ClockOrbit

Time zone comparison

CST vs IST time zone comparison

Central Standard Time (CST, UTC-06:00) vs India Standard Time (IST, UTC+05:30). Right now CST is 11h behind IST. CST is used in Chicago, Dallas and Houston while IST covers Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Use the 24-hour grid below to find a meeting slot both sides will tolerate.

Live clocks

 

Right now in CST

--:--:--
UTC

 

Right now in IST

--:--:--
UTC

Heads up: these zones diverge on daylight saving.

CST observes DST while IST does not, so the gap shifts by an hour twice a year. In January the difference is 11h, in July it is 10h. If you are scheduling across the spring or autumn transitions, double-check the date.

No standard 9-to-5 overlap today between CST and IST. Either side will need to take the call outside core hours. See the table below for the closest workable slots.

24-hour comparison

Each row is one hour. Green rows are when both sides are inside 9 AM to 5 PM.

Convert exact time →
24-hour wall-clock comparison between Central Standard Time and India Standard Time, with business-hour overlap highlighted.
HourCST (Central Standard Time)IST (India Standard Time)Overlap
12 AM00:00Mon11:30MonIST only
1 AM01:00Mon12:30MonIST only
2 AM02:00Mon13:30MonIST only
3 AM03:00Mon14:30MonIST only
4 AM04:00Mon15:30MonIST only
5 AM05:00Mon16:30MonIST only
6 AM06:00Mon17:30MonNo overlap
7 AM07:00Mon18:30MonNo overlap
8 AM08:00Mon19:30MonNo overlap
9 AM09:00Mon20:30MonCST only
10 AM10:00Mon21:30MonCST only
11 AM11:00Mon22:30MonCST only
12 PM12:00Mon23:30MonCST only
1 PM13:00Mon00:30TueCST only
2 PM14:00Mon01:30TueCST only
3 PM15:00Mon02:30TueCST only
4 PM16:00Mon03:30TueCST only
5 PM17:00Mon04:30TueNo overlap
6 PM18:00Mon05:30TueNo overlap
7 PM19:00Mon06:30TueNo overlap
8 PM20:00Mon07:30TueNo overlap
9 PM21:00Mon08:30TueNo overlap
10 PM22:00Mon09:30TueIST only
11 PM23:00Mon10:30TueIST only

How CST and IST compare

Central Standard Time (CST) sits at UTC-06:00 today, while India Standard Time (IST) is at UTC+05:30. The current gap is 11 hours, with CST behind IST. In practical terms, if your morning starts at 9 AM in Chicago, your counterpart in Delhi is seeing 20:30 on their own watch at that exact moment.

CST is the working clock for Chicago, Dallas and Houston. CST also refers to China Standard Time (Asia/Shanghai) and Cuba Standard Time. North American intent dominates search volume. IST covers Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. IST is ambiguous: India Standard Time, Irish Standard Time, and Israel Standard Time all share the abbreviation. We default to India (largest population). For Ireland use Dublin or WET, for Israel use Asia/Jerusalem. If your team is split between these two regions, the table above is the quickest way to spot the daily overlap window without doing the offset arithmetic in your head.

Daylight saving matters here. Central Standard Time shifts forward an hour on the second Sunday of March (US) or the last Sunday of March (Europe) and back on the first Sunday of November or last Sunday of October. India Standard Time stays on a fixed offset year-round. The IANA tzdata baked into this page handles every transition automatically, so the table reflects the correct wall-clock times for today's date. For dates further out, use the converter linked above and pick the target date explicitly.

Common scheduling traps are easy to avoid here. Pick a wall-clock time on one side, read the matching wall-clock on the other from the table, and write both into the calendar invite, never just the difference. If the meeting falls in the week of a DST changeover and one of these zones shifts, the absolute clock will drift by an hour from what the recipient expects. The table is computed for today's date, so for a future meeting open the converter linked above and pick the exact date.

One last note for asynchronous teams: business-hour overlap is the wrong metric for handoff workflows. If you operate on a follow-the-sun model, you actually want zero overlap, with one team logging off as the other starts. CST and IST differ by 11 hours, which gives you partial coverage. Add a zone in between if you want full 24-hour rotation.

Frequently asked questions

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