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CDT/CST

Central Daylight Time

UTC−5

12am

3am

6am

9am

12pm

3pm

6pm

9pm

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

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

Chicago · CDT (UTC−5)Mexico City, Saskatchewan · CST all year (UTC−6)

MDT/MST

Mountain Daylight Time

UTC−6

1h behind

12am

3am

6am

9am

12pm

3pm

6pm

9pm

Mountain Time is on daylight saving time: MDT (UTC−6) until Sun, Nov 1.

Arizona stays on MST (UTC−7).

Denver · MDT (UTC−6)Arizona · MST all year (UTC−7)

Quick answers

Selected conversion

7:00 am07:00 CDT (UTC-5), Oct 18, 2026 = 6:00 am06:00 MDT (UTC-6), Oct 18, 2026

CDT is 1 hour ahead of MDT.

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

These examples always use CST (UTC-6) and MST (UTC-7). They stay the same when you change the date or time above. The selected conversion may differ when daylight saving time applies.

CST is 1 hour ahead of MST.

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 MST. For daylight-time examples, use CDT to MDT.

How the time difference changes

For most of the year, CDT is 1 hour ahead of MDT. From Nov 1, 2026 to Mar 14, 2027, CST is 1 hour ahead of MST. Briefly around clock changes, CDT is 2 hours ahead of MST or CST and MDT have the same time.

For most of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in CDT correspond to 8:00 am to 5:00 pm in MDT. At other times of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in CST correspond to 8:00 am to 5:00 pm in MST.For most of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 18:00 in CDT correspond to 08:00 to 17:00 in MDT. At other times of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 18:00 in CST correspond to 08:00 to 17:00 in MST.

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

Time Difference

Central Daylight Time is 1 hour ahead of Mountain Daylight Time.
7:00 am07:00 in CDT is 6:00 am06:00 in MDT

CDT to MDT call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 10am-6pm10:00-18:00 in CDT which corresponds to 9am-5pm09:00-17:00 in MDT

7:00 am07:00 Central Daylight Time (CDT). Offset UTC -5:00 hours
6:00 am06:00 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). Offset UTC -6:00 hours

7:00 am07:00 CDT / 6:00 am06:00 MDT

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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	23:00 previous day
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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).
Open the world time zone map © OpenStreetMap

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).

End: 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.

Start: 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

Mountain Standard Time

Offset: MST is 7 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: Canada, Mexico, United States

Principal Cities: The largest city in the MST time zone is Phoenix in the United States, with about 1.65 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Ciudad Juárez, Hermosillo, Culiacán, Denver.

French: HNR - Heure Normale des Rocheuses

Spanish: MT - Zona Pacífico

Map of the areas on Mountain Standard Time (MST) — MST all year MST part of the year
Today the lighter areas are on UTC−6 (MDT).
Open the world time zone map © OpenStreetMap

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

End: Mountain Standard Time (MST) 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.

Start: Mountain Standard Time (MST) 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.

MST representations, usage and related time zones