CST
Central Standard Time
GMT -6
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm
IST
India Standard Time
GMT +5:30
12am
3am
6am
9am
12pm
3pm
6pm
9pm

Quick answers

CST is 11 hours and 30 minutes behind IST. CST uses GMT -6, and IST uses GMT +5:30 for this comparison.

For example, 6:00 am CST is 5:30 pm IST. Use the converter above to adjust the date or time and create a shareable meeting link.

Best meeting overlap: 7am-8am CST, which is 6:30pm-7:30pm IST.

CST is a fixed UTC-6 standard-time offset. For current Central Time, compare CDT to IST or CT to IST.

Popular CST to IST conversions

Popular CST to IST time conversions
CSTCST 24-hourISTIST 24-hour
8:00 am08:007:30 pm19:30
9:00 am09:008:30 pm20:30
9:30 am09:309:00 pm21:00

Compare CST time with IST time, including current local time, UTC offsets, time difference, daylight saving changes, working hours, and shareable meeting times.

Time Difference

Central Standard Time is 11 hours and 30 minutes behind India Standard Time
6:00 am06:00 in CST is 5:30 pm17:30 in IST

CST to IST call time
Best time for a conference call or a meeting is between 7am-8am in CST which corresponds to 6:30pm-7:30pm in IST

6:00 am06:00 Central Standard Time (CST). Offset UTC -6:00 hours
5:30 pm17:30 India Standard Time (IST). Offset UTC +5:30 hours

6:00 am06:00 CST / 5:30 pm17:30 IST

CSTIST
12am (midnight)11:30 am
1am12:30 pm
2am1:30 pm
3am2:30 pm
4am3:30 pm
5am4:30 pm
6am5:30 pm
7am6:30 pm
8am7:30 pm
9am8:30 pm
10am9:30 pm
11am10:30 pm
12pm (noon)11:30 pm
1pm12:30 am
2pm1:30 am
3pm2:30 am
4pm3:30 am
5pm4:30 am
6pm5:30 am
7pm6:30 am
8pm7:30 am
9pm8:30 am
10pm9:30 am
11pm10:30 am
00:0011:30
01:0012:30
02:0013:30
03:0014:30
04:0015:30
05:0016:30
06:0017:30
07:0018:30
08:0019:30
09:0020:30
10:0021:30
11:0022:30
12:0023:30
13:0000:30
14:0001:30
15:0002:30
16:0003:30
17:0004:30
18:0005:30
19:0006:30
20:0007:30
21:0008:30
22:0009:30
23:0010:30

Central Standard Time

Offset: CST is 6 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in North America

Countries using this time zone: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, United States

Principal Cities: The largest city in the CST time zone is Mexico City in Mexico, with about 12.294 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Chicago, Houston, Iztapalapa, Ecatepec.

French: HNC - Heure Normale du Centre

Spanish: CT - Tiempo Central Estándar, CT - Zona Centro

CST Time Zone Geo Map
CST timezone map

Daylight Saving: This is a standard time zone. During summer, some places set clocks forward one hour for daylight saving time and observe Central Daylight Time (CDT).

Daylight saving time clock moves back for one hour from 2am to 1amStart: Central Standard Time (CST) started on Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 2:00 am local time and clocks were set one hour back to Sunday, November 2, 2025, 1:00 am. Standard time starts annually on the first Sunday of November.

Daylight saving time clock moves forward for one hour from 2am to 3amEnd: Central Standard Time (CST) ends on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 2:00 am local time and clocks are set one hour forward to Sunday, March 8, 2026, 3:00 am local daylight time instead. Standard time ends annually on the second Sunday of March.

CST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • -06 - basic short
  • -0600 - basic
  • -06:00 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • -0600 - sign character (-) followed by a four digit time providing hours (06) and minutes (00) of the offset. Indicates an offset of six hours to the west of the zero meridian.
Military/NATO: Used by the U.S. military, Chinese military and others
  • Sierra - Military abbreviation for CST
  • S - short form of 'Sierra'
IANA/Olson: Reflects CST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • America/Bahia_Banderas
  • America/Belize
  • America/Chicago
  • America/Chihuahua
  • America/Costa_Rica
  • America/El_Salvador
  • America/Guatemala
  • America/Indiana/Knox
  • America/Indiana/Tell_City
  • America/Knox_IN
  • America/Managua
  • America/Matamoros
  • America/Menominee
  • America/Merida
  • America/Mexico_City
  • America/Monterrey
  • America/North_Dakota/Beulah
  • America/North_Dakota/Center
  • America/North_Dakota/New_Salem
  • America/Ojinaga
  • America/Rainy_River
  • America/Rankin_Inlet
  • America/Regina
  • America/Resolute
  • America/Swift_Current
  • America/Tegucigalpa
  • America/Winnipeg
  • CST6CDT
  • Canada/Central
  • Canada/Saskatchewan
  • Mexico/General
  • US/Central
  • US/Indiana-Starke
CST Abbreviation: Several time zones share CST abbreviation and it could refer to these time zones
  • Central Standard Time - UTC -6
  • China Standard Time - UTC +8
  • Cuba Standard Time - UTC -5
Time zones with the GMT -6 offset:
  • CST - Central Standard Time
  • CT - Central Time
  • MDT - Mountain Daylight Time
  • EAST - Easter Island Standard Time
  • GALT - Galapagos Time
  • S - Sierra Time Zone

India Standard Time

Offset: IST is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is used in Asia

Countries using this time zone: India

Principal Cities: The largest city in the IST time zone is Mumbai in India, with about 12.692 million people. Other major cities in this time zone include Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai.

Daylight Saving: Clocks in India Standard Time (IST) do not change for daylight saving time, so IST stays the same throughout the year. Other time zones may set clocks forward in summer and back in winter.

IST Time Zone Geo Map
IST timezone map

IST representations, usage and related time zones

W3C/ISO-8601: International standard covering representation and exchange of dates and time-related data
  • +0530 - basic
  • +05:30 - extended
Email/RFC-2822: Internet Message Format Date Standard, typically used for timestamps in email headers
  • +0530 - sign character (+) followed by a four digit time providing hours (05) and minutes (30) of the offset. Indicates an offset of five hours and thirty minutes to the east of the zero meridian.
IANA/Olson: Reflects IST time zone boundaries defined by political bodies, primarily intended for use with computer programs and operating systems
  • Asia/Calcutta
  • Asia/Kolkata
IST Abbreviation: Several time zones share IST abbreviation and it could refer to these time zones
  • India Standard Time - UTC +5:30
  • Irish Standard Time - UTC +1
  • Israel Standard Time - UTC +2