Time Difference Between Chicago and San Francisco
San Francisco is 2h behind Chicago all year. Both cities observe daylight saving time and change their clocks together, so the gap never moves.
Chicago clocks move forward on the second Sunday of March and back on the first Sunday of November. San Francisco clocks move forward on the second Sunday of March and back on the first Sunday of November. The figure above holds for the whole year. It does not come from the offset on the day the site was built. The live clocks use the current time.
Working Hours Overlap
For each hour of Chicago's working day (9:00-18:00), here is the corresponding local time in San Francisco. Rows highlighted green fall within standard working hours (9:00-18:00) in both cities. Each block is one part of the year, so the table does not change with the day this page was built.
| Chicago | San Francisco | Both working hours? |
|---|---|---|
| 9 AM | 7 AM | No |
| 10 AM | 8 AM | No |
| 11 AM | 9 AM | Yes |
| 12 PM | 10 AM | Yes |
| 1 PM | 11 AM | Yes |
| 2 PM | 12 PM | Yes |
| 3 PM | 1 PM | Yes |
| 4 PM | 2 PM | Yes |
| 5 PM | 3 PM | Yes |
| 6 PM | 4 PM | No |
Best Time to Meet
- 11 AM-6 PM in Chicago (9 AM-4 PM in San Francisco) works for both sides. It falls within 9 AM-6 PM in both time zones.
How the Difference Changes
The difference between Chicago and San Francisco holds all year. Both cities change their clocks on the same dates, so the gap never moves.
Working Across Chicago and San Francisco
Two hours sounds domestic, and the arithmetic is domestic, and Chicago's first two hours of the day are still dead. San Francisco is two hours behind all year. 9 AM in Chicago is 7 AM in San Francisco. The usable band starts when the west coast arrives: 11 AM in Chicago is 9 AM in San Francisco, and it runs through 5 PM in Chicago, which is 3 PM on the west coast. After that, San Francisco has a short afternoon with Chicago already wrapping up. Chicago morning stand-ups that require San Francisco are a choice to make San Francisco get up early. Make it on purpose, or write the update down.
Both cities change clocks on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November, so the two hours never move. A recurring 11 AM Central meeting stays 9 AM Pacific in January and in July. That is the opposite of every transatlantic series on the same calendar, which will shift in March and October while this one sits still. The bug to watch is a three-way call with London or Berlin. The American hour looks stable, and the European hour moves underneath it during the mismatch weeks. If the invite was created in Chicago time, Europe is the side that sees a different number.
The flight is a bit over four hours. Two hours of clock change is a long afternoon, not a project. Westbound you land in California and your body thinks it is later than the local clock. Stay up, eat on California time, and sleep at a normal hour. Eastbound is the red-eye version: you can leave San Francisco late and be in Chicago for an early meeting you will not enjoy. Put that meeting at 11 AM Central, not at 8, and the timezone at least is on your side.
Chicago
Chicago uses the America/Chicago time zone. Standard time is UTC-6, and daylight saving time is UTC-5.
San Francisco
San Francisco uses the America/Los_Angeles time zone. Standard time is UTC-8, and daylight saving time is UTC-7.