Current time in Chicago

United States · UTC-6/UTC-5

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America/Chicago

UTC offset

UTC-6/UTC-5

Daylight Saving

Yes — observed

Time zone ID

America/Chicago

Business hours

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM CT (Monday–Friday)

About Chicago's time zone

Chicago operates on Central Time (CT), using CST (UTC-6) in winter and CDT (UTC-5) during daylight saving from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. As a major financial center home to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), Chicago's futures markets open at 5:00 PM CT the previous day for electronic trading, giving it an outsized influence on global commodity prices.

Best time to call Chicago

Calling from	Recommended window
New York	10:00 AM – 7:00 PM ET
London	3:00 PM – 12:00 AM GMT
Los Angeles	7:00 AM – 4:00 PM PT
São Paulo	11:00 AM – 8:00 PM BRT

Did you know? Chicago was the reason the US standardized time zones in 1883. Before that, every city set its own local time based on the sun, creating chaos for railroad schedules. The railroad companies, centered in Chicago, pushed for standardization — giving us the four US time zones still used today.

Cities in the same time zone