Time difference between Chicago and Paris
Good time for both on a weekday: 9:00–10:00 in Chicago = 16:00–17:00 in Paris.
- Everyone at work
- Work hours
- Awake
- Night
- Weekend
Tap any column to see that moment in every city.
Different hours for each city
- 7 hoursParis ahead of Chicago
- UTC−6 / UTC−5Chicago, January / July
- UTC+1 / UTC+2Paris, January / July
- 1 hourshared 9-to-5 time
How the gap moves through the year
Paris is 7 hours ahead of Chicago for about 11 months of the year.
Paris is 6 hours ahead of Chicago for about 4 weeks of the year.
From the second Sunday in March (when Chicago moves forward), Paris is 6 hours ahead of Chicago.
From the last Sunday in March (when Paris moves forward), Paris is 7 hours ahead of Chicago.
From the last Sunday in October (when Paris falls back), Paris is 6 hours ahead of Chicago.
From the first Sunday in November (when Chicago falls back), Paris is 7 hours ahead of Chicago.
Chicago moves its clocks forward one hour on the second Sunday in March at 2:00 am local time and back on the first Sunday in November at 2:00 am, switching between Central Standard Time (UTC−6) and Central Daylight Time (UTC−5).
Paris moves its clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday in March at 2:00 am local time and back on the last Sunday in October at 3:00 am, switching between Central European Standard Time (UTC+1) and Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).
Next clock change for this pair, as of when this page was built (2026-10-20): Paris falls back on Sun 25 October 2026.
Everything on this page also holds if you swap Chicago for Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin or Winnipeg, or Paris for Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Hamburg or Budapest — those cities follow exactly the same clock all year.
Working hours that overlap
In January, a 9-to-5 day in both cities shares 1 hour: 9:00 am–10:00 am in Chicago, which is 4:00 pm–5:00 pm in Paris.
July gives exactly the same window.
Across the week
At 9:00 on a Monday morning in Chicago, it is 4:00 pm on Monday in Paris.
Daylight, distance and night calls
Chicago and Paris are about 6,650 km (4,130 miles) apart and 90° of longitude apart, which by the sun alone would be 6 hours.
Chicago's winter clock runs 9 minutes behind the sun, and Paris's runs 51 minutes ahead of the sun.
In mid-January the sun is up in Chicago from about 7:16 am to 4:43 pm, and the sun is up in Paris from about 8:39 am to 5:20 pm; both cities are in daylight at the same time for about 3 hours.
In mid-July the sun is up in Chicago from about 5:28 am to 8:25 pm, and the sun is up in Paris from about 6:03 am to 9:50 pm; both cities are in daylight at the same time for about 9 hours 15 minutes.
In January, 2 hours of a Chicago office day fall in Paris's night (10 pm to 6 am), and 4 hours of a Paris office day fall in Chicago's night.
In July, 2 hours of a Chicago office day fall in Paris's night (10 pm to 6 am), and 4 hours of a Paris office day fall in Chicago's night.
Hour-by-hour table and common mistakes — 2 more sections
| Chicago | Paris, January | Paris, July |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 am | 7:00 am | 7:00 am |
| 1:00 am | 8:00 am | 8:00 am |
| 2:00 am | 9:00 am | 9:00 am |
| 3:00 am | 10:00 am | 10:00 am |
| 4:00 am | 11:00 am | 11:00 am |
| 5:00 am | 12:00 pm | 12:00 pm |
| 6:00 am | 1:00 pm | 1:00 pm |
| 7:00 am | 2:00 pm | 2:00 pm |
| 8:00 am | 3:00 pm | 3:00 pm |
| 9:00 am | 4:00 pm | 4:00 pm |
| 10:00 am | 5:00 pm | 5:00 pm |
| 11:00 am | 6:00 pm | 6:00 pm |
| 12:00 pm | 7:00 pm | 7:00 pm |
| 1:00 pm | 8:00 pm | 8:00 pm |
| 2:00 pm | 9:00 pm | 9:00 pm |
| 3:00 pm | 10:00 pm | 10:00 pm |
| 4:00 pm | 11:00 pm | 11:00 pm |
| 5:00 pm | 12:00 am (+1 day) | 12:00 am (+1 day) |
| 6:00 pm | 1:00 am (+1 day) | 1:00 am (+1 day) |
| 7:00 pm | 2:00 am (+1 day) | 2:00 am (+1 day) |
| 8:00 pm | 3:00 am (+1 day) | 3:00 am (+1 day) |
| 9:00 pm | 4:00 am (+1 day) | 4:00 am (+1 day) |
| 10:00 pm | 5:00 am (+1 day) | 5:00 am (+1 day) |
| 11:00 pm | 6:00 am (+1 day) | 6:00 am (+1 day) |
Common mistakes with Chicago and Paris
- Assuming the gap is fixed. Both cities change their clocks, but not on the same weekend, so a recurring meeting can land an hour off for a few weeks.
