EST to CST Converter

Eastern and Central Time follow the same federal daylight-saving rule. Clocks go forward at 2:00 AM local time on the second Sunday in March and back at 2:00 AM local time on the first Sunday in November, as the US Department of Transportation sets out. Since both zones change on the same day, the one-hour step stays in place all year.

There is one tiny exception. Each zone changes at 2:00 AM on its own clock, so the East switches an hour before the Midwest does. For that single hour on the March Sunday the gap is two hours, and for one hour on the November Sunday the two clocks read the same. Unless you schedule overnight jobs, you will never notice.

The line between the zones cuts through several states. Indiana is mostly Eastern, but a few counties near Chicago and Evansville use Central. Kentucky and Tennessee are split roughly east and west, and the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River runs an hour behind Miami. When you set a meeting with someone in a border state, ask which city they are near rather than which state.

Live clocks for Toronto and Houston show both sides of the line, and the CST to EST converter works the other way round.