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AST
Atlantic Standard Time
GMT -4
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm
CT
Central Time
GMT -6
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm

Quick answers

For most of the year, ADT is 2 hours ahead of CT. During seasonal clock changes, AST is 2 hours ahead of CT. Briefly around those changes, ADT is 3 hours ahead of CT or AST is 1 hour ahead of CT.

For most of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in ADT correspond to 7:00 am to 3:00 pm in CT. During seasonal clock changes, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in AST correspond to 7:00 am to 3:00 pm in CT.

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

Time Difference

Atlantic Standard Time is 2 hours ahead of Central Time
8:00 am08:00 in AST is 6:00 am06:00 in CT

AST to CT call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 11am-5pm in AST which corresponds to 9am-3pm in CT

8:00 am08:00 Atlantic Standard Time (AST). Offset UTC -4:00 hours
6:00 am06:00 Central Time (CT). Offset UTC -6:00 hours

8:00 am08:00 AST / 6:00 am06:00 CT

ASTCT
12am (midnight)10pm
1am11pm
2am12am (midnight)
3am1am
4am2am
5am3am
6am4am
7am5am
8am6am
9am7am
10am8am
11am9am
12pm (noon)10am
1pm11am
2pm12pm (noon)
3pm1pm
4pm2pm
5pm3pm
6pm4pm
7pm5pm
8pm6pm
9pm7pm
10pm8pm
11pm9pm
00:0022:00
01:0023:00
02:0000:00
03:0001:00
04:0002:00
05:0003:00
06:0004:00
07:0005:00
08:0006:00
09:0007:00
10:0008:00
11:0009:00
12:0010:00
13:0011:00
14:0012:00
15:0013:00
16:0014:00
17:0015:00
18:0016:00
19:0017:00
20:0018:00
21:0019:00
22:0020:00
23:0021:00

Atlantic Standard Time

Offset: AST is 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in North America

Countries using this time zone: Antigua & Barbuda, Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, St Barthelemy, Bermuda, Caribbean NL, Canada, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Greenland, Guadeloupe, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Martin (French), Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St Maarten (Dutch), Trinidad & Tobago, St Vincent, Virgin Islands (UK), Virgin Islands (US)

Principal Cities: The largest city in the AST time zone is Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic, with about 2.202 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Santiago de los Caballeros, Santo Domingo Oeste, San Juan, Halifax.

French: HNA - Heure Normale de l'Atlantique

Spanish: AST - Tiempo Estándar del Atlántico

AST Time Zone Geo Map
AST 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 Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT).

Daylight saving time clock moves back for one hour from 2am to 1amStart: Atlantic Standard Time (AST) 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: Atlantic Standard Time (AST) 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.

AST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • -04 - basic short
  • -0400 - basic
  • -04:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • -0400 - sign character (-) followed by a four digit time providing hours (04) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of four hours to the west of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Quebec - Military abbreviation for AST
  • Q - short form of 'Quebec'
IANA/Olson: Reflects AST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • America/Anguilla
  • America/Antigua
  • America/Aruba
  • America/Barbados
  • America/Blanc-Sablon
  • America/Curacao
  • America/Dominica
  • America/Glace_Bay
  • America/Goose_Bay
  • America/Grenada
  • America/Guadeloupe
  • America/Halifax
  • America/Kralendijk
  • America/Lower_Princes
  • America/Marigot
  • America/Martinique
  • America/Moncton
  • America/Montserrat
  • America/Port_of_Spain
  • America/Puerto_Rico
  • America/Santo_Domingo
  • America/St_Barthelemy
  • America/St_Kitts
  • America/St_Lucia
  • America/St_Thomas
  • America/St_Vincent
  • America/Thule
  • America/Tortola
  • America/Virgin
  • Atlantic/Bermuda
  • Canada/Atlantic
AST Abbreviation: Several time zones share AST abbreviation and it could refer to these time zones
  • Atlantic Standard Time - UTC -4
  • Arabia Standard Time - UTC +3
Time zones with the GMT -4 offset:
  • AST - Atlantic Standard Time
  • EDT - Eastern Daylight Time
  • AMT - Amazon Time
  • BOT - Bolivia Time
  • CDT - Cuba Daylight Time
  • CLT - Chile Standard Time
  • FKT - Falkland Island Time
  • GYT - Guyana Time
  • HLV - Hora Legal de Venezuela
  • PYT - Paraguay Time
  • Q - Quebec Time Zone
  • VET - Venezuelan Standard Time

Central Time

Central Time (CT) is a general term used to describe the areas that observe either the Central Standard Time (CST) or Central Daylight Time (CDT) in the United States and Canada. CT is not static but switches between CDT and CST.

Territories observing the time zone are primarily in North and Central America. It runs through several Mexican and U.S. states, as well as several Canadian provinces and Central American countries.

Countries using this time zone: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, United States.

Principal Cities: The largest city in the CST time zone is Mexico City in Mexico, with about 12.294 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Chicago, Houston, Iztapalapa, Ecatepec.

French: HNC - Heure Normale du Centre

Spanish: CT - Tiempo Central Estándar, CT - Zona Centro

CT representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • -06 - basic short
  • -0600 - basic
  • -06:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • -0600 - sign character (-) followed by a four digit time providing hours (06) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of six hours to the west of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Sierra - Military abbreviation for CT
  • S - short form of 'Sierra'
Time zones with the GMT -6 offset:
  • CST - Central Standard Time
  • CT - Central Time
  • MDT - Mountain Daylight Time
  • EAST - Easter Island Standard Time
  • GALT - Galapagos Time
  • S - Sierra Time Zone