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CDT/CST
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Central Time is on daylight saving time: CDT (UTC−5) until Sun, Nov 1.

Mexico City and Saskatchewan stay on CST (UTC−6).

ACST
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ACST is not used on this date
This converter keeps ACST at UTC+9:30. Adelaide uses ACDT (UTC+10:30) on this date. Open the ACDT converter, or choose Adelaide, Adelaide Hills, or Mount Gambier for city-specific time.

Quick answers

Selected conversion

7:00 am07:00 CDT (UTC-5), Oct 23, 2026 = 9:30 pm21:30 ACST (UTC+9:30), Oct 23, 2026

CDT is 14 hours and 30 minutes behind ACST.

CST (US winter time, UTC-6) and ACST examples

These examples always use CST (UTC-6) and ACST (UTC+9:30). They stay the same when you change the date or time above. The selected conversion may differ when daylight saving time applies.

CST is 15 hours and 30 minutes behind ACST.

CST is US Central winter time (early November to mid-March). The rest of the year Chicago uses CDT (UTC-5), one hour later. For Central Time that follows daylight saving time, use CT to ACST. For daylight-time examples, use CDT to ACST.

How the time difference changes

For most of the year, CDT is 14 hours and 30 minutes behind ACST. From Nov 1, 2026 to Mar 14, 2027, CST is 15 hours and 30 minutes behind ACST.

For most of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in CDT correspond to 11:30 pm to 8:30 am (next day) in ACST. At other times of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in CST correspond to 12:30 am (next day) to 9:30 am (next day) in ACST.For most of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 18:00 in CDT correspond to 23:30 to 08:30 (next day) in ACST. At other times of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 18:00 in CST correspond to 00:30 (next day) to 09:30 (next day) in ACST.

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

Time Difference

Central Daylight Time is 14 hours and 30 minutes behind Australian Central Standard Time.
7:00 am07:00 in CDT is 9:30 pm21:30 in ACST

CDT to ACST call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 6pm-7pm18:00-19:00 in CDT which corresponds to 8:30am-9:30am08:30-09:30 in ACST (next day). Their 9am–6pm09:00–18:00 working hours do not overlap; this is a suggested compromise.

7:00 am07:00 Central Daylight Time (CDT). Offset UTC -5:00 hours
9:30 pm21:30 Australian Central Standard Time (ACST). Offset UTC +9:30 hours

7:00 am07:00 CDT / 9:30 pm21:30 ACST

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 Standard Time

Offset: CST is 6 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, 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, Puebla, Santiago de Querétaro.

French: HNC - Heure Normale du Centre

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

Map of the areas on Central Standard Time (CST)
CST all year CST part of the year

Today the lighter areas are on UTC−5 (Central Daylight Time).

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

123456789101112End: Central Standard Time (CST) ended on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 2:00 am02:00 local time and clocks were set one hour forward to Sunday, March 8, 2026, 3:00 am03:00 local daylight time instead. Standard time ends annually on the second Sunday of March.

123456789101112Start: Central Standard Time (CST) starts on Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 2:00 am02:00 local time and clocks are set one hour back to Sunday, November 1, 2026, 1:00 am01:00. Standard time starts annually on the first Sunday of November.

See USA daylight saving time and 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
  • -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 CST
  • S - short form of 'Sierra'
IANA/Olson: Reflects CST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • America/Bahia_Banderas
  • America/Belize
  • America/Chicago
  • America/Chihuahua
  • America/Costa_Rica
  • America/El_Salvador
  • America/Guatemala
  • America/Indiana/Knox
  • America/Indiana/Tell_City
  • America/Knox_IN
  • America/Managua
  • America/Matamoros
  • America/Menominee
  • America/Merida
  • America/Mexico_City
  • America/Monterrey
  • America/North_Dakota/Beulah
  • America/North_Dakota/Center
  • America/North_Dakota/New_Salem
  • America/Ojinaga
  • America/Rainy_River
  • America/Rankin_Inlet
  • America/Regina
  • America/Resolute
  • America/Swift_Current
  • America/Tegucigalpa
  • America/Winnipeg
  • CST6CDT
  • Canada/Central
  • Canada/Saskatchewan
  • Mexico/General
  • US/Central
  • US/Indiana-Starke
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 -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

Australian Central Standard Time

Offset: ACST is 9 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: Australia

Principal Cities: The largest city in the ACST time zone is Adelaide in Australia, with about 1.469 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Mount Gambier.

Map of the areas on Australian Central Standard Time (ACST)
ACST all year ACST part of the year

Today the lighter areas are on UTC+10:30 (ACDT).

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

123456789101112End: Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) ended on Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 2:00 am02:00 local time and clocks were set one hour forward to Sunday, October 4, 2026, 3:00 am03:00 local daylight time instead. Standard time ends annually on the first Sunday of October.

123456789101112Start: Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) starts on Sunday, April 4, 2027 at 3:00 am03:00 local time and clocks are set one hour back to Sunday, April 4, 2027, 2:00 am02:00. Standard time starts annually on the first Sunday of April.

See Australia daylight saving time and upcoming clock changes worldwide.

ACST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +0930 - basic
  • +09:30 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0930 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (09) and minutes (30) of the offset. Indicates an offset of nine hours and thirty minutes to the east of the zero meridian.
IANA/Olson: Reflects ACST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Australia/Adelaide
  • Australia/Broken_Hill
  • Australia/Darwin
  • Australia/North
  • Australia/South
  • Australia/Yancowinna