Distance from Cape Town to Chicago
Flying the shortest possible route, Chicago lies 13,668 km (8,493 miles, 7,380 nautical miles) from Cape Town — the great-circle distance between their coordinates.
The numbers
- Great-circle distance
- 13,668 km · 8,493 mi · 7,380 nmi
- Initial bearing Cape Town → Chicago
- 301° (WNW)
- Initial bearing Chicago → Cape Town
- 108° (ESE)
- Nonstop flight (rough estimate)
- ≈ 16 h 44 min
- Time zones
- Cape Town UTC+02:00 · Chicago UTC-05:00 (-7 h)
- Sunrise gap today
- 319 min — the sun rises earlier in Cape Town
Flight time is a cruise-speed approximation (no routing/wind); driving distance depends on roads and is typically 20–40% longer than great-circle.
The two cities
- Cape Town
- -33.9258, 18.4232
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 05:34 UTC / 16:12 UTC
- Chicago
- 41.8500, -87.6500
- Sunrise / sunset today
- 10:52 UTC / 01:02 UTC
Open in the distance calculator Find the halfway point
Distances here are straight-line (great-circle). Road routes typically run 1.2–1.4× longer — here's why, with the visual.