Current Time in Mexico City

The country that abolished daylight saving time

In October 2022, Mexico's federal government ended daylight saving time nationwide, fixing most of the country — including Mexico City — permanently on standard time year-round. The change, championed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, cited minimal energy savings from the twice-yearly clock shift and cumulative evidence of health effects from disrupted sleep patterns. It reversed a policy Mexico had followed since 1996, making Mexico City's clock one of the more recent DST abolitions among major world capitals — two decades after most of the country adopted it, and just a few years after several other nations moved the opposite direction.

The law carved out a specific exception: the entire state of Baja California, plus eight named border municipalities in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas, continue to follow the U.S. daylight saving calendar. The reasoning is practical rather than ideological — these border communities are economically and socially intertwined with U.S. twin cities just across the line, and keeping a shared clock avoids constant scheduling friction for cross-border commuters, shoppers, and businesses.

A capital built at 2,240 meters

Mexico City sits at roughly 2,240 meters (7,350 feet) above sea level, making it one of the highest-altitude capital cities in the world — well above Madrid, Europe's highest capital. The thin air and high elevation give the city its famous "eternal spring" climate, with relatively mild temperatures year-round despite its tropical latitude, though the altitude also means visitors often notice shortness of breath in the first day or two.

Time differences from Mexico City

Because Mexico City's own clock never shifts, gaps to DST-observing cities widen or narrow purely based on the other city's calendar.

Chicago is the closest year-round match — both cities share the same standard Central Time offset, and only briefly diverge while Chicago runs on daylight time.

Working hours and when to call

Mexico City keeps a standard 9:00–18:00 business day, often extending later for retail and hospitality.

• From Chicago or Toronto: comfortable overlap most of the day.
• From New York: a Mexico City morning call lands mid-morning to early afternoon in New York.
• From Los Angeles: near-full overlap, one hour apart or less.
• From London: a Mexico City morning call is a London afternoon — workable window most of the year.

Daylight through the year

At roughly 19.4°N, Mexico City's seasonal daylight swing is modest — about 11 hours around the December solstice, stretching to about 13.2 hours around the June solstice, typical of a city this close to the tropics.

How we calculate this page: the live clock, UTC offset, and DST dates above are read directly from the IANA America/Mexico_City time zone data via your browser, not hard-coded. Sunrise, sunset, solar noon, and twilight times are computed from Mexico City's exact coordinates (19.4326°N, 99.1332°W) using standard solar position formulas, recalculated on every page load. Moon phase is derived from the current synodic month. Airport distance uses the great-circle formula from those same coordinates to each airport's published location.