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CST to UTC Converter

Updating current time…
CDT/CST
Central Daylight Time
GMT -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)
UTC
Universal Time Coordinated
GMT +0
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm

Quick answers

Selected conversion

7:00 am07:00 CDT (UTC-5), Oct 8, 2026 = 12:00 pm12:00 UTC (UTC+0), Oct 8, 2026

CDT is 5 hours behind UTC.

CST and UTC examples

These examples always use CST (UTC-6) and UTC (UTC+0). They stay the same when you change the date or time above. The selected conversion may differ when daylight saving time applies.

CST is 6 hours behind UTC.

CST uses UTC-6 during standard time. For Central Time that follows daylight saving time, use CT to UTC. For daylight-time examples, use CDT to UTC.

How the time difference changes

For most of the year, CDT is 5 hours behind UTC. At other times of the year, CST is 6 hours behind UTC.

For most of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in CDT correspond to 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm in UTC. At other times of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in CST correspond to 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm in UTC.For most of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 17:00 in CDT correspond to 14:00 to 22:00 in UTC. At other times of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 17:00 in CST correspond to 15:00 to 23:00 in UTC.

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

Time Difference

Central Daylight Time is 5 hours behind Universal Time Coordinated.
7:00 am07:00 in CDT is 12:00 pm12:00 in UTC

CDT to UTC call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 9am-12pm09:00-12:00 in CDT which corresponds to 2pm-5pm14:00-17:00 in UTC

7:00 am07:00 Central Daylight Time (CDT). Offset UTC -5:00 hours
12:00 pm12:00 Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). Offset UTC 0:00 hours

7:00 am07:00 CDT / 12:00 pm12:00 UTC

CDTUTC
12:00am5:00am
1:00am6:00am
2:00am7:00am
3:00am8:00am
4:00am9:00am
5:00am10:00am
6:00am11:00am
7:00am12:00pm
8:00am1:00pm
9:00am2:00pm
10:00am3:00pm
11:00am4:00pm
12:00pm5:00pm
1:00pm6:00pm
2:00pm7:00pm
3:00pm8:00pm
4:00pm9:00pm
5:00pm10:00pm
6:00pm11:00pm
7:00pm12:00am
8:00pm1:00am
9:00pm2:00am
10:00pm3:00am
11:00pm4:00am
00:0005:00
01:0006:00
02:0007:00
03:0008:00
04:0009:00
05:0010:00
06:0011:00
07:0012:00
08:0013:00
09:0014:00
10:0015:00
11:0016:00
12:0017:00
13:0018:00
14:0019:00
15:0020:00
16:0021:00
17:0022:00
18:0023:00
19:0000:00
20:0001:00
21:0002:00
22:0003:00
23:0004:00

Central Standard Time

Offset: CST is 6 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in North America

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

CST Time Zone Geo Map
CST 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 Central Daylight Time (CDT).

Daylight saving time clock moves forward for one hourEnd: 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.

Daylight saving time clock moves back for one hourStart: 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 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

Universal Time Coordinated

Offset: UTC is 0 hours ahead Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in Universal

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the world time standard that regulates clocks and time. It is successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). For casual use, UTC is the same as GMT, but is used by the scientific community.
UTC is the time standard commonly used across the world since 1972. It is used in many technical fields, like aviation industry and meteorologists, also used to synchronize time across internet networks.

UTC representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • Z - is the zone designator for the zero UTC/GMT offset, also known as 'Zulu' time
  • +00 - basic short
  • +0000 - basic
  • +00:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0000 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (00) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates the zero UTC/GMT offset.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Zulu - Military abbreviation for UTC
  • Z - short form of 'Zulu'
IANA/Olson: Reflects UTC time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Etc/UCT
  • Etc/UTC
  • Etc/Universal
  • Etc/Zulu
  • UCT
  • UTC
  • Universal
  • Zulu
Time zones with the GMT +0 offset:
  • EGST - Eastern Greenland Summer Time
  • GMT - Greenwich Mean Time
  • WET - Western European Time
  • AZOST - Azores Summer Time
  • UTC - Universal Time Coordinated
  • WT - Western Sahara Standard Time
  • Z - Zulu Time Zone
EST to ISTGMT to ESTPST to ESTEST to GMTPST to GMT