Prayer Times in Chicago, Illinois

Today's Chicago start times and choosing a date

Local date is a Gregorian date in Chicago's time zone (America/Chicago). If you are in London or Lahore and choose Today at this location, you get today's date in Chicago, not the date on your own device. You can enter any date from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2035. A shared link can carry its own date and settings, so check Local date and Calculation details to see what the calculator is actually using.

Results appear as six rows in the 24-hour clock, rounded to the nearest minute.

What each row of a Chicago result marks

To see a whole month, open Monthly timetable. It uses the same point, the month of your selected date and your current settings. Print opens your browser's print dialog. There is no separate download file.

If you choose another city from the presets, the calculator switches to that city's point and clock. This guide and its dated examples still describe Chicago. Other cities are listed on the prayer times hub.

Planning a Chicago mosque visit: use the Iqamah, not the start time

If you arrive at a mosque at the Fajr time shown in an app, you may find that the congregation has not started yet. An app's Fajr time is a calculated start under that app's chosen settings. Congregational prayer happens at the mosque's Iqamah (also called Jamaat), which the mosque sets and can change. When the building opens is a separate question, so confirm opening arrangements with the mosque directly.

The schedule published at chicagomosque.org for 6201 West Peterson Avenue lists Adhan and Iqamah in separate columns. Sunrise and a Friday-prayer table appear separately. The table below compares that schedule, as viewed on 4 November 2026, with this page's calculated starts for the same date.

Chicago, 4 November 2026 (Central Standard Time): mosque Adhan and Iqamah compared with calculated starts

On that date, the calculated starts were one minute earlier than the mosque's Adhan, yet the Isha Iqamah came 90 minutes after its Adhan. The gap differs from prayer to prayer, so there is no fixed number of minutes you can add to a calculated start. A one-minute match also does not tell you which method or reference point the mosque uses. Friday prayer is listed in its own table, so do not use a weekday Dhuhr Iqamah to plan a Friday visit.

These figures illustrate one past day. Iqamah times change through the year and at the mosque's discretion, so check the mosque's current page before you go. The diagram below shows a calculated start followed by a later congregation time. It is a hypothetical example, not any Chicago mosque's schedule.

ISNA 15° settings and Standard or Hanafi Asr

The calculator opens with Calculation profile set to ISNA, which places Fajr and Isha where the sun is 15° below the horizon. Twilight rule is set to Angle-based. The Fiqh Council of North America published a recommendation from its 2017 meeting in 2021. It suggested 15° for the United States and 13° for Canada, and called both approximations. A later council article, published 18 September 2024, again treats 15° as an approximation. It also discusses seasonal and local observation and following trusted local institutions. For these reasons, 15°/15° is an adjustable starting point, not a setting every Chicago mosque or community uses.

Two smaller details affect the minutes. All six manual minute adjustments start at 0, but the profile itself adds one minute to Dhuhr, and every result is rounded to the nearest minute. Calculation details lists all the settings behind a result.

Why Chicago apps show two Asr times

Asr calculation offers two choices, Standard and Hanafi. Standard Asr begins when an object's shadow equals its own length plus its noon shadow. Hanafi Asr begins when the shadow equals twice the object's length plus its noon shadow. Switching between them moves only the Asr row; the Fajr and Isha angles stay the same.

The dated examples below use the city-centre point with ISNA 15°/15°. On 21 June 2026, Standard Asr began at 16:55 and Hanafi Asr at 18:09, a 74-minute difference. Fajr (03:32), sunrise (05:16), Dhuhr (12:53), Maghrib (20:29) and Isha (22:13) were the same under both choices. The 74-minute gap applies to that date only. In the 15 January 2026 example, Standard Asr began at 14:26.

The interactive shadow diagram shows how the rule works. Its 1-metre object starts with a 0.25-metre noon shadow, so Standard Asr arrives when the total shadow reaches 1.25 metres and Hanafi Asr when it reaches 2.25 metres. Moving the Noon shadow slider changes the noon shadow and both totals together. The diagram illustrates the rule; it is not a measurement of a shadow in Chicago.

On both dated examples, Fajr and Isha are ordinary 15° crossings, including at midsummer. Use Load this example to reproduce any of them in the calculator. To compare other profiles, see the calculation methods guide. The high-latitude guide explains what twilight rules are for farther north.

Chicago's city point and the Central Time clock

Results are calculated for an approximate city-centre point at 41.8781° N, 87.6298° W and shown in the America/Chicago time zone. That zone uses Central Standard Time (UTC-6) for part of the year and Central Daylight Time (UTC-5) for the rest. The calculator applies whichever one is in force on your selected date. Do not add or subtract an hour yourself, or you will count daylight saving twice.

Central Time changes for Chicago, 2026 to 2027

The 2026 dates and the current US rule (second Sunday in March to first Sunday in November) come from NIST's daylight saving time page. The 2027 dates follow that rule. That is why the mosque comparison above, dated 4 November 2026, uses Central Standard Time.

Houston uses the same Central clock, but its latitude and longitude are different. Its sunrise, noon, sunset and prayer start times therefore differ from Chicago's on the same date. Choose the city you are actually in, not just one in the same time zone.

The calculator does not substitute a suburb or another neighbourhood for you. To use your own position, press Use my location, which asks for location permission only when you press it, or enter coordinates manually. Either way, the time zone is cleared, and you choose and confirm it before pressing Calculate times. Use Chicago centre again restores Chicago's point and time zone and keeps any date and settings you chose. Reset returns to the page defaults and Today, and it clears any Ramadan inputs and timetable.

Monthly and Ramadan timetables for Chicago

To print a month, set Local date to any day in that month and check your settings. Then open Monthly timetable and choose Print. The table uses the same point and settings as your daily result.

The Ramadan timetable builds pairs of Fajr and Maghrib start times from your selected point and settings:

1. Enter the First fasting day. This is the Gregorian date of the first daytime fast announced by the community you follow, not the evening before it.
2. Set Length of Ramadan to 29 or 30 days, then choose Show timetable.
3. To share it, use Copy timetable link. The link stores the date range and your settings, not the table cells. For a listed city such as Chicago, it points to the city centre. For your own device or manual point, it also stores the coordinates and time zone, so share it only with people you are happy to give that location. Either way, the link is a snapshot; it does not track your location.
4. Print timetable opens your browser's print dialog. Many browsers also offer to save as PDF from there.

The calculator does not announce when Ramadan begins, and this page does not predict the 2027 start date. The pairs show calculated start times. If your mosque or community publishes its own fasting or iftar times, use theirs. If a calculated time differs from a published one, why prayer times differ explains the usual causes, and the calculation methods guide compares the profiles.

Find Qibla uses whichever point is currently set in the calculator. The Chicago Qibla direction guide covers the direction from the city itself.