Time
Hours Calculator
Find the hours between a start and end time, or add up a whole week. It handles overnight shifts, subtracts breaks, converts to decimal hours for payroll, and totals your pay — all live, with the working shown.
Enter your shift
Worked time
8.00hours
8h 0m
Decimal
8.00
Hrs : min
8h 0m
Minutes
480
Try an example
No sign-up · Free
The basics
What “hours worked” really means
Clock times are awkward to subtract because they wrap at 60 minutes and at midnight. The trick is to stop treating them as clock readings and turn them into a plain count of minutes since midnight. Once both times are numbers, the duration is ordinary subtraction — and dividing by 60 gives the hours, either as hours and minutes or as the decimal form payroll expects.
minutes = hours × 60 + minutes
Times become minutes
Converting each time to minutes since midnight removes the 60-minute wrap, so the start and end are just two numbers you can subtract.
17:30 → 17 × 60 + 30 = 1050
hours = minutes ÷ 60
Minutes become hours
Dividing the worked minutes by 60 gives decimal hours. The whole part is the hours; the remainder over 60 is the leftover minutes.
510 min ÷ 60 = 8.5 hours
Method
How to work out hours by hand
Four steps take any pair of clock times to a worked total — overnight shifts and breaks included.
- 1
Convert both times to minutes
Turn the start and end into minutes since midnight: multiply the hour by 60 and add the minutes.
9:00 → 540 17:30 → 1050 - 2
Subtract — and add a day if it wraps
Subtract the start from the end. If the end is the smaller number the shift crossed midnight, so add 1440 (a full day) before subtracting.
1050 − 540 = 510 min - 3
Take off any unpaid break
Subtract the break, in minutes, to get the minutes actually worked.
510 − 30 = 480 min - 4
Divide by 60
Divide the worked minutes by 60 for decimal hours, or split off whole hours for hours-and-minutes.
480 ÷ 60 = 8.00 hours
Worked examples
See it on real shifts
The same four steps handle a tidy 9-to-5, a shift that runs past midnight, and a long day with an hour's break. Switch tabs to follow each one.
Given 09:00 → 17:00, 30 min break
To minutes: 09:00 = 540 · 17:00 = 1020
Subtract: 1020 − 540 = 480 min
Take off break: 480 − 30 = 450 min
Divide by 60: 450 ÷ 60 = 7.50 h
7h 30m = 7.50 hours
Quick chart
“How many decimal hours is X minutes?”
Payroll runs on decimal hours, not minutes. This is the conversion you reach for most: pick a granularity and read every minute value within an hour as a decimal.
Show everyMinutes within one hour, as decimal hours
5 min
0.08
≈ 0.0833
10 min
0.17
≈ 0.1667
15 min
0.25
20 min
0.33
≈ 0.3333
25 min
0.42
≈ 0.4167
30 min
0.50
35 min
0.58
≈ 0.5833
40 min
0.67
≈ 0.6667
45 min
0.75
50 min
0.83
≈ 0.8333
55 min
0.92
≈ 0.9167
60 min
1.00
Reference
Minutes to decimal hours
The common five-minute marks, each with its exact decimal hour and the value rounded to two places the way a timesheet stores it.
MinutesDecimal (exact)Rounded
5 min0.08330.08
10 min0.16670.17
15 min0.25000.25
20 min0.33330.33
25 min0.41670.42
30 min0.50000.50
35 min0.58330.58
40 min0.66670.67
45 min0.75000.75
50 min0.83330.83
55 min0.91670.92
60 min1.00001.00
Payroll
Rounding to the quarter hour
Many US employers round clock punches to the nearest 15 minutes — the “7-minute rule.” It's legal as long as it doesn't systematically shortchange workers over time. The calculator's quarter-hour toggle applies it for you.
0–7 min → round down
Just past the quarter
A punch within seven minutes after a quarter rounds back to that quarter, so it isn't counted.
8–14 min → round up
Most of the way
From eight minutes on, the punch rounds forward to the next quarter and the time counts.
net ≈ 0 over time
Has to stay fair
Because rounding cuts both ways, it should even out. A policy that only ever rounds against the worker isn't compliant.
