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CEST time now (Central European Summer Time)

2:03PM

CEST · UTC+2

UTC+2+7 h vs New York (you)Paris now: CET, UTC+1

Paris is on CET (UTC+1) now.

What CEST means

CEST stands for Central European Summer Time, UTC+2. It is used in most of continental Europe.

It is a summer time: the daylight saving form of CET (UTC+1), one hour ahead. In Paris it applies from March to October/November: from the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM to the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM.

CET, CEST and the EU rules

CET (UTC+1) is the winter time of most of continental Europe; CEST (UTC+2) is the summer time. Under Directive 2000/84/EC, summer time in every EU country begins at 1:00 a.m. GMT on the last Sunday in March and ends at 1:00 a.m. GMT on the last Sunday in October. Because the instant is fixed in GMT, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Warsaw change at the same moment: 2:00 CET becomes 3:00 CEST.

The European Commission proposed ending seasonal changes in 2018 and the Parliament supported it in 2019, but the Council has not adopted a position (European Commission), so the changes continue.

The zone is wide. Spain lies mostly west of Greenwich but uses CET, so its clocks run more than an hour ahead of the sun in the west and the sun sets late; Poland, at the eastern edge, has early sunrises. Algeria and Tunisia use CET all year without summer time.

Where and when CEST is used

16 zones use it for part of the year only, switching back to standard time in the other months. Computed from tzdata under the current rules.

Main cityTime zoneCountriesWhen
BerlinEurope/BerlinGermany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Svalbard and Jan MayenApril to October
MadridEurope/MadridSpainApril to October
RomeEurope/RomeItaly, San Marino, VaticanApril to October
ParisEurope/ParisFrance, MonacoApril to October
BudapestEurope/BudapestHungaryApril to October
WarsawEurope/WarsawPolandApril to October
ViennaEurope/ViennaAustriaApril to October
BelgradeEurope/BelgradeSerbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, SloveniaApril to October
PragueEurope/PragueCzechia, SlovakiaApril to October
BrusselsEurope/BrusselsBelgium, Luxembourg, The NetherlandsApril to October
TiranaEurope/TiraneAlbaniaApril to October
ZürichEurope/ZurichSwitzerland, Germany, LiechtensteinApril to October
MelillaAfrica/CeutaSpainApril to October
San Pawl il-BaħarEurope/MaltaMaltaApril to October
GibraltarEurope/GibraltarGibraltarApril to October
Andorra la VellaEurope/AndorraAndorraApril to October

How long CEST has been used

In the tzdata record, Berlin has used CEST since 1916, Brussels has used CEST since 1916 and Budapest has used CEST since 1916.

CEST in the past

Zones whose tzdata history shows CEST before 2025 but that no longer use it:

CEST converted to other zones

Every column is a fixed offset, so this table is valid on any date. Remember that the regions behind some columns switch to summer time (EST to EDT, CET to CEST, GMT to BST); the clock in those cities is then an hour later than the column.

CEST (UTC+2)UTC (UTC+0)EST (UTC−5)PST (UTC−8)CET (UTC+1)IST (UTC+5:30)JST (UTC+9)AEST (UTC+10)
12:00 AM10:00 PM (−1 day)5:00 PM (−1 day)2:00 PM (−1 day)11:00 PM (−1 day)3:30 AM7:00 AM8:00 AM
6:00 AM4:00 AM11:00 PM (−1 day)8:00 PM (−1 day)5:00 AM9:30 AM1:00 PM2:00 PM
9:00 AM7:00 AM2:00 AM11:00 PM (−1 day)8:00 AM12:30 PM4:00 PM5:00 PM
12:00 PM10:00 AM5:00 AM2:00 AM11:00 AM3:30 PM7:00 PM8:00 PM
3:00 PM1:00 PM8:00 AM5:00 AM2:00 PM6:30 PM10:00 PM11:00 PM
6:00 PM4:00 PM11:00 AM8:00 AM5:00 PM9:30 PM1:00 AM (+1 day)2:00 AM (+1 day)
9:00 PM7:00 PM2:00 PM11:00 AM8:00 PM12:30 AM (+1 day)4:00 AM (+1 day)5:00 AM (+1 day)

Questions

What is CEST in UTC?
CEST is UTC+2: 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time.
What does CEST stand for?
Central European Summer Time.
Is it CET or CEST now?
Paris uses CET from the last Sunday of October at 3:00 AM to the last Sunday of March at 2:00 AM, and CEST for the rest of the year. The banner at the top of this page shows which one is in use right now.
Is CEST the same time as EET?
Yes, both are UTC+2, as are WAST, CAT and SAST. Both name the same fixed offset, so a time given in one is the same moment in the other. What differs is where and in which season each is used.

Related zones and conversions