CST to PST Converter
Convert Central Time to Pacific Time for any date and time. Pacific is exactly two hours behind Central — in winter, in summer, all year — and this converter proves it for the date you pick, daylight saving included.
Convert Central Time to Pacific Time
It opens on the current Central Time time — pick any date and time to convert it.
Your converted time will appear here.
The CST to PST difference, exactly
The gap, the day change and the offsets — shown with every result.
Always two hours
11:00 AM in Chicago is 9:00 AM in Los Angeles in January and in July alike.
Date-aware
Daylight saving is applied from the actual date, not assumed.
Generous overlap
Six shared office hours (11:00 AM–5:00 PM Central) make this one of the easier cross-zone pairs.
About CST to PST conversion
Central Time and Pacific Time sit two zones apart in the continental US, and the rule between them is fixed: Pacific is two hours behind Central. When it is 11:00 AM in Chicago, Dallas or Houston, it is 9:00 AM in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Both zones observe daylight saving on the same US dates (CDT is UTC-5, PDT is UTC-7), so the two-hour gap is identical in every season. This converter works from the real times in Chicago and Los Angeles, which keeps it correct for any date — including the clock-change weekends, when the gap holds but the abbreviations change.
Two hours is a workable difference: the shared office window runs about six hours (11:00 AM–5:00 PM Central is 9:00 AM–3:00 PM Pacific), so cross-zone teams share most of the day. The traps are at the edges — a 9:00 AM Central start is a 7:00 AM Pacific one, early for the West Coast, and Central times between midnight and 2:00 AM are still the previous day in Pacific. The converter flags the day change so an after-midnight timestamp is not misread.
On any day of the year:
| CST | PST |
|---|---|
| 12:30 AM | 10:30 PM (previous day) |
| 6:00 AM | 4:00 AM |
| 9:00 AM | 7:00 AM |
| 12:00 PM | 10:00 AM |
| 6:00 PM | 4:00 PM |
Frequently asked questions
The difference, daylight saving and the cases people trip over.
What is the time difference between CST and PST?
Two hours. Pacific Time is two hours behind Central Time — CST is UTC-6 and PST is UTC-8. The gap stays two hours during daylight saving (CDT UTC-5, PDT UTC-7) because both zones change clocks on the same dates.
How do I convert CST to PST?
Subtract two hours. 11:00 AM CST is 9:00 AM PST, and 5:00 PM CST is 3:00 PM PST. Central times between midnight and 2:00 AM fall on the previous calendar day in PST.
Which cities are in CST and PST?
Central includes Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Minneapolis, St Louis and Winnipeg. Pacific includes Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, San Diego and Las Vegas.
Does the difference change in summer?
No. In summer the zones are called CDT and PDT and both sit one hour closer to UTC, so the difference between them is still exactly two hours.
Is CST here US Central or China Standard Time?
US Central Time (Chicago). China Standard Time is UTC+8 — fourteen hours ahead of US Central in winter. If you need China, pick Singapore or Tokyo in the zone lists and convert to that instead.
Is anything I enter stored?
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded or saved.