Best time to cross the Windsor–Detroit border
Government feeds tell you the wait right now. Nobody publishes what the wait usually is. We record the official figure for every crossing, in both directions, every five minutes, so these tables are built from our own measurements rather than estimates.
Based on 4 days of snapshots, updated automatically. Figures are median official passenger-lane waits in Eastern Time. The longer this runs, the sharper the numbers get.
See live wait times for all three crossings →
Ambassador Bridge
To Detroit (U.S.-bound, CBP)
| Time of day | Weekdays | Weekends |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning (5–7 AM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Morning rush (7–10 AM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Late morning (10 AM–12 PM) | 5 min | 10 min |
| Midday (12–3 PM) | 5 min | 15 min |
| Afternoon rush (3–6 PM) | 5 min | 10 min |
| Evening (6–9 PM) | No delay | 15 min |
| Late evening (9 PM–12 AM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Overnight (12–5 AM) | No delay | No delay |
Quietest weekday hour so far: 12 AM. Busiest: 9 AM.
To Windsor (Canada-bound, CBSA)
| Time of day | Weekdays | Weekends |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning (5–7 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Morning rush (7–10 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Late morning (10 AM–12 PM) | No delay | No delay |
| Midday (12–3 PM) | No delay | 10 min |
| Afternoon rush (3–6 PM) | No delay | No delay |
| Evening (6–9 PM) | No delay | No delay |
| Late evening (9 PM–12 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Overnight (12–5 AM) | No delay | 10 min |
Quietest weekday hour so far: 12 AM. Busiest: 11 PM.
Detroit-Windsor Tunnel
To Detroit (U.S.-bound, CBP)
| Time of day | Weekdays | Weekends |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning (5–7 AM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Morning rush (7–10 AM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Late morning (10 AM–12 PM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Midday (12–3 PM) | 5 min | 15 min |
| Afternoon rush (3–6 PM) | 5 min | 15 min |
| Evening (6–9 PM) | 5 min | 10 min |
| Late evening (9 PM–12 AM) | No delay | 5 min |
| Overnight (12–5 AM) | No delay | No delay |
Quietest weekday hour so far: 12 AM. Busiest: 8 AM.
To Windsor (Canada-bound, CBSA)
| Time of day | Weekdays | Weekends |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning (5–7 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Morning rush (7–10 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Late morning (10 AM–12 PM) | No delay | No delay |
| Midday (12–3 PM) | No delay | No delay |
| Afternoon rush (3–6 PM) | No delay | No delay |
| Evening (6–9 PM) | No delay | No delay |
| Late evening (9 PM–12 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Overnight (12–5 AM) | No delay | No delay |
Quietest weekday hour so far: 12 AM. Busiest: 6 PM.
Gordie Howe Bridge
To Detroit (U.S.-bound, CBP)
| Time of day | Weekdays | Weekends |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning (5–7 AM) | 5 min | No delay |
| Morning rush (7–10 AM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Late morning (10 AM–12 PM) | 5 min | 10 min |
| Midday (12–3 PM) | 5 min | 10 min |
| Afternoon rush (3–6 PM) | 5 min | 10 min |
| Evening (6–9 PM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Late evening (9 PM–12 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Overnight (12–5 AM) | No delay | No delay |
Quietest weekday hour so far: 12 AM. Busiest: 6 PM.
To Windsor (Canada-bound, CBSA)
| Time of day | Weekdays | Weekends |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning (5–7 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Morning rush (7–10 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Late morning (10 AM–12 PM) | No delay | 20 min |
| Midday (12–3 PM) | No delay | 30 min |
| Afternoon rush (3–6 PM) | 10 min | 15 min |
| Evening (6–9 PM) | 10 min | 10 min |
| Late evening (9 PM–12 AM) | No delay | No delay |
| Overnight (12–5 AM) | No delay | No delay |
Quietest weekday hour so far: 12 AM. Busiest: 7 PM.
Rules of thumb while the data builds
Going to Detroit, weekday lines build from about 6 AM and stay heavy until mid-morning, with a second bump in the late afternoon. Mid-morning (roughly 9–11 AM) and after 8 PM are usually clear.
Coming back to Windsor, the squeeze is late afternoon into the evening, 4–7 PM on weekdays, plus the hour after any Detroit game or concert — that hits the Tunnel hardest because it is the downtown crossing.
Truck traffic is what makes the Ambassador Bridge unpredictable on weekday mornings; the Gordie Howe Bridge now carries a share of it, and the Tunnel takes no trucks at all.
Holidays and long weekends break every pattern: Canadian and U.S. holidays fall on different dates, so a quiet Monday in one country can be the busiest day of the month at the border.
How these numbers are measured
Every five minutes a job records the published passenger-lane wait for each crossing and direction from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Canada Border Services Agency. For each hour of each weekday we take the median of those snapshots over the last eight weeks — the median rather than the average, so one two-hour backup does not distort a whole hour. Blank cells mean no usable snapshots for that block yet. Canada-bound figures inherit CBSA's reporting lag, so treat them as the shape of a typical day rather than a precise forecast.
Wait times are estimates. Always allow extra time and check CBP or CBSA before travel if timing matters.