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BlogHow it works

CST to MST Converter

Enter a Central time and a date to see the Mountain time in Denver, Salt Lake City or Albuquerque. The converter uses Denver's clock, which follows daylight saving; Arizona is covered below.

Central Time

CSTCentral Time

MSTMountain Time

––:––

In short

  1. 1Central Time is UTC−6 in winter (CST) and UTC−5 in summer (CDT).
  2. 2Mountain Time is UTC−7 in winter (MST) and UTC−6 in summer (MDT).
  3. 3Denver is therefore one hour behind Chicago every day of the year.
  4. 4Most of Arizona stays on MST all year, so it is two hours behind Chicago from March to November.

Central to Mountain hour table

CST timeMST/MDT time
12:00 AM11:00 PM−1 previous day
1:00 AM12:00 AM
2:00 AM1:00 AM
3:00 AM2:00 AM
4:00 AM3:00 AM
5:00 AM4:00 AM
6:00 AM5:00 AM
7:00 AM6:00 AM
8:00 AM7:00 AM
9:00 AM8:00 AM
10:00 AM9:00 AM
11:00 AM10:00 AM
12:00 PM11:00 AM
1:00 PM12:00 PM
2:00 PM1:00 PM
3:00 PM2:00 PM
4:00 PM3:00 PM
5:00 PM4:00 PM
6:00 PM5:00 PM
7:00 PM6:00 PM
8:00 PM7:00 PM
9:00 PM8:00 PM
10:00 PM9:00 PM
11:00 PM10:00 PM
Central hours with the Denver time beside them. Use it for Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Montana and Wyoming.

Arizona does its own thing

Phoenix is not Denver in summer

Under the Uniform Time Act a state may opt out of daylight saving, and Arizona has. Apart from the Navajo Nation, the state stays on MST (UTC−7) all year.

  • November to March: Phoenix and Denver both show MST, one hour behind CST.
  • March to November: Phoenix stays on MST, which equals Pacific Daylight Time and is two hours behind CDT.
  • The Navajo Nation in northeast Arizona follows Denver's clock.

The US Department of Transportation handles time zone boundaries and lists the places that do not use daylight saving. If you set a meeting with someone in Arizona, write Arizona time or the UTC offset rather than MST, so nobody adds or drops an hour by mistake.

Crossing the line on the road

Driving west on I-70 you gain an hour in western Kansas, a little east of Goodland; on I-10 in Texas the change comes about two hours' drive east of El Paso, at the Culberson–Hudspeth county line. Phones update on their own, but paper timetables and hotel check-in times are local, so a 3:00 PM check-in in Denver is 4:00 PM on a Central-time watch.

See the live Denver clock or the Houston clock, and try CST to PST for the West Coast.

CST to MST questions

How many hours behind Central is Mountain Time?

One hour. When it is noon in Chicago it is 11:00 AM in Denver, in winter and in summer.

What is 8:00 AM CST in MST?

7:00 AM MST. In summer, 8:00 AM CDT is 7:00 AM MDT.

Why is Phoenix sometimes two hours behind Chicago?

Most of Arizona keeps MST all year. When Chicago moves to CDT in March, Phoenix does not move, so the gap grows to two hours until November.

Which states are split between Central and Mountain Time?

Texas (El Paso is Mountain), Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota all have a western strip on Mountain Time.