When storing time zone–aware data, what are the differences in behavior and use cases between DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, and CONVERT_TZ() in MySQL?

Stored internally in UTC, but automatically converted to the session's time zone for display.

Converts from session time zone → UTC on insert, and UTC → session time zone on select.

Automatically affected by daylight savings and time zone changes.

Ideal for global applications requiring consistent and comparable time values.

Used to manually convert a DATETIME or TIMESTAMP from one time zone to another.

Does not change the stored value; only transforms it in the query result.

Depends on MySQL time zone tables being loaded.

Useful when you need explicit control over source and target time zones.

DATETIME stores values as-is with no automatic time zone handling.

TIMESTAMP stores values in UTC and converts automatically for users.

CONVERT_TZ() is used for manual time zone adjustments in queries.

Use DATETIME for local-event-based data, TIMESTAMP for universal logging, and CONVERT_TZ() for custom conversions.