Time in Chicago
United States · America/Chicago · latitude 41.88°
Reading your clock…
Chicago changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC-06:00 and daylight saving time is UTC-05:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Chicago and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 1 November 2026 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC-06:00 |
| Sunday, 14 March 2027 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC-05:00 |
| Sunday, 7 November 2027 | 02:00 → 01:00 | Back 60 min | UTC-06:00 |
Same clock, different sky: Austin, Dallas, Houston share America/Chicago. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Chicago
Where a range is shown, the gap genuinely changes during the year. That is not rounding or hedging — it is two governments moving their clocks on different weekends.
| City | Difference now | Across the year |
|---|---|---|
| London | 6 hours ahead | +5h / +6h |
| New York | 1 hour ahead | constant |
| Los Angeles | 2 hours behind | constant |
| Toronto | 1 hour ahead | constant |
| Paris | 7 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Berlin | 7 hours ahead | +6h / +7h |
| Dubai | 9 hours ahead | +9h / +10h |
| Mumbai | 10 hours 30 minutes ahead | +10h30 / +11h30 |
| Singapore | 13 hours ahead | +13h / +14h |
| Hong Kong | 13 hours ahead | +13h / +14h |
| Tokyo | 14 hours ahead | +14h / +15h |
| Sydney | 15 hours ahead | +15h / +16h / +17h |
| Auckland | 17 hours ahead | +17h / +18h / +19h |
| São Paulo | 2 hours ahead | +2h / +3h |
| UTC | 5 hours ahead | +5h / +6h |
Daylight in Chicago through the year
From about 9.1 hours in December to 15.2 hours in June. This is the part a plain clock leaves out: 17:00 is a bright evening in one month and long dark in another.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 07:23 | 17:00 | 9h 37m |
| February | 06:50 | 17:40 | 10h 50m |
| March | 06:05 | 18:13 | 12h 8m |
| April | 05:13 | 18:47 | 13h 34m |
| May | 04:36 | 19:18 | 14h 42m |
| June | 04:25 | 19:39 | 15h 14m |
| July | 04:43 | 19:31 | 14h 48m |
| August | 05:14 | 18:54 | 13h 40m |
| September | 05:45 | 18:01 | 12h 16m |
| October | 06:18 | 17:11 | 10h 53m |
| November | 06:57 | 16:36 | 9h 39m |
| December | 07:24 | 16:32 | 9h 8m |
Daylight length is accurate. The clock times of sunrise and sunset assume each city sits at the centre of its time zone, which can put them up to about an hour and a quarter out for places near a zone's edge — Madrid being the standard example. Day length is unaffected.
Questions
About time in Chicago
What time zone is Chicago in?
Chicago uses the IANA time zone America/Chicago, which is UTC-06:00 in standard time and UTC-05:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers Austin, Dallas, Houston.
Does Chicago observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Chicago move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 1 November 2026.
Why does the time difference to Chicago keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. London is a clear example: it sits 5 hours ahead, then 6 hours ahead across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Chicago get?
Around 15.2 hours at the longest, in June, and about 9.1 hours at the shortest, in December. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Chicago's latitude of 41.88° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.