Time since a date
Calculate days, hours, minutes and seconds since, until or between dates.
How to use
Choose Since a date, Until a date or Between two dates and enter the date and time; the result updates as you change them. It gives the span in days, hours, minutes and seconds — for a deadline, an age, a contract term or a countdown. Each figure is the whole span in that unit, not a remainder: two days also shows as 48 hours and 2,880 minutes.
Days are the safe unit; months are not. A month has no fixed length, so adding one to 31 January has no single correct answer and different systems give different ones. Hours have their own trap: in countries that still change the clocks, one day a year is 23 hours and another is 25, which is why the hours between two dates can disagree with the days multiplied by 24. Brazil dropped daylight saving in 2019, most of Europe still has it.
Dates and times are read in your device’s time zone. Days are whole days on the calendar and clock, rounded down, so from 18:00 one evening to 09:00 the next morning is 0 days and 15 hours. Hours, minutes and seconds are the time that actually passed, also rounded down — which is why a span across the night the clocks change shows 1 day but 23 or 25 hours. The figures are worked out when you change a field and do not tick on their own.
The tool subtracts one moment from the other, like a calendar: from 1 March to 3 March at the same time is 2 days. Rules that count both the first and the last day give one more, so if your contract, notice period or regulation counts inclusively, add 1 to the days.
Example
A year without 29 February1 January 2027 00:00 to 1 January 2028 00:00: 365 days and 8,760 hours. Where the clocks change, the hour lost in March and the hour gained in October cancel out.A year that includes 29 February1 March 2027 to 1 March 2028: 366 days and 8,784 hours, because 2028 is a leap year.The night the clocks go forward in the EU29 March 2026 00:00 to 30 March 2026 00:00 in Lisbon, Paris or Berlin: 1 day but 23 hours. In São Paulo the same span is 24 hours.The night the clocks go back in the EU25 October 2026 00:00 to 26 October 2026 00:00 in Lisbon, Paris or Berlin: 1 day and 25 hours.Less than a full day18:00 to 09:00 the next morning: 0 days, 15 hours and 900 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Why does it not show months?
Because months differ in length and there is no agreed rule for the ends. From 31 January to 28 February is one month by one convention and not quite one by another. Where a figure has to be defensible — a contract, an invoice — count in days, which are never ambiguous.
Is a day always 24 hours?
Not everywhere. Where daylight saving is observed, the day the clocks go forward is 23 hours and the day they go back is 25. A difference measured in hours and a difference measured in days can therefore disagree by an hour, and both are correct.
Is the last day included?
No. The result is the gap between the two moments, so 1 March to 3 March at the same time is 2 days. If your rule counts both the first and the last day, add 1 to the days.
Which time zone does it use?
Your device’s. The dates you type are read as local time there, so the clock-change days are those of your zone. Two people in different countries entering the same dates get the same days, but around a clock change their hours can differ.
Does a countdown update by itself?
No. The figures are recalculated whenever you change the mode or a date, not every second, so a countdown shows the time left at that moment. Change a field again to refresh it.