading east rides a tailwind and heading west fights a headwind. How we estimate it.

Distance

Great-circle distance	1,553 km · 965 mi · 838 nmi
Initial heading	75° (ENE) from SFO; 266° (W) from DEN
Farthest from the equator	39.9°N
Crosses	neither the equator nor the 180th meridian
Share of the longest possible trip	8% of the 20,015 km to the far side of the Earth

Time zones and jet lag

SFO	America/Los_Angeles — UTC−7 now; UTC−8 standard time, UTC−7 during daylight saving time
DEN	America/Denver — UTC−6 now; UTC−7 standard time, UTC−6 during daylight saving time
Difference	Denver is 1 hour ahead of San Francisco today.

Jet lag, flying SFO → DEN. Your body clock has to move 1 hour earlier, like an eastward trip. A shift this small rarely causes much jet lag; most people feel normal within a day or so. Flying the other way, the shift is reversed.

General information, not medical advice.

The two airports

SFO San Francisco International AirportSan Francisco, United States · longest runway 11,870 ft3,618 m

DEN Denver International AirportDenver, United States · longest runway 16,000 ft4,877 m

More routes from SFO and DEN

LAXSFO Los Angeles – San Francisco 543 km338 mi · 1 h 45 min SFOOGG San Francisco – Maui (Kahului) 3,761 km2,337 mi · 5 h 40 min SFOBOS San Francisco – Boston 4,341 km2,697 mi · 5 h 30 min SFOAMS San Francisco – Amsterdam 8,785 km5,459 mi · 10 h 35 min SFOPVG San Francisco – Shanghai 9,877 km6,138 mi · 13 h 20 min SFOSIN San Francisco – Singapore 13,582 km8,439 mi · 17 h 45 min DENPHX Denver – Phoenix 968 km601 mi · 2 h 15 min DFWDEN Dallas–Fort Worth – Denver 1,032 km641 mi · 2 h 20 min DENORD Denver – Chicago 1,426 km886 mi · 2 h 30 min ATLDEN Atlanta – Denver 1,927 km1,197 mi · 3 h 30 min JFKDEN New York – Denver 2,610 km1,622 mi · 4 h 20 min DENFRA Denver – Frankfurt 8,089 km5,026 mi · 9 h 45 min

Routes of a similar length

HNDOKA Tokyo – Okinawa (Naha) 1,555 km966 mi · 2 h 55 min PEKCTU Beijing – Chengdu 1,558 km968 mi · 3 h LHRLIS London – Lisbon 1,564 km972 mi · 2 h 55 min LAXSEA Los Angeles – Seattle 1,537 km955 mi · 2 h 50 min

Need a different pair? The flight-time calculator works for any two of 3,245 airports. Not covered: which airlines fly this route, schedules, fares and live status — that data is proprietary and we don’t guess it.

Photos on airport pages are credited there. Estimates are rounded to 5 minutes; typical error about 13 minutes (validation).

SFO San Francisco ⇄ DEN Denver