PST to CST: PST is 2 hours behind CST
Pacific Time is 2 hours behind Central Time, on every day of the year. It is 12:36 pm PDT in Pacific and 2:36 pm CDT in Central.
Convert a specific time from PST to CST
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 PST and CST?
Central Time is 2 hours ahead of Pacific Time. To go from PST to CST you add 2 hours. That gap holds on all 365 days of 2026: both zones move their clocks, but on the same dates and in the same direction, so the distance between them never changes.
PST to CST conversion table
Every hour of Wednesday, September 23, 2026 in Pacific, with the matching reading in Central. 2 of the 24 hours land on a different calendar date in Central, which is the part people get wrong when they schedule across this pair.
| PST | PST 24h | CST | CST 24h | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 am | 00:00 | 2:00 am | 02:00 | same day |
| 1:00 am | 01:00 | 3:00 am | 03:00 | same day |
| 2:00 am | 02:00 | 4:00 am | 04:00 | same day |
| 3:00 am | 03:00 | 5:00 am | 05:00 | same day |
| 4:00 am | 04:00 | 6:00 am | 06:00 | same day |
| 5:00 am | 05:00 | 7:00 am | 07:00 | same day |
| 6:00 am | 06:00 | 8:00 am | 08:00 | same day |
| 7:00 am | 07:00 | 9:00 am | 09:00 | same day |
| 8:00 am | 08:00 | 10:00 am | 10:00 | same day |
| 9:00 am | 09:00 | 11:00 am | 11:00 | same day |
| 10:00 am | 10:00 | 12:00 pm | 12:00 | same day |
| 11:00 am | 11:00 | 1:00 pm | 13:00 | same day |
| 12:00 pm | 12:00 | 2:00 pm | 14:00 | same day |
| 1:00 pm | 13:00 | 3:00 pm | 15:00 | same day |
| 2:00 pm | 14:00 | 4:00 pm | 16:00 | same day |
| 3:00 pm | 15:00 | 5:00 pm | 17:00 | same day |
| 4:00 pm | 16:00 | 6:00 pm | 18:00 | same day |
| 5:00 pm | 17:00 | 7:00 pm | 19:00 | same day |
| 6:00 pm | 18:00 | 8:00 pm | 20:00 | same day |
| 7:00 pm | 19:00 | 9:00 pm | 21:00 | same day |
| 8:00 pm | 20:00 | 10:00 pm | 22:00 | same day |
| 9:00 pm | 21:00 | 11:00 pm | 23:00 | same day |
| 10:00 pm | 22:00 | 12:00 am | 00:00 | the next day |
| 11:00 pm | 23:00 | 1:00 am | 01:00 | the next day |
What are the best hours to schedule a call between PST and CST?
6 hours of the standard 9:00 am to 5:00 pm working day line up in both zones, from 9:00 am PST to 3:00 pm PST. In Central that window reads 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Outside it, one side is either not yet at their desk or already gone.
| PST | CST | Working hours | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 am | 11:00 am | both sides | mid morning in Pacific, mid morning in Central |
| 10:00 am | 12:00 pm | both sides | mid morning in Pacific, noon in Central |
| 11:00 am | 1:00 pm | both sides | mid morning in Pacific, afternoon in Central |
| 12:00 pm | 2:00 pm | both sides | noon in Pacific, afternoon in Central |
| 1:00 pm | 3:00 pm | both sides | afternoon in Pacific, afternoon in Central |
| 2:00 pm | 4:00 pm | both sides | afternoon in Pacific, afternoon in Central |
Does daylight saving change PST to CST?
Pacific Time is currently on PDT and changes next on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when the clock falls back from 1:59 am to 1:00 am and the offset moves from UTC-7 to UTC-8.
Central Time is currently on CDT and changes next on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when the clock falls back from 1:59 am to 1:00 am and the offset moves from UTC-5 to UTC-6.
Is PST ahead of or behind CST?
PST is behind CST by 2 hours: when it is 12:00 pm in Pacific, it is 2:00 pm in Central. One wrinkle worth knowing: PST and PDT are two names for the same zone, not two zones. Pacific Time reads PST in winter and PDT in summer. When somebody types "pst to cst" they nearly always mean the zone rather than the literal winter offset, so this page resolves PST to America/Los_Angeles and CST to America/Chicago and applies whichever offset is genuinely in force on the day.
Pacific Time covers Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver. Central Time covers Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Winnipeg. The identifiers behind them are America/Los_Angeles and America/Chicago, which is what any calendar or scheduling system should be storing rather than a fixed number of hours.
Questions
- What is PST in CST?
- PST is 2 hours behind CST. 9:00 am PST is 11:00 am CST.
- How many hours ahead is CST of PST?
- CST is 2 hours ahead of PST.
- What time is it in Central right now?
- 2:36 pm CDT on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.
- When can Pacific and Central meet during working hours?
- Between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm PST, which is 11:00 am to 5:00 pm CST.
- Does this account for daylight saving?
- Yes. Every reading is computed from the IANA database for the actual date, so PDT and CDT are the abbreviations genuinely in force today rather than a fixed assumption.
PST to CST by the hour
Other conversions
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