EST to CST Converter (Eastern Time to Central Time)

CST is 1 hour behind EST.

This page answers the question an East Coast reader asks when something is set in Chicago, Dallas or Houston: what does the clock say there? Central Time is one hour behind Eastern Time. The gap does not move with the seasons, because the Eastern and Central zones both shift on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November.

Eastern Time covers a large share of the US population, so schedules published on a national level often name it first. Anyone who lives in the Central zone, which includes most of Texas, then has to subtract an hour in their head.

How to use this tool

1. Pick a date and time in EST. The date matters when daylight saving time is in force.
2. Read the matching time in CST, with both UTC offsets.
3. Use "Use current time" for now, or the tables below for a quick look.

Formula

CST time = EST time − (EST UTC offset) + (CST UTC offset)

The converter looks up both UTC offsets for the actual instant in the saved IANA time zone rules, so daylight saving changes are included automatically.

Example

Worked with the saved rules:

9:00 AM EST on March 2, 2026 = 8:00 AM CST

6:30 PM EDT on August 3, 2026 = 5:30 PM CDT

Time difference through the year

The difference depends on the date when either place moves its clocks. These are the offsets on two reference days, from the saved IANA rules:

Clock changes in 2026

Between these dates the difference shifts by the size of the change.

EST to CST time table

Each hour in Eastern Time with the matching Central Time time.

CST to EST time table

Each hour in Central Time with the matching Eastern Time time.

Hours that work in both places

Hours (on the January reference day) that fall between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM in both EST and CST:

Texas, the Midwest and the Gulf Coast

Most of Texas is on Central Time, along with Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Alabama and Mississippi. A webinar listed for 2:00 p.m. Eastern therefore starts at 1:00 p.m. for viewers in Houston or Minneapolis.

One exception inside Texas is El Paso and Hudspeth County in the far west, which are on Mountain Time. Texas therefore has two zones, so look at the city and not only at the state.

Reading deadlines and release times

Government agencies and companies often publish deadlines such as "5:00 p.m. Eastern". For a Central reader that deadline is 4:00 p.m., so a task planned for the end of the local working day can miss it by an hour.

Product launches, earnings calls and sports broadcasts follow the same pattern. When the announcement gives only an Eastern time, write down the Central equivalent beside it the moment you read it.