EST to CST: Eastern to Central Time

One hour, all year, everywhere in the US Central zone. Central Time uses CST (UTC−6) in winter and CDT (UTC−5) in summer and changes clocks on the same Sundays as the East, so the pairs stay matched:

• November to March: EST (UTC−5) vs CST (UTC−6) = 1 hour.
• March to November: EDT (UTC−4) vs CDT (UTC−5) = 1 hour.

Subtract one hour to go from the live Eastern Time clock to Central Time. One quirk of the numbers is worth knowing: CDT and EST are the same offset, UTC−5. That is why Cancún, which has stayed at UTC−5 all year since 2015, matches Chicago in summer and New York in winter.

The only exceptions are two transition nights, because each zone switches at 2:00 AM local time. On March 14, 2027, between 07:00 and 08:00 UTC, New York is already at 3:00 AM EDT while Chicago is still at 1:00 AM CST – 2 hours apart. On November 7, 2027, between 06:00 and 07:00 UTC, both cities read 1:00 AM: the one hour of the year when Eastern and Central clocks agree.

Several places keep UTC−6 without daylight saving time, so their gap to Eastern Time follows the seasons: 1 hour from November to March, 2 hours from March to November.

• Saskatchewan: Regina and Saskatoon stay on CST all year under the province's Time Act.
• Mexico: most of the country, including Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, abolished daylight saving time on October 30, 2022. Baja California and a group of municipalities on the US border still change clocks.
• Central America: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica all stay at UTC−6.

Two Canadian provinces changed in 2026 and now sit on either side of Chicago. Alberta keeps UTC−6 all year as "Alberta Time", so Calgary now matches Regina. Manitoba went the other way: since November 1, 2026 it keeps Manitoba Standard Time (MBT), UTC−5, all year. Winnipeg therefore shows the same time as New York from November to March and is 1 hour behind from March to November.

The Eastern–Central line cuts through five states. It is not drawn along 82.5°W, the meridian halfway between the two zones' centres; the US Department of Transportation sets it county by county "for the convenience of commerce", so it bends toward whichever city a region trades with. That is why it reaches far west in Indiana and Michigan and why each of these states has its own page:

• Florida: the Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River (Pensacola, Panama City) uses Central Time; Tallahassee uses Eastern.
• Indiana: 12 of its 92 counties use Central Time – six in the northwest near Chicago and six in the southwest around Evansville.
• Kentucky: roughly the western half, including Bowling Green, Owensboro and Paducah, is Central; Louisville and Lexington are Eastern.
• Tennessee: East Tennessee (Knoxville, Chattanooga) is Eastern; Nashville and Memphis are Central.
• Michigan: four Upper Peninsula counties on the Wisconsin border – Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson and Menominee – are Central.

Neighbours across these lines live an hour apart. Michigan City (LaPorte County, Central) and South Bend (St. Joseph County, Eastern) are about 40 miles apart in northern Indiana, yet a 9:00 AM start in South Bend is 8:00 AM in Michigan City. The time zone boundaries guide explains how counties petition to switch.

For Eastern Time this is the easiest pairing: seven of eight office hours overlap. 10:00 AM–5:00 PM ET is 9:00 AM–4:00 PM CT; only the first Eastern hour (8:00 AM in Chicago) and the last Central hour (6:00 PM in New York) fall outside. The lunch hours never line up – noon in New York is 11:00 AM in Chicago, and noon in Chicago is 1:00 PM in New York – so a midday slot always clips someone's lunch.

For colleagues in Mexico City, Guatemala or Regina the overlap shrinks in summer to 11:00 AM–5:00 PM ET, because 9:00 AM there is 11:00 AM EDT. Over the US border, compare Mountain Time (two hours) and Pacific Time (three hours), where the shared window gets shorter with every zone.