- Writing “CST” all year for Chicago. In summer the zone is Central Daylight Time; calendar apps handle it, but a typed time in an email can be read the wrong way.
Questions
- Is Paris ahead of Chicago?
- Paris is 7 hours ahead of Chicago for most of the year.
- What is a good time for a meeting between Chicago and Paris?
- With 9-to-5 days in both cities, 9:00 am–10:00 am Chicago time is inside working hours in both, which gives 1 hour. The window can shift by an hour in the weeks when only one city has changed its clocks.
- Does the time difference between Chicago and Paris change?
- Yes. Paris is 7 hours ahead of Chicago for about 11 months of the year. Paris is 6 hours ahead of Chicago for about 4 weeks of the year.
Related time differences
- New York and ChicagoChicago behind by 1 hour · 7 hours of shared office time
- London and ChicagoChicago behind by 6 hours · 2 hours of shared office time
- Los Angeles and ChicagoChicago ahead by 2 hours · 6 hours of shared office time
- Chicago and PhoenixPhoenix behind by 1–2 hours · 7 hours of shared office time
- Chicago and SydneySydney ahead by 15–17 hours · 1 hour of shared office time
- Chicago and TokyoTokyo ahead by 14–15 hours · no shared office hours
- New York and ParisParis ahead by 6 hours · 2 hours of shared office time
- Los Angeles and ParisParis ahead by 9 hours · no shared office hours
- Sydney and ParisParis behind by 8–10 hours · no shared office hours
Chicago time zone · Paris time zone · Plan with more cities
Scheduling between Chicago and Paris
Chicago keeps Central Time (UTC−6 in winter, UTC−5 in summer) and Paris keeps Central European Time (UTC+1 in winter, UTC+2 in summer), so the gap is seven hours for most of the year. The pair is unusual in having two short stretches of six hours. The first begins when Chicago moves its clocks forward on the second Sunday in March and lasts until Paris follows on the last Sunday in March. The second begins when Paris falls back on the last Sunday in October and lasts until Chicago falls back on the first Sunday in November. Together they add up to about four weeks in which Paris is only six hours ahead.
Because the two cities are 6,650 km apart, a straight-line sun-based reckoning would give six hours. The extra hour in the everyday gap comes from clock choices: Paris runs on the clock of a zone centred further east, so its winter clock sits about 51 minutes ahead of the sun, while Chicago’s winter clock is only about 9 minutes behind it.
The one-hour window
With ordinary 9-to-5 days in both cities, the only shared hour is 9:00–10:00 in Chicago, which is 16:00–17:00 in Paris. That is the last hour of the French working day and the first hour of the American one, and it is the same in January and in July. In practice this means the call has to be short, decisions have to be made in it, and anything that needs longer is better moved to an early Chicago start or a late Paris finish.
If you can stretch one side by an hour or two, the arithmetic is simple. A Chicago start at 8:00 gives a 15:00–17:00 Paris window; a Paris stay until 19:00 opens 9:00–12:00 in Chicago. Use the planner above to change the working hours of one city and watch the shared area grow. Avoid stretching both sides at once on a recurring call, because the person asked to start early and the person asked to finish late tend to be the same two people every week.
Weeks to watch
In the weeks when the gap is six hours the one-hour window moves: 9:00–10:00 in Chicago is then 15:00–16:00 in Paris. A weekly call fixed to Paris time will therefore appear an hour earlier on Chicago calendars for a few weeks, and one fixed to Chicago time will appear an hour later in Paris. Pick the anchor deliberately and write the city name in the invite.
The cities listed as sharing a clock with these two — Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio with Chicago; Berlin, Madrid, Rome and others with Paris — follow exactly the same rules, so everything above holds for them too. A different case is Phoenix, which has no clock change, or London, which changes on the same weekends as Paris but sits an hour behind it; for those pairs open their own pages.
What to avoid
Do not rely on writing “CST” in an email for a summer call; in summer Chicago is on Central Daylight Time. Do not assume a midday Paris meeting is possible for Chicago: noon in Paris is 5:00 in the morning in Chicago for most of the year. And do not forget that the Paris evening is the Chicago afternoon, so a Paris dinner invitation falls during the Chicago working day.
Questions
Is there ever a day when the gap is five hours? Not in the current rules for these two zones. Their possible values are six and seven hours.
Does the planner know about French or American public holidays? No. Check both calendars; the shared hour is short enough that a single holiday removes the whole window.
City names, coordinates and time zone assignments: GeoNames, licensed under CC BY 4.0 (selection and renaming of some cities by this site). Clock times are computed in your browser from the IANA time zone database. Sources and limits.