EST
Eastern Standard Time
GMT -5
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm
CAT
Central Africa Time
GMT +2
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm

Quick answers

EST is 7 hours behind CAT. EST uses GMT -5, and CAT uses GMT +2 for this comparison.

For example, 7:00 am EST is 2:00 pm CAT. Use the converter above to adjust the date or time and create a shareable meeting link.

Best meeting overlap: 9am-10am EST, which is 4pm-5pm CAT.

EST is a fixed UTC-5 standard-time offset. For current Eastern Time, compare EDT to CAT or ET to CAT.

Compare EST time with CAT time, including current local time, UTC offsets, time difference, daylight saving changes, working hours, and shareable meeting times.

Time Difference

Eastern Standard Time is 7 hours behind Central Africa Time
7:00 am07:00 in EST is 2:00 pm14:00 in CAT

EST to CAT call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 9am-10am in EST which corresponds to 4pm-5pm in CAT

7:00 am07:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST). Offset UTC -5:00 hours
2:00 pm14:00 Central Africa Time (CAT). Offset UTC +2:00 hours

7:00 am07:00 EST / 2:00 pm14:00 CAT

ESTCAT
12am (midnight)7am
1am8am
2am9am
3am10am
4am11am
5am12pm (noon)
6am1pm
7am2pm
8am3pm
9am4pm
10am5pm
11am6pm
12pm (noon)7pm
1pm8pm
2pm9pm
3pm10pm
4pm11pm
5pm12am (midnight)
6pm1am
7pm2am
8pm3am
9pm4am
10pm5am
11pm6am
00:0007:00
01:0008:00
02:0009:00
03:0010:00
04:0011:00
05:0012:00
06:0013:00
07:0014:00
08:0015:00
09:0016:00
10:0017:00
11:0018:00
12:0019:00
13:0020:00
14:0021:00
15:0022:00
16:0023:00
17:0000:00
18:0001:00
19:0002:00
20:0003:00
21:0004:00
22:0005:00
23:0006:00

Eastern Standard Time

Offset: EST is 5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in North America

Countries using this time zone: Bahamas, Canada, Haiti, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Panama, Turks & Caicos Is, United States

Principal Cities: The largest city in the EST time zone is New York City in the United States, with about 8.175 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Toronto, Montreal, Brooklyn, Borough of Queens.

French: HNE - Heure Normale de l'Est

Spanish: ET - Tiempo del Este, ET - Zona Sureste

EST Time Zone Geo Map
EST timezone map

Daylight Saving: This is a standard time zone. During summer, some places set clocks forward one hour for daylight saving time and observe Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Daylight saving time clock moves back for one hour from 2am to 1amStart: Eastern Standard Time (EST) started on Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 2:00 am local time and clocks were set one hour back to Sunday, November 2, 2025, 1:00 am. Standard time starts annually on the first Sunday of November.

Daylight saving time clock moves forward for one hour from 2am to 3amEnd: Eastern Standard Time (EST) ends on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 2:00 am local time and clocks are set one hour forward to Sunday, March 8, 2026, 3:00 am local daylight time instead. Standard time ends annually on the second Sunday of March.

EST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • -05 - basic short
  • -0500 - basic
  • -05:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • -0500 - sign character (-) followed by a four digit time providing hours (05) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of five hours to the west of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Romeo - Military abbreviation for EST
  • R - short form of 'Romeo'
IANA/Olson: Reflects EST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • America/Atikokan
  • America/Cancun
  • America/Cayman
  • America/Coral_Harbour
  • America/Detroit
  • America/Fort_Wayne
  • America/Grand_Turk
  • America/Indiana/Indianapolis
  • America/Indiana/Marengo
  • America/Indiana/Petersburg
  • America/Indiana/Vevay
  • America/Indiana/Vincennes
  • America/Indiana/Winamac
  • America/Indianapolis
  • America/Iqaluit
  • America/Jamaica
  • America/Kentucky/Louisville
  • America/Kentucky/Monticello
  • America/Louisville
  • America/Montreal
  • America/Nassau
  • America/New_York
  • America/Nipigon
  • America/Panama
  • America/Pangnirtung
  • America/Port-au-Prince
  • America/Thunder_Bay
  • America/Toronto
  • Canada/Eastern
  • EST
  • EST5EDT
  • Jamaica
  • US/East-Indiana
  • US/Eastern
  • US/Michigan
Time zones with the GMT -5 offset:
  • CDT - Central Daylight Time
  • EST - Eastern Standard Time
  • ET - Eastern Time
  • COT - Colombia Time
  • CST - Cuba Standard Time
  • EASST - Easter Island Summer Time
  • ECT - Ecuador Time
  • PET - Peru Time
  • R - Romeo Time Zone

Central Africa Time

Offset: CAT is 2 hours ahead Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in Africa

Countries using this time zone: Burundi, Botswana, Congo (Dem. Rep.), Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Principal Cities: The largest city in the CAT time zone is Khartoum in Sudan, with about 1.975 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Harare, Lubumbashi, Lusaka, Omdurman.

Daylight Saving: Clocks in Central Africa Time (CAT) do not change for daylight saving time, so CAT stays the same throughout the year. Other time zones may set clocks forward in summer and back in winter.

CAT Time Zone Geo Map
CAT timezone map

CAT representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +02 - basic short
  • +0200 - basic
  • +02:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0200 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (02) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of two hours to the east of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Bravo - Military abbreviation for CAT
  • B - short form of 'Bravo'
IANA/Olson: Reflects CAT time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Africa/Blantyre
  • Africa/Bujumbura
  • Africa/Gaborone
  • Africa/Harare
  • Africa/Juba
  • Africa/Khartoum
  • Africa/Kigali
  • Africa/Lubumbashi
  • Africa/Lusaka
  • Africa/Maputo
  • Africa/Windhoek
Time zones with the GMT +2 offset:
  • CEST - Central European Summer Time
  • EET - Eastern European Time
  • MESZ - Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit
  • B - Bravo Time Zone
  • CAT - Central Africa Time
  • IST - Israel Standard Time
  • SAST - South Africa Standard Time
  • WAST - West Africa Summer Time