Find exactly how long it is between two times — same day, overnight, or spanning several dates — in hours and minutes, total minutes, and decimal hours.
Duration is the difference between two points on the clock, and the reliable way to find it is to convert both times to minutes since midnight and subtract. Worked example — 8:45 AM to 5:15 PM: the start is 8×60 + 45 = 525 minutes; the end is 17×60 + 15 = 1,035 minutes; the difference is 510 minutes = 8 h 30 min. Subtracting the written times digit-by-digit (17:15 − 8:45) forces you to borrow 60 minutes, which is where most hand-calculation errors happen — the minutes-since-midnight method never needs borrowing.
| Time range | Duration | Decimal hours |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM | 8 h 00 min | 8.00 h |
| 8:30 AM – 4:15 PM | 7 h 45 min | 7.75 h |
| 7:00 AM – 3:30 PM | 8 h 30 min | 8.50 h |
| 11:00 PM – 7:00 AM (overnight) | 8 h 00 min | 8.00 h |
| 10:15 PM – 6:45 AM (overnight) | 8 h 30 min | 8.50 h |
| 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM | 12 h 00 min | 12.00 h |
Overnight rows use the +24 h rule: when the end time is earlier than the start time, the range continues into the next day.
For anything longer than 24 hours — a trip, an assignment deadline, a rental window — the clock times on both ends matter. Worked example: a car rented Friday 3:00 PM and returned Monday 10:00 AM is out for 2 days 19 hours, not “3 days”: Friday 3 PM → Sunday 3 PM is exactly 2 days, and Sunday 3 PM → Monday 10 AM adds 19 hours. Rental companies bill in 24-hour blocks from pickup time, so that return is charged as 3 days only because 2 days 19 h exceeds the 2-day mark — knowing the exact duration tells you whether returning 5 hours earlier saves a full day’s charge.
This page answers one question: how long between two moments? If you need to add or subtract several durations (2 h 45 min + 1 h 30 min − a 45-minute break), use the time calculator. If you track a whole week of shifts with breaks and pay, the hours calculator is built for timesheets. And for whole-day counts between calendar dates (deadlines, ages, countdowns), the date calculator counts days, weeks, and business days without clock times.
Add and subtract hours, minutes, and seconds, or find the time between two clock times — with decimal-hours output for payroll.
Weekly work-hours timesheet: enter start, end, and break times for each day to get total hours, decimal hours, and gross pay.
Count days between two dates or add and subtract days, weeks, months, and years from any date — with business-day and weekend breakdowns.