CST
Central Standard Time
GMT -6
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm
WAT
West Africa Time
GMT +1
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm

Quick answers

CST is 7 hours behind WAT. CST uses GMT -6, and WAT uses GMT +1 for this comparison.

For example, 6:00 am CST is 1:00 pm WAT. Use the converter above to adjust the date or time and create a shareable meeting link.

Best meeting overlap: 9am-10am CST, which is 4pm-5pm WAT.

CST is a fixed UTC-6 standard-time offset. For current Central Time, compare CDT to WAT or CT to WAT.

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

Time Difference

Central Standard Time is 7 hours behind West Africa Time
6:00 am06:00 in CST is 1:00 pm13:00 in WAT

CST to WAT call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 9am-10am in CST which corresponds to 4pm-5pm in WAT

6:00 am06:00 Central Standard Time (CST). Offset UTC -6:00 hours
1:00 pm13:00 West Africa Time (WAT). Offset UTC +1:00 hour

6:00 am06:00 CST / 1:00 pm13:00 WAT

CSTWAT
12am (midnight)7am
1am8am
2am9am
3am10am
4am11am
5am12pm (noon)
6am1pm
7am2pm
8am3pm
9am4pm
10am5pm
11am6pm
12pm (noon)7pm
1pm8pm
2pm9pm
3pm10pm
4pm11pm
5pm12am (midnight)
6pm1am
7pm2am
8pm3am
9pm4am
10pm5am
11pm6am
00:0007:00
01:0008:00
02:0009:00
03:0010:00
04:0011:00
05:0012:00
06:0013:00
07:0014:00
08:0015:00
09:0016:00
10:0017:00
11:0018:00
12:0019:00
13:0020:00
14:0021:00
15:0022:00
16:0023:00
17:0000:00
18:0001:00
19:0002:00
20:0003:00
21:0004:00
22:0005:00
23:0006:00

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 back for one hour from 2am to 1amStart: Central Standard Time (CST) 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: Central Standard Time (CST) 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.

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

West Africa Time

Offset: WAT is 1 hour ahead Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in Africa

Countries using this time zone: Angola, Benin, Congo (Dem. Rep.), Central African Rep., Congo (Rep.), Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Chad

Principal Cities: The largest city in the WAT time zone is Lagos in Nigeria, with about 9 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Kinshasa, Kano, Ibadan, Luanda.

Daylight Saving: Clocks in West Africa Time (WAT) do not change for daylight saving time, so WAT stays the same throughout the year. Other time zones may set clocks forward in summer and back in winter.

WAT Time Zone Geo Map
WAT timezone map

WAT 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 WAT
  • A - short form of 'Alpha'
IANA/Olson: Reflects WAT time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Africa/Bangui
  • Africa/Brazzaville
  • Africa/Douala
  • Africa/Kinshasa
  • Africa/Lagos
  • Africa/Libreville
  • Africa/Luanda
  • Africa/Malabo
  • Africa/Ndjamena
  • Africa/Niamey
  • Africa/Porto-Novo
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