CET and CEST: Central European Time

Central European Time now (Paris)

12:50:00

Saturday 17 October 2026

CEST (UTC+2) · Europe/Paris

Time when this page was generated: 10:50 UTC on 17 October 2026. It updates to the live time when the page loads.

Currently on CEST (UTC+2). Next clock change: Sunday 25 October 2026 at 03:00, when clocks go back to CET (UTC+1).

CET, Central European Time, is UTC+1. CEST, Central European Summer Time, is UTC+2 and applies from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. The clock above shows Paris's actual time with today's label.

CET or CEST? Dates for 2026 to 2028

Sunday 29 March 2026: at 02:00 clocks go forward to 03:00. CET (UTC+1) becomes CEST (UTC+2), and the hour in between is skipped.
Sunday 25 October 2026: at 03:00 clocks go back to 02:00. CEST (UTC+2) becomes CET (UTC+1), and the hour from 02:00 happens twice.
Sunday 28 March 2027: at 02:00 clocks go forward to 03:00. CET (UTC+1) becomes CEST (UTC+2), and the hour in between is skipped.
Sunday 31 October 2027: at 03:00 clocks go back to 02:00. CEST (UTC+2) becomes CET (UTC+1), and the hour from 02:00 happens twice.
Sunday 26 March 2028: at 02:00 clocks go forward to 03:00. CET (UTC+1) becomes CEST (UTC+2), and the hour in between is skipped.
Sunday 29 October 2028: at 03:00 clocks go back to 02:00. CEST (UTC+2) becomes CET (UTC+1), and the hour from 02:00 happens twice.

Across the EU, clocks change at the same instant, 01:00 UTC, which is 02:00 CET in spring and 03:00 CEST in autumn. The UK changes at the same moment, so London is always one hour behind Paris.

Who uses CET

Most of mainland Europe: Germany, France, Spain (except the Canary Islands), Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Malta, plus the microstates. Algeria and Tunisia use UTC+1 all year, which the database also labels CET.

Will Europe stop changing its clocks?

In 2018 the European Commission proposed ending seasonal clock changes, and the European Parliament backed the idea in 2019. EU member states have not agreed on how to do it, so the twice-yearly change continues. This page will be updated if that changes.