Convert GST (Gulf Standard Time) to CDT (Central Daylight Time)

Best time to schedule a meeting

Standard 9–5 working hours do not overlap at all between GST and CDT. Someone has to take an early or late call — or use asynchronous communication instead.

GST to CDT conversion table

About GST

Gulf Standard Time (GST) is UTC+4. It is used in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat.

Gulf Standard Time is UTC+4, covering the United Arab Emirates and Oman, and there is no daylight saving anywhere on the Arabian peninsula. The scheduling complication in the region is not the clock but the week: the UAE moved its weekend to Saturday–Sunday in 2022, while Saudi Arabia and several neighbours keep Friday–Saturday, so a Thursday afternoon meeting lands differently across a border that has no time difference at all.

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.

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 9-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.

GST does not shift, so the whole change comes from one side. A recurring meeting fixed in GST 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