PST to CST
Los Angeles to Chicago.
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All date & timeQuestions
What time is CST when it is 12:00 PST?
14:00. Central Time is 2 hours ahead of Pacific Time, all year round. A 9-to-5 day in Los Angeles overlaps a 9-to-5 day in Chicago for 6 hours, between 09:00 and 15:00 PST.
Is the difference between PST and CST the same all year?
Yes. Central Time is 2 hours ahead of Pacific Time, all year round. Both zones change their clocks, and close enough to the same dates that the gap between them holds — apart from a week or two each spring and autumn when one has shifted and the other has not.
What do PST and CST actually stand for?
PST is Pacific Time, the zone covering Los Angeles, currently UTC−8 in January. CST is Central Time, covering Chicago, at UTC−6. Pacific Time runs three hours behind the US east coast, which is why a 9am meeting on the east coast is a 6am meeting here — the single most common scheduling complaint in North American business.
Anything worth knowing about Central Time?
The most overloaded abbreviation in scheduling: CST is also China Standard Time, which is fourteen hours away from this one. If a message says CST and mentions a colleague in Shanghai, it does not mean Chicago.
When is a good time to call between Los Angeles and Chicago?
A 9-to-5 day in Los Angeles overlaps a 9-to-5 day in Chicago for 6 hours, between 09:00 and 15:00 PST. If the call has to happen outside that, the fairer arrangement is usually to alternate which side takes the awkward hour rather than always asking the same one.
How it works, and more about pst → cst
The difference, and whether you can rely on it
In January, Central Time is 2 hours ahead of Pacific Time — UTC−8 against UTC−6. It stays that way all year, so the number is worth memorising if you work across these two often.
When you can both be at a desk
A standard working day in Los Angeles overlaps one in Chicago between 09:00 and 15:00 PST — 6 hours. Anything outside that asks somebody to start early or finish late.
Reading the abbreviations literally will mislead you
PST strictly means one fixed offset, but almost nobody uses it that way. People write it to mean the time in Los Angeles, which shifts if that city observes daylight saving — and it does. This page follows the common usage rather than the strict one, because the strict reading gives an answer that is wrong for a good part of the year.
Pacific Time runs three hours behind the US east coast, which is why a 9am meeting on the east coast is a 6am meeting here — the single most common scheduling complaint in North American business. The most overloaded abbreviation in scheduling: CST is also China Standard Time, which is fourteen hours away from this one. If a message says CST and mentions a colleague in Shanghai, it does not mean Chicago.
Scheduling something recurring
For a one-off, the converter above is the whole job. For a standing meeting across zones it is worth putting the invitation in a calendar that stores the zone rather than the time — then the changeover is handled for you and nobody has to remember. If you are trying to find a slot across more than two places at once, the meeting planner shows a whole day at a glance instead.