Convert CDT (Central Daylight Time) to AKST (Alaska Standard Time)

Best time to schedule a meeting

Standard 9–5 working hours overlap for 4 hours: 1:00 PM–5:00 PM CDT (9:00 AM–1:00 PM AKST). Schedule meetings inside that window.

CDT to AKST conversion table

About CDT

Central Daylight Time (CDT) is UTC−5. It is used in Chicago, Dallas and Houston from March to November.

Central Daylight Time is UTC−5, the summer clock for Chicago, Dallas and Houston, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. Mexico is the complication: it abolished daylight saving nationally in 2022, so Mexico City stays on UTC−6 all year and is now an hour behind Chicago for eight months of the year rather than matching it.

About AKST

Alaska Standard Time (AKST) is UTC−9. It is used in Anchorage and the rest of Alaska in winter.

Alaska Standard Time is UTC−9, one hour behind Pacific Standard Time. Alaska observes daylight saving on the US schedule, moving to AKDT at UTC−8 in summer. The state is wide enough to span four time zones geographically and chooses to run on one for practical reasons, which is why the sun can rise at very different clock times at either end of it.

Does this gap change with the seasons?

This gap is seasonal. The abbreviations themselves are fixed offsets, but the region on CDT switches to CST (UTC−6) from November to March. So the 4-hour figure on this page is correct for the part of the year when both places are actually on these abbreviations, and changes by an hour outside it.

AKST does not shift, so the whole change comes from one side. A recurring meeting fixed in AKST will appear to move by an hour for everyone on the other side, twice a year, without anyone changing anything.

This is the reason scheduling systems store an IANA zone such as Region/City rather than an offset or an abbreviation: the zone knows its own rules and the offset does not.

Frequently asked questions