Working days calculator
| Period | Weekdays | Hours at 7.5 |
|---|---|---|
| One week | 5 | 37.5 |
| One fortnight | 10 | 75 |
| One month, average | 21.7 | 162.8 |
| One quarter, average | 65.3 | 489.4 |
| One year | 260 to 262 | 1,950 to 1,965 |
Public holidays differ by country, by region within a country, and by year; England and Scotland do not share a full set, and several move with Easter. Any tool that assumed a calendar would be wrong for most of its visitors, so this one counts weekdays exactly and lets you deduct the holidays that actually apply where you are.
A year holds 260, 261 or 262 weekdays depending on which day it starts and whether it is a leap year — 261 in roughly two years out of three. Deduct eight or so public holidays and about 253 are left, close to 1,900 hours at 7.5 hours a day. The same year holds 104, 105 or 106 weekend days.
How to count working days
Available capacity is always well below the raw working-day count. Subtract annual leave, public holidays, sickness and training and a nominal 261-day year becomes nearer 200 days of actual availability per person. Planning against the calendar figure instead of the available one is the most common reason project estimates slip without anyone doing anything wrong. The familiar 2,080-hour year in salary and contractor arithmetic is a related simplification: it is 52 weeks times 40 hours, which quietly assumes exactly 260 weekdays and no holidays whatsoever. Most years have 261 and some have 262, so an hourly rate reached by dividing a salary by 2,080 is a convention, not a measurement. It is perfectly serviceable as long as nobody mistakes it for the number of days anyone will actually work.
Two details decide whether a short count comes out right. The first is the start weekday. Over months, five sevenths is out by at most two days however long the span; over a fortnight it is useless, because ten days from a Monday holds eight weekdays and ten days from a Saturday holds six. Monday 5 January 2026 to Friday the 16th is twelve calendar days and ten business days, and moving that same twelve-day window two days earlier would cost you two of them. The second detail is which holidays actually bite. Only a holiday landing Monday to Friday removes a working day, so a bank holiday falling on a Sunday costs nothing unless a substitute weekday is granted, and listing the real dates instead of a count is the only way to get that right.
Where day one sits is worth pinning down separately, because it is the usual source of a one-day argument. This page counts a span with both ends included, which is what a timesheet or a billing period means, so a single Wednesday to Wednesday is one day and not zero. A quoted turnaround usually counts differently: an SLA promising five working days from a Monday normally means the following Monday, because its clock starts on the next working day rather than on the day the request arrived. Same five days, one day apart, and neither side is being difficult. Weekend days are the mirror image of the same count and just as start-dependent: a 30-day span holds 8, 9 or 10 of them.
What people use it for
- Planning team capacity
- Working out a delivery or SLA deadline
- Using it as a plain weekday counter for a term or a rota
- Auditing the working days in a timesheet period
- Counting billable days in a period
- Costing a project in working hours
- Deducting the specific public holidays that apply to you
- Counting the Saturdays and Sundays in a span
- Sanity-checking a quoted turnaround
Questions
The weekdays inclusive of both ends, less any public holidays. Monday to Friday is five.
A year holds 260, 261 or 262 weekdays before holidays, 261 in most years, and deducting eight to ten public holidays leaves roughly 251 to 253. A month holds between 20 and 23, averaging 21.7, and a 28-day February always has exactly 20 because 28 days is four whole weeks.
Around 1,900 hours a year at 7.5 hours a day once holidays are out, or 2,088 at 8 hours before them; the familiar 2,080 is 52 × 40 and assumes 260 weekdays. A month is about 168 hours at 8 hours a day over 21 working days, or 157.5 at 7.5.
That depends on what you put in the hours-per-day field. Set it to paid hours only: a nominal eight-hour day with an unpaid half-hour lunch is 7.5 here.
Considerably: about 130 hours a year, which is over three working weeks.
Yes, which is the normal convention for a working-day count, so a single Wednesday to the same Wednesday reads as one day and not zero. If your contract starts its clock the following day, subtract one.
For short periods, considerably. Ten days from a Monday gives eight weekdays; from a Saturday, six. Monday 5 January 2026 to Friday the 16th is twelve calendar days and ten business days.
No, they vary too much by region. Enter a count, or list the dates on the holidays tab.
No. Only holidays landing Monday to Friday remove a working day. Where a substitute day is granted, count that instead.
Roughly two sevenths of the span, but not exactly: a 30-day span holds 8, 9 or 10 depending on the start day.
No. The extra day can fall at a weekend. 2028 is a leap year starting on a Saturday and has 260 weekdays, one fewer than the common year before it.
The count assumes it is. Several countries take Friday and Saturday, and the weekday figure is the one to adjust.
Not directly. Deduct annual leave, sickness and non-project time: real availability is nearer 200 days.
No. Billable time is usually well under 60 per cent of working hours once admin and sales are counted.
Because carriers usually exclude the despatch day as well as the weekends, and warehouse cut-off times push an afternoon order onto the next day.