| Time zone | Central Time (CST/CDT) |
| UTC offset (today) | UTC-05:00 |
| Daylight saving | Chicago moves to CDT (UTC-5) on the second Sunday of March and back to CST (UTC-6) on the first Sunday of November. |
| Business hours | Offices usually run 8:30 or 9:00 to 17:00, and banks about 9:00 to 17:00 with Saturday morning hours at many branches. The weekend is Saturday and Sunday. |
| Country | United States |
Chicago is home to the large futures exchanges, and their schedules are quoted in Central Time. US stock markets open at 9:30 Eastern, which is 8:30 in Chicago, so traders here start early.
Chicago is one hour behind New York and two hours ahead of Los Angeles all year, since all three switch on the same dates. Dallas, Houston and Minneapolis share Chicago's clock. Indiana is a frequent confusion: most of the state uses Eastern Time, but the northwest corner near Gary follows Chicago.
Delhi is 10h30 ahead of Chicago during CDT and 11h30 ahead during CST. The workable overlap is thin: 7:30 or 8:00 in Chicago reaches India in the early evening. Many Chicago firms with Indian teams hold a short daily handover at 8:00 Central for exactly this reason.
London is six hours ahead for most of the year, so a 9:00 Chicago call is mid-afternoon in London. In winter the sun sets around 16:20 in December, while June evenings stay light until about 20:30.
Chicago uses Central Time: UTC-6 in winter and UTC-5 in summer.
On Sunday 1 November 2026, clocks go back one hour to CST.
Always one hour, since both cities change clocks on the same dates.
· Written by Om Vaghani, ClockAura