CEST — Central European Summer Time
Current time, offset and daylight saving status for Central European Summer Time.
Current time in CEST
16:12:26
Central European Summer Time · UTC+02:00
About CEST
CEST is the daylight saving time of central Europe, used from late March to late October.
Working with CEST
Clocks in this zone change twice a year: UTC+01:00 outside daylight saving and UTC+02:00 during it. Because CEST names only one of those two states, a time labelled CEST is ambiguous until you also know the date it refers to.
When it is noon UTC, Central European Summer Time reads 14:00; midnight UTC is 02:00 here. CEST runs 2 h ahead of UTC, so its calendar day begins before the reference clock’s does.
The same standard offset, UTC+02:00, is kept by EET and SAST, though each follows its own daylight saving rules — or none — so they do not stay aligned all year. One hour to the west of CEST in this directory sits BST (UTC+01:00); one hour to the east, AST (SA) (UTC+03:00).
Clock changes in CEST
CEST follows the European rule: clocks go forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October, at 01:00 UTC.
| Date | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|
| October 25, 2026 | Clocks go back one hour on Oct 25, 2026 at 02:30, moving from UTC+02:00 to UTC+01:00. | UTC+01:00 |
| March 28, 2027 | Clocks go forward one hour on Mar 28, 2027 at 03:30, moving from UTC+01:00 to UTC+02:00. | UTC+02:00 |
Of the reference zones in the table below, New York, London, Berlin, Sydney and Los Angeles observe daylight saving, so their difference from CEST shifts twice a year; UTC, Dubai, Kolkata, Singapore and Tokyo stay fixed.
Where CEST is used
In this directory one city keeps CEST: Paris. Between them they cover France.
Where CEST stands today
CEST is currently UTC+02:00. The next change is on October 25, 2026, 15 days from the day this page was generated, when clocks move to UTC+01:00. Until then any time expressed as CEST carries the offset shown above; after it, the same wall-clock reading corresponds to a different instant. This is the reason a difference against another zone is only reliable when you attach a date to it.
Summer time is in force now, so the offset shown is the seasonal one rather than this region's standard time.
A working day on CEST
Taking Paris as the reference point for CEST, and a working day as 09:00 to 17:00:
- New York overlaps for only 2 hours, from 15:00 to 17:00 Paris time — late in the day at one end and early at the other.
- London’s working day overlaps with Paris’s for 7 hours, from 10:00 to 17:00 Paris time.
- Tokyo overlaps for only 1 hours, from 09:00 to 10:00 Paris time — late in the day at one end and early at the other.
On the June solstice the sun rises in Paris at about 05:47 and sets at about 21:57; on the December solstice it rises at about 08:41 and sets at about 16:55.
How CEST compares with other zones
Right now CEST runs ahead of UTC, New York, London and Los Angeles and behind Dubai, Kolkata, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney. At the moment it shows the same time as Berlin.
| Zone | UTC offset | Difference from CEST |
|---|---|---|
| UTC | UTC+00:00 | 2h ahead |
| New York | UTC-04:00 | 6h ahead |
| London | UTC+01:00 | 1h ahead |
| Berlin | UTC+02:00 | Same time |
| Dubai | UTC+04:00 | 2h behind |
| Kolkata | UTC+05:30 | 3h 30m behind |
| Singapore | UTC+08:00 | 6h behind |
| Tokyo | UTC+09:00 | 7h behind |
| Sydney | UTC+11:00 | 9h behind |
| Los Angeles | UTC-07:00 | 9h ahead |
Larger places currently keeping CEST: France.
Cities using CEST
Convert CEST to another zone
Related time zones
Time zone rules: IANA tz database release 2026c, applied when this page was generated on 2026-10-09.
Frequently asked questions
What is CEST?
Central European Summer Time, CEST, is UTC+02:00. CEST is the daylight saving time of central Europe, used from late March to late October.
What is the IANA identifier for CEST?
Europe/Paris — the entry that covers Paris in the tz database. Use it rather than CEST in software: CEST names one season, Europe/Paris names the rules for every date.
Does CEST change for daylight saving?
Yes — Central European Summer Time changes its clocks (standard UTC+01:00, summer UTC+02:00), as do New York, London, Berlin, Sydney and Los Angeles among the zones compared on this page.
How do I convert CEST to my local time?
One hour to the west of CEST in this directory sits BST (UTC+01:00); one hour to the east, AST (SA) (UTC+03:00). For anything beyond that, the converter applies the rules of Europe/Paris for the date you give it rather than a remembered figure.
Which cities use CEST?
In this directory one city keeps CEST: Paris. Between them they cover France. The boundary is legal rather than geographic: it follows the borders of France, not a line of longitude.
What should I put in a configuration file for CEST?
Europe/Paris, never CEST. That entry carries the rules Paris actually follows, including when daylight saving starts and ends, so software using it stays correct through a change that a stored offset would miss.