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CEST/CET
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Central Europe is on summer time: CEST (UTC+2) until Sun, Oct 25.
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Quick answers

Selected conversion

2:00 pm14:00 CEST (UTC+2), Oct 13, 2026 = 8:00 pm20:00 CST (UTC+8), Oct 13, 2026

CEST is 6 hours behind CST.

CET and CST examples

These examples always use CET (UTC+1) and CST (UTC+8). They stay the same when you change the date or time above. The selected conversion may differ when daylight saving time applies.

CET is 7 hours behind CST.

How the time difference changes

For most of the year, CEST is 6 hours behind CST Asia. From Oct 25, 2026 to Mar 28, 2027, CET is 7 hours behind CST Asia.

For most of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in CEST correspond to 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm in CST Asia. At other times of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in CET correspond to 4:00 pm to 12:00 am (next day) in CST Asia.For most of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 17:00 in CEST correspond to 15:00 to 23:00 in CST Asia. At other times of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 17:00 in CET correspond to 16:00 to 00:00 (next day) in CST Asia.

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

Time Difference

Central European Summer Time is 6 hours behind China Standard Time.
2:00 pm14:00 in CEST is 8:00 pm20:00 in CST

CEST to CST call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 9am-11am09:00-11:00 in CEST which corresponds to 3pm-5pm15:00-17:00 in CST

2:00 pm14:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST). Offset UTC +2:00 hours
8:00 pm20:00 China Standard Time (CST). Offset UTC +8:00 hours

2:00 pm14:00 CEST / 8:00 pm20:00 CST

Choose an hour to update the converter. Day labels such as “next day” or “+1” are relative to the selected date in the first column. Use Up and Down arrow keys, Home or End to move between hours, then Enter or Space to select.

Hourly time comparison
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Central European Time

Offset: CET is 1 hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: Andorra, Albania, Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Algeria, Spain, France, Gibraltar, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Sweden, Slovenia, Svalbard & Jan Mayen, Slovakia, San Marino, Tunisia, Vatican City

Principal Cities: The largest city in the CET time zone is Berlin in Germany, with about 3.426 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Madrid, Algiers, Rome, Paris.

German: MEZ - Mitteleuropäische Zeit

Map of the areas on Central European Time (CET)
CET all year CET part of the year

Today the lighter areas are on UTC+2 (CEST).

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

123456789101112End: Central European Time (CET) ended on Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 2:00 am02:00 local time and clocks were set one hour forward to Sunday, March 29, 2026, 3:00 am03:00 local daylight time instead. Standard time ends annually on the last Sunday of March.

123456789101112Start: Central European Time (CET) starts on Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 3:00 am03:00 local time and clocks are set one hour back to Sunday, October 25, 2026, 2:00 am02:00. Standard time starts annually on the last Sunday of October.

See upcoming clock changes worldwide.

CET representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +01 - basic short
  • +0100 - basic
  • +01:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0100 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (01) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of one hour to the east of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Alpha - Military abbreviation for CET
  • A - short form of 'Alpha'
IANA/Olson: Reflects CET time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Africa/Algiers
  • Africa/Ceuta
  • Africa/Tunis
  • Arctic/Longyearbyen
  • Atlantic/Jan_Mayen
  • CET
  • Europe/Amsterdam
  • Europe/Andorra
  • Europe/Belgrade
  • Europe/Berlin
  • Europe/Bratislava
  • Europe/Brussels
  • Europe/Budapest
  • Europe/Busingen
  • Europe/Copenhagen
  • Europe/Gibraltar
  • Europe/Ljubljana
  • Europe/Luxembourg
  • Europe/Madrid
  • Europe/Malta
  • Europe/Monaco
  • Europe/Oslo
  • Europe/Paris
  • Europe/Podgorica
  • Europe/Prague
  • Europe/Rome
  • Europe/San_Marino
  • Europe/Sarajevo
  • Europe/Skopje
  • Europe/Stockholm
  • Europe/Tirane
  • Europe/Vaduz
  • Europe/Vatican
  • Europe/Vienna
  • Europe/Warsaw
  • Europe/Zagreb
  • Europe/Zurich
  • MET
  • Poland
Time zones with the GMT +1 offset:
  • BST - British Summer Time
  • CET - Central European Time
  • IST - Irish Standard Time
  • WEST - Western European Summer Time
  • A - Alpha Time Zone
  • CET - Central European Time
  • MEZ - Mitteleuropäische Zeit
  • WAT - West Africa Time
  • WST - Western Sahara Summer Time
  • BMT - Biel Mean Time

China Standard Time

Offset: CST is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: China, Macau, Taiwan

Principal Cities: The largest city in the CST time zone is Shanghai in China, with about 24.875 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu.

Daylight Saving: Clocks in China Standard Time (CST) do not change for daylight saving time, so CST stays the same throughout the year. Other time zones may set clocks forward in summer and back in winter; see upcoming clock changes worldwide.

CST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +08 - basic short
  • +0800 - basic
  • +08:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0800 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (08) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of eight hours to the east of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Hotel - Military abbreviation for CST
  • H - short form of 'Hotel'
IANA/Olson: Reflects CST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Asia/Chongqing
  • Asia/Chungking
  • Asia/Harbin
  • Asia/Macao
  • Asia/Macau
  • Asia/Shanghai
  • Asia/Taipei
  • PRC
  • ROC
CST Abbreviation: Several time zones share CST abbreviation and it could refer to these time zones
  • Central Standard Time - UTC -6
  • China Standard Time - UTC +8
  • Cuba Standard Time - UTC -5
Time zones with the GMT +8 offset:
  • ACT - ASEAN Common Time
  • AWST - Australian Western Standard Time
  • BNT - Brunei Darussalam Time
  • CAST - Casey Time
  • CHOT - Choibalsan Time
  • CST - China Standard Time
  • H - Hotel Time Zone
  • HKT - Hong Kong Time
  • HOVST - Hovd Summer Time
  • IRKT - Irkutsk Time
  • KRAST - Krasnoyarsk Summer Time
  • MYT - Malaysia Time
  • PHT - Philippine Time
  • SGT - Singapore Time
  • ULAT - Ulaanbaatar Time
  • WITA - Central Indonesian Time