What Is the Current Time in Mexico City?

Mexico City runs on Central Standard Time (CST), UTC-6, all year round. That last part is new. Until 2022, Mexico City moved its clocks forward each spring like the United States. Then Mexico's Congress abolished daylight saving time for most of the country, and since late 2022 the capital has stayed on UTC-6 permanently.

If you last scheduled a call with Mexico City a few years ago, your mental time difference may be out by an hour for half the year.

Why Mexico dropped daylight saving

The government's argument was that the energy savings were small and the health effects of changing clocks were real. Public support for ending the change was strong, and the law took effect on the last Sunday of October 2022, when clocks fell back for the final time.

Not all of Mexico followed. Municipalities along the US border kept daylight saving so that cross-border cities, such as Tijuana with San Diego or Ciudad Juárez with El Paso, stay in sync with their American neighbours. Quintana Roo, home to Cancún, already used UTC-5 all year. So "the time in Mexico" depends on where you mean, but Mexico City is simply UTC-6.

The current time in Mexico City compared with other cities

Because Mexico City doesn't change its clocks, the gap to other places shifts only when they do:

• New York: Mexico City is 1 hour behind New York in winter (EST) and 2 hours behind during US daylight saving.
• Los Angeles: 2 hours ahead in winter and 1 hour ahead in summer.
• Chicago and Houston: same time in winter, 1 hour behind during US daylight saving.
• London: 6 hours behind in winter, 7 hours behind during British summer time.
• India: Mexico City is 11 hours 30 minutes behind IST, all year, since neither changes its clocks.
• Madrid: 7 hours behind in winter, 8 during European summer time.

The Chicago comparison catches a lot of people. For about eight months of the year, Mexico City and Chicago are an hour apart, and for the rest they match.

Practical tips

Recurring meetings with the US shift twice a year, on the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November, even though nothing changes in Mexico City. Set calendar invites in the Mexico City time zone, not as a fixed offset, so your calendar app handles it.

Old devices and software sometimes still apply the old daylight saving rule. If a phone, server or appliance in Mexico City jumps an hour in April, it needs a time zone database update.

Travelling within Mexico, check the local zone. Cancún is an hour ahead of the capital all year, and border cities change their clocks with the US.

For the exact time right now, see the current time in Mexico City, and use the time zone converter for any date and city.

The rule for 2026 and beyond: Mexico City is UTC-6, every day of the year. When the gap changes, the other city moved.