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CEST/CET
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Central Europe is on summer time: CEST (UTC+2) until Sun, Oct 25.

Quick answers

Selected conversion

5:30 pm17:30 IST (UTC+5:30), Oct 18, 2026 = 2:00 pm14:00 CEST (UTC+2), Oct 18, 2026

IST is 3 hours and 30 minutes ahead of CEST.

IST and CET examples

These examples always use IST (UTC+5:30) and CET (UTC+1). They stay the same when you change the date or time above. The selected conversion may differ when daylight saving time applies.

IST is 4 hours and 30 minutes ahead of CET.

How the time difference changes

For most of the year, IST is 3 hours and 30 minutes ahead of CEST. From Oct 25, 2026 to Mar 28, 2027, IST is 4 hours and 30 minutes ahead of CET.

For most of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in IST correspond to 5:30 am to 2:30 pm in CEST. At other times of the year, working hours of 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in IST correspond to 4:30 am to 1:30 pm in CET.For most of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 18:00 in IST correspond to 05:30 to 14:30 in CEST. At other times of the year, working hours of 09:00 to 18:00 in IST correspond to 04:30 to 13:30 in CET.

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

Time Difference

India Standard Time is 3 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Central European Summer Time.
5:30 pm17:30 in IST is 2:00 pm14:00 in CEST

IST to CEST call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 12:30pm-6pm12:30-18:00 in IST which corresponds to 9am-2:30pm09:00-14:30 in CEST

5:30 pm17:30 India Standard Time (IST). Offset UTC +5:30 hours
2:00 pm14:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST). Offset UTC +2:00 hours

5:30 pm17:30 IST / 2:00 pm14:00 CEST

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
ISTCEST
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20:30 previous day
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India Standard Time

Offset: IST is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: India

Principal Cities: The largest city in the IST time zone is Mumbai in India, with about 12.692 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad.

Daylight Saving: Clocks in India Standard Time (IST) do not change for daylight saving time, so IST stays the same throughout the year. Other time zones may set clocks forward in summer and back in winter; see upcoming clock changes worldwide.

Current time in India: India time now

IST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +0530 - basic
  • +05:30 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0530 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (05) and minutes (30) of the offset. Indicates an offset of five hours and thirty minutes to the east of the zero meridian.
IANA/Olson: Reflects IST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Asia/Calcutta
  • Asia/Kolkata
IST Abbreviation: Several time zones share IST abbreviation and it could refer to these time zones
  • India Standard Time - UTC +5:30
  • Irish Standard Time - UTC +1
  • Israel Standard Time - UTC +2

Central European Time

Offset: CET is 1 hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Countries using this time zone: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Vatican City

Principal Cities: The largest city in the CET time zone is Berlin in Germany, with about 3.426 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Madrid, Algiers, Rome, Paris.

German: MEZ - Mitteleuropäische Zeit

Map of the areas on Central European Time (CET)
CET all year CET part of the year

Today the lighter areas are on UTC+2 (CEST).

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

123456789101112End: Central European Time (CET) ended on Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 2:00 am02:00 local time and clocks were set one hour forward to Sunday, March 29, 2026, 3:00 am03:00 local daylight time instead. Standard time ends annually on the last Sunday of March.

123456789101112Start: Central European Time (CET) starts on Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 3:00 am03:00 local time and clocks are set one hour back to Sunday, October 25, 2026, 2:00 am02:00. Standard time starts annually on the last Sunday of October.

See upcoming clock changes worldwide.

CET 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 CET
  • A - short form of 'Alpha'
IANA/Olson: Reflects CET time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Africa/Algiers
  • Africa/Ceuta
  • Africa/Tunis
  • Arctic/Longyearbyen
  • Atlantic/Jan_Mayen
  • CET
  • Europe/Amsterdam
  • Europe/Andorra
  • Europe/Belgrade
  • Europe/Berlin
  • Europe/Bratislava
  • Europe/Brussels
  • Europe/Budapest
  • Europe/Busingen
  • Europe/Copenhagen
  • Europe/Gibraltar
  • Europe/Ljubljana
  • Europe/Luxembourg
  • Europe/Madrid
  • Europe/Malta
  • Europe/Monaco
  • Europe/Oslo
  • Europe/Paris
  • Europe/Podgorica
  • Europe/Prague
  • Europe/Rome
  • Europe/San_Marino
  • Europe/Sarajevo
  • Europe/Skopje
  • Europe/Stockholm
  • Europe/Tirane
  • Europe/Vaduz
  • Europe/Vatican
  • Europe/Vienna
  • Europe/Warsaw
  • Europe/Zagreb
  • Europe/Zurich
  • MET
  • Poland
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