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EDT/EST
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Eastern Time is on daylight saving time: EDT (UTC−4) until Sun, Nov 1.
CST
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Quick answers

Selected conversion

8:00 am08:00 EDT (UTC-4), Oct 12, 2026 = 8:00 pm20:00 CST (UTC+8), Oct 12, 2026

EDT is 12 hours behind CST.

EST (US winter time, UTC-5) and CST examples

These examples always use EST (UTC-5) 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.

EST is 13 hours behind CST.

EST is US Eastern winter time (early November to mid-March). The rest of the year New York uses EDT (UTC-4), one hour later. For Eastern Time that follows daylight saving time, use ET to CST-ASIA. For daylight-time examples, use EDT to CST-ASIA.

How the time difference changes

For most of the year, EDT is 12 hours behind CST Asia. From Nov 1, 2026 to Mar 14, 2027, EST is 13 hours behind CST Asia.

For most of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in EDT correspond to 9:00 pm to 5:00 am (next day) in CST Asia. At other times of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in EST correspond to 10:00 pm to 6:00 am (next day) in CST Asia.For most of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 17:00 in EDT correspond to 21:00 to 05:00 (next day) in CST Asia. At other times of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 17:00 in EST correspond to 22:00 to 06:00 (next day) in CST Asia.

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

Time Difference

Eastern Daylight Time is 12 hours behind China Standard Time.
8:00 am08:00 in EDT is 8:00 pm20:00 in CST

EDT to CST call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 7am-8am07:00-08:00 in EDT which corresponds to 7pm-8pm19:00-20:00 in CST. Their 9am–5pm09:00–17:00 working hours do not overlap; this is a suggested compromise.

8:00 am08:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Offset UTC -4:00 hours
8:00 pm20:00 China Standard Time (CST). Offset UTC +8:00 hours

8:00 am08:00 EDT / 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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Eastern Standard Time

Offset: EST is 5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: Bahamas, Canada, Haiti, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Panama, Turks & Caicos Is, United States

Principal Cities: The largest city in the EST time zone is New York City in the United States, with about 8.804 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Toronto, Montréal, Philadelphia, Port-au-Prince.

French: HNE - Heure Normale de l'Est

Spanish: ET - Tiempo del Este, ET - Zona Sureste

Map of the areas on Eastern Standard Time (EST)
EST all year EST part of the year

Today the lighter areas are on UTC−4 (EDT).

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

123456789101112End: Eastern Standard Time (EST) 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: Eastern Standard Time (EST) 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.

EST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • -05 - basic short
  • -0500 - basic
  • -05:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • -0500 - sign character (-) followed by a four digit time providing hours (05) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of five hours to the west of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Romeo - Military abbreviation for EST
  • R - short form of 'Romeo'
IANA/Olson: Reflects EST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • America/Atikokan
  • America/Cancun
  • America/Cayman
  • America/Coral_Harbour
  • America/Detroit
  • America/Fort_Wayne
  • America/Grand_Turk
  • America/Indiana/Indianapolis
  • America/Indiana/Marengo
  • America/Indiana/Petersburg
  • America/Indiana/Vevay
  • America/Indiana/Vincennes
  • America/Indiana/Winamac
  • America/Indianapolis
  • America/Iqaluit
  • America/Jamaica
  • America/Kentucky/Louisville
  • America/Kentucky/Monticello
  • America/Louisville
  • America/Montreal
  • America/Nassau
  • America/New_York
  • America/Nipigon
  • America/Panama
  • America/Pangnirtung
  • America/Port-au-Prince
  • America/Thunder_Bay
  • America/Toronto
  • Canada/Eastern
  • EST
  • EST5EDT
  • Jamaica
  • US/East-Indiana
  • US/Eastern
  • US/Michigan
Time zones with the GMT -5 offset:
  • CDT - Central Daylight Time
  • EST - Eastern Standard Time
  • ET - Eastern Time
  • COT - Colombia Time
  • CST - Cuba Standard Time
  • EASST - Easter Island Summer Time
  • ECT - Ecuador Time
  • PET - Peru Time
  • R - Romeo Time Zone

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