CST Time Now

What this page shows

So you want to know what time it is in the central United States right now. Maybe you have a call with someone in Chicago or Texas, a flight connecting through Dallas, a game kicking off on Central time, or you just want to reach a friend in the middle of the country. That is what the clock at the top of this page is for. It shows the current time in the US Central zone and ticks forward every second, so there is nothing for you to work out by hand.

Wherever in the world you are reading this from, the clock tracks the Central zone and keeps itself right on its own, even across the days when the clocks change. You read it, you get on with your day.

The CST and CDT thing worth knowing

Here is the part that trips people up, though. You looked for CST, and this page is labeled CST, but the Central zone does not actually stay on CST all year. For about eight months of the year it runs on daylight saving time, under its own name, Central Daylight Time, or CDT.

So there are really two settings hiding behind the word Central:

• CST, Central Standard Time. Six hours behind UTC. This is the winter setting.
• CDT, Central Daylight Time. Five hours behind UTC, which is one hour ahead of CST. This is the summer setting.

What CST actually is, and the China mix-up

CST stands for Central Standard Time. It is the standard time used across the middle of the United States, and it sits six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, written as UTC minus 6. Among the four main zones in the lower 48, Central is the second from the east, one hour behind Eastern and one hour ahead of Mountain.

Now, one heads up worth getting out of the way early. CST is also the abbreviation for China Standard Time, which is eight hours ahead of UTC, on the far side of the world from the American Central zone. All of mainland China runs on it, from Beijing across to Shanghai, and it does not use daylight saving at all. This page is about the US Central zone. If China Standard Time is the one you were after, the clock you want is Beijing time now.

In everyday talk most people just say Central Time, or CT, and leave it there. That works in conversation, but CT on its own does not tell you whether the clocks are on the standard setting or the daylight saving one. CST and CDT are the exact names for each.

The Central zone is a wide band through the heart of the country. It covers Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and a good many states besides, taking in big cities like Chicago, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.

How to tell if it is CST or CDT right now

The switch dates are set in US law, the Uniform Time Act, which was last adjusted by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The law fixes the change to two Sundays:

• Spring forward. On the second Sunday of March, at 2 in the morning, the clocks jump ahead one hour. CST becomes CDT, and the zone moves from six hours behind UTC to five. Daylight saving time has begun.
• Fall back. On the first Sunday of November, at 2 in the morning, the clocks drop back one hour. CDT becomes CST again, and the zone returns to six hours behind UTC.

So the rule is short. From the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, the Central zone is on CDT. For the rest of the year, from November round to March, it is on CST. Place today between those two Sundays and you have your answer.

Converting CST to other time zones

Lining Central Time up with another zone is easier than it looks, because the United States moves all of its mainland clocks on the very same two Sundays. That means the gap between Central and the other US zones never changes through the year. Central is always one hour behind Eastern, one hour ahead of Mountain, and two hours ahead of Pacific, summer and winter alike.

The one number that does move is the gap to UTC and to places that keep their own schedule, since Central itself slides by an hour when daylight saving starts and stops. Here is the quick reference. The right column assumes it is 12 noon on Central time.

A few quick examples

Let us run a few, so you can see how this works in practice.

Say it is 12 noon in Chicago, which runs on Central Time. Eastern is one hour ahead, so it is 1 in the afternoon in New York. Mountain is one hour behind, so it is 11 in the morning in Denver. Pacific is two hours behind, which puts Los Angeles at 10 in the morning.

Now say you are on Central time and you want to call London. London is normally six hours ahead, so if it is 9 in the morning where you are, it is already 3 in the afternoon over there.

One more, and this one leans on the season. If your Central clock reads 9 in the morning in the winter, that is 3 in the afternoon UTC, because winter Central is six hours behind. The exact same 9 in the morning in the summer is 2 in the afternoon UTC, because by then the zone has shifted to five hours behind. Same clock reading, one hour of difference, and the only reason is daylight saving.

Where Central Time is used

Central Time runs through the middle of the country. The bigger cities on it include Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Memphis. Exactly which counties fall inside the zone is set by the US Department of Transportation, and as with the other US zones the line does not always follow a clean state border, with a few states split between Central and a neighbour.

Up in Canada, the central provinces keep Central Time too. Manitoba follows the usual daylight saving schedule, while most of Saskatchewan is an exception and stays on CST all year without ever switching to CDT.

Down in Mexico, Mexico City and much of the country sit at the same six hours behind UTC. Since Mexico dropped daylight saving in 2022, though, they stay there the whole year and no longer move to CDT in summer, so they line up with the US Central zone in winter and fall an hour behind it in summer.

Cities on Central Time

If you want the live clock for a city on Central Time rather than the zone as a whole, here is one to start with:

• Chicago time now

If you were actually after China Standard Time, which shares the CST abbreviation, see Beijing time now or Shenzhen time now. And for the wider picture across every US zone at once, there is USA Time Now.

Questions people ask

What time is it in CST right now?

The clock near the top of this page is the answer, and it updates every second. Just remember that because the Central zone observes daylight saving, that clock shows CST in the winter months and CDT in the summer, switching over on its own. Whichever it is, the time shown is the correct local time for the US Central zone.

Does CST mean US Central time or China time?

It is used for both. CST is Central Standard Time in the United States at six hours behind UTC, and it is also China Standard Time at eight hours ahead of UTC. They are on opposite sides of the world. This page shows the US Central zone. For China, see Beijing time now.

Is it CST or CDT at the moment?

Go by the dates. From the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November the zone is on CDT. The rest of the year it is on CST. Find where today falls between those two Sundays and you will know.

What is the difference between CST and CDT?

CST is the standard setting at six hours behind UTC. CDT is the daylight saving setting at five hours behind UTC, one hour ahead of CST. The clocks move forward an hour in spring to start CDT, then back an hour in autumn to return to CST. The plain term Central Time, or CT, just means whichever one is active.

How many hours behind UTC is CST?

Six hours behind, written UTC minus 6. When the zone is on daylight saving as CDT, it is five hours behind, UTC minus 5. Note this is the US zone. China Standard Time, which uses the same letters, is eight hours ahead of UTC.

What is CST in Eastern and Pacific time?

Central is always one hour behind Eastern and two hours ahead of Pacific, because every mainland US zone changes for daylight saving on the same dates. So 12 noon Central is 1 in the afternoon Eastern and 10 in the morning Pacific.

What is the IANA name for US Central Time?

It is America/Chicago. That is the entry in the IANA time zone database, the same time data your phone and your computer use, and it carries both the offset and the daylight saving rules. It is also what drives the live clock on this page.

References

1. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Time Zone Database (the tz database), source of the America/Chicago identifier and its daylight saving rules. https://www.iana.org/time-zones
2. U.S. Code, Title 15, Section 260a: Advancement of time or changeover dates. The Uniform Time Act of 1966, as amended by Section 110 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-58), which sets the second Sunday of March and first Sunday of November dates. Office of the Law Revision Counsel. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title15-section260a
3. U.S. Department of Transportation. Uniform Time, and the official listing of the nation's time zones under 49 CFR Part 71, Standard Time Zone Boundaries. https://www.transportation.gov/regulations/time-act
4. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Time and Frequency Division, the source of official time for the United States. https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division