Where it shows up
What people use this for
The same start-to-end subtraction answers a surprising range of everyday questions.
hours × rate
Hourly pay
Workers and managers turn a timesheet into a paycheck by totaling hours and multiplying by the rate.
Σ daily shifts
Weekly timesheets
Summing each day's worked hours gives the week's total — and shows when it crosses 40 into overtime. Once it does, the time and a half calculator prices those extra hours at the premium rate.
end − start
Billable time
Freelancers and agencies log a start and stop and bill the difference in decimal hours.
Worth knowing
Things that trip people up
0.5 h, not 0.30 h
Minutes aren't decimals
Half an hour is 0.5 hours, not 0.30. Minutes are sixtieths, so you divide by 60 — writing the minutes straight after the point is the most common payroll error.
30 min = 0.50 h · not 0.30
end < start → + 24 h
Midnight needs a day added
Subtracting a smaller end time gives a negative span. Adding a full day before subtracting fixes it — that's why an overnight shift isn't a negative number.
22:00 → 06:00 = 8 h, not −16 h
paid = shift − break
Unpaid breaks come off
Only paid time counts toward the total. Subtract unpaid breaks before converting, or the hours — and the pay — come out too high.
8.0 shift − 0.5 lunch = 7.5
round once, at the end
Round at the end, not each step
Rounding intermediate values and then rounding again compounds the error. Keep full precision through the math and round the final figure.
round the total, not every punch twice
More time tools
Pick the right hours calculator
Use this page when the question is about work hours, breaks, decimal time, or pay. The neighboring time calculators cover narrower jobs.
elapsed time
Time Duration Calculator
For a plain start-to-end span with no payroll context, use the time duration calculator.
weekly payroll
Time Card Calculator
For seven clock-in and clock-out rows, overtime splits, and payroll totals, use the time card calculator.
overtime pay
Time and a Half Calculator
Once you know the overtime hours, the time and a half calculator converts them into premium pay.
FAQ
Common questions
Convert each time to minutes since midnight (hours × 60 + minutes), subtract the start from the end, then divide by 60. From 9:00 (540 min) to 17:30 (1050 min) is 510 minutes, which is 8 hours 30 minutes, or 8.50 decimal hours.
When the end time is earlier than the start time the shift crosses midnight, so add 24 hours (1440 minutes) to the end before subtracting. A shift from 22:00 to 06:00 is (6:00 + 24h) − 22:00 = 30:00 − 22:00 = 8 hours. The calculator detects this automatically.
Divide the minutes by 60. So 510 minutes ÷ 60 = 8.5 hours, 45 minutes = 0.75 hours, and 15 minutes = 0.25 hours. Decimal hours are what payroll uses — 30 minutes is 0.5 of an hour, not 0.30.
Work out the full shift in minutes first, then subtract the unpaid break in minutes before dividing by 60. A 9:00–17:00 shift is 480 minutes; take off a 30-minute lunch to get 450 minutes, which is 7 hours 30 minutes (7.50 hours).
Total each day's worked minutes, add them together, then divide the weekly total by 60. Switch to the Weekly timesheet tab to enter each day's start, end, and break — the calculator sums the week and, with a pay rate, shows gross pay.
8 hours 30 minutes is 8.5 decimal hours, because 30 minutes ÷ 60 = 0.5. Likewise 8:15 is 8.25, 8:45 is 8.75, and 8:20 is about 8.33.
Many employers round clock punches to the nearest 15 minutes (the 7-minute rule) to simplify timekeeping. A punch within 7 minutes of a quarter rounds down, 8 minutes or more rounds up. Turn on quarter-hour rounding in the calculator to see the rounded total.
Multiply your decimal hours by your hourly rate. 8.5 hours at $18.00/hr is 8.5 × 18 = $153.00. Enter a pay rate in the calculator and it shows gross pay alongside the hours.
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Written by
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Author
Ugo CharlesBuilt and fact-checked against our editorial standards · Last updated June 2026
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