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🇺🇸 United States · North America
Current time in Chicago
04:45:44
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Chicago time zone
- IANA time zone
- America/Chicago
- Current offset
- UTC-5 from UTC
- Daylight saving time
- Observed. Chicago uses UTC-6 in winter and UTC-5 during daylight saving time.
- Coordinates
- 41.8781°, -87.6298°
- Population
- 2.7M
Time difference from Chicago
- London is 6 hours ahead of Chicago.
- New York is 1 hour ahead of Chicago.
- Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Chicago.
About Chicago's time zone
Chicago sits in Central Time, one of the four zones US railroads standardised in 1883 specifically to end the scheduling chaos of every city keeping its own solar time. Central Time has followed the same March-to-November DST window as the rest of the mainland US since 2007.
Frequently asked questions
- What time zone is Chicago in?
- Chicago uses the America/Chicago time zone, currently UTC-5 from UTC.
- Does Chicago observe daylight saving time?
- Yes. Chicago uses UTC-6 in winter and switches to UTC-5 during daylight saving time.
- What is the time difference between Chicago and other major cities?
- London is 6 hours ahead of Chicago; New York is 1 hour ahead of Chicago; Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Chicago.