CET to IST: CET is 3 hours 30 minutes behind IST
Central European Time is 3 hours 30 minutes behind India Standard Time right now. It is 2:00 am CEST in Central European and 5:30 am IST in India.
Convert a specific time from CET to IST
Pick any time and date to convert it both ways. The conversion runs in your browser against the real zone rules, so a date inside a daylight saving period gets that period's offset rather than today's.
What is the time difference between CET and IST?
India Standard Time is 3 hours 30 minutes ahead of Central European Time. To go from CET to IST you add 3 hours 30 minutes. That gap is not fixed. Across 2026 the distance between these two zones takes 2 different values, from 3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours 30 minutes, because Central European moves its clocks and India does not. This page recomputes it rather than assuming.
CET to IST conversion table
Every hour of Friday, September 25, 2026 in Central European, with the matching reading in India. 3 of the 24 hours land on a different calendar date in India, which is the part people get wrong when they schedule across this pair.
| CET | CET 24h | IST | IST 24h | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 am | 00:00 | 3:30 am | 03:30 | same day |
| 1:00 am | 01:00 | 4:30 am | 04:30 | same day |
| 2:00 am | 02:00 | 5:30 am | 05:30 | same day |
| 3:00 am | 03:00 | 6:30 am | 06:30 | same day |
| 4:00 am | 04:00 | 7:30 am | 07:30 | same day |
| 5:00 am | 05:00 | 8:30 am | 08:30 | same day |
| 6:00 am | 06:00 | 9:30 am | 09:30 | same day |
| 7:00 am | 07:00 | 10:30 am | 10:30 | same day |
| 8:00 am | 08:00 | 11:30 am | 11:30 | same day |
| 9:00 am | 09:00 | 12:30 pm | 12:30 | same day |
| 10:00 am | 10:00 | 1:30 pm | 13:30 | same day |
| 11:00 am | 11:00 | 2:30 pm | 14:30 | same day |
| 12:00 pm | 12:00 | 3:30 pm | 15:30 | same day |
| 1:00 pm | 13:00 | 4:30 pm | 16:30 | same day |
| 2:00 pm | 14:00 | 5:30 pm | 17:30 | same day |
| 3:00 pm | 15:00 | 6:30 pm | 18:30 | same day |
| 4:00 pm | 16:00 | 7:30 pm | 19:30 | same day |
| 5:00 pm | 17:00 | 8:30 pm | 20:30 | same day |
| 6:00 pm | 18:00 | 9:30 pm | 21:30 | same day |
| 7:00 pm | 19:00 | 10:30 pm | 22:30 | same day |
| 8:00 pm | 20:00 | 11:30 pm | 23:30 | same day |
| 9:00 pm | 21:00 | 12:30 am | 00:30 | the next day |
| 10:00 pm | 22:00 | 1:30 am | 01:30 | the next day |
| 11:00 pm | 23:00 | 2:30 am | 02:30 | the next day |
What are the best hours to schedule a call between CET and IST?
5 hours of the standard 9:00 am to 5:00 pm working day line up in both zones, from 9:00 am CET to 2:00 pm CET. In India that window reads 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Outside it, one side is either not yet at their desk or already gone.
| CET | IST | Working hours | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 am | 12:30 pm | both sides | mid morning in Central European, noon in India |
| 10:00 am | 1:30 pm | both sides | mid morning in Central European, afternoon in India |
| 11:00 am | 2:30 pm | both sides | mid morning in Central European, afternoon in India |
| 12:00 pm | 3:30 pm | both sides | noon in Central European, afternoon in India |
| 1:00 pm | 4:30 pm | both sides | afternoon in Central European, afternoon in India |
Does daylight saving change CET to IST?
Central European Time is currently on CEST and changes next on Sunday, October 25, 2026, when the clock falls back from 2:59 am to 2:00 am and the offset moves from UTC+2 to UTC+1.
India Standard Time does not move its clocks at all, so its UTC+5:30 offset holds every day of the year.
Because the two sides do not move together, the answer to this conversion changes during the year. For part of the year the gap is 3 hours 30 minutes and for the rest it is 4 hours 30 minutes. The table above is built for today, not for an average day.
Is CET ahead of or behind IST?
CET is behind IST by 3 hours 30 minutes: when it is 12:00 pm in Central European, it is 3:30 pm in India. One wrinkle worth knowing: CET and CEST are two names for the same zone, not two zones. Central European Time reads CET in winter and CEST in summer. When somebody types "cet to ist" they nearly always mean the zone rather than the literal winter offset, so this page resolves CET to Europe/Paris and IST to Asia/Kolkata and applies whichever offset is genuinely in force on the day.
Central European Time covers Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and Amsterdam. India Standard Time covers the whole of India on a single half hour offset. The identifiers behind them are Europe/Paris and Asia/Kolkata, which is what any calendar or scheduling system should be storing rather than a fixed number of hours.
Questions
- What is CET in IST?
- CET is 3 hours 30 minutes behind IST. 9:00 am CET is 12:30 pm IST.
- How many hours ahead is IST of CET?
- IST is 3 hours 30 minutes ahead of CET. That varies across the year, between 3 hours 30 minutes and 4 hours 30 minutes.
- What time is it in India right now?
- 5:30 am IST on Friday, September 25, 2026.
- When can Central European and India meet during working hours?
- Between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm CET, which is 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm IST.
- Does this account for daylight saving?
- Yes. Every reading is computed from the IANA database for the actual date, so CEST and IST are the abbreviations genuinely in force today rather than a fixed assumption.
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