Military Time Converter

How to convert military time

Military to regular:

• 0001 to 1159 — the same time, AM: 0730 is 7:30 AM. Drop a leading zero.
• 1200 to 1259 — PM: 1215 is 12:15 PM.
• 1300 to 2359 — subtract 12 from the hour, PM: 1730 → 17 − 12 = 5 → 5:30 PM.
• 0000 to 0059 — the hour is 12 AM: 0045 is 12:45 AM, not “0:45 AM”.

Regular to military:

• AM: write the hour with two digits — 7:05 AM is 0705. 12 AM becomes 00: 12:30 AM is 0030.
• PM: add 12 to the hour — 5:30 PM is 1730. 12 PM stays 12: 12:30 PM is 1230.

Military time is written with four digits and no colon (1730), often followed by “hours”; the 24-hour clock writes the same time as 17:30.

Midnight and noon: 0000, 2400 and 1200

NIST notes that “12 a.m.” and “12 p.m.” are ambiguous and describes 0000 as midnight at the beginning of a day and 2400 as midnight at its end. That is why the calculator shows “midnight” and “noon” next to those times, and why shift schedules often run to 2359 rather than 2400.

How to say military time

Say the hours and the minutes as two numbers:

• 1730 — “seventeen thirty”
• 2145 — “twenty-one forty-five”
• 0905 — “zero nine zero five”
• 0800 — “zero eight hundred” (whole hours use hundred)
• 0000 — “zero hundred”; 2400 — “twenty-four hundred”

Some people say “hours” after the time (“seventeen thirty hours”), and some read the zeros as “oh”. The calculator shows the spoken form under every answer.

Military time chart

Hours between two military times

Subtract the start from the end; if the end is smaller, the shift ends the next day, so add 24 hours. 0730 to 1915 is 11 hours 45 minutes — 11.75 hours. 2200 to 0630 is 8 hours 30 minutes across midnight. Use the Hours between two times fields above the result. To take unpaid breaks off or work out pay for a shift, use the hours calculator; to add up several durations, the time calculator.

Zulu time and military time zones

The U.S. military coordinates across time zones in Zulu time (Z) — Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Each time zone also has a letter, spoken with the phonetic alphabet; a time like 1730R is 5:30 PM in the Romeo zone.

Letters follow the UTC offset, so most of the U.S. moves to the next letter when daylight saving time starts. The Now line in the calculator shows your current letter and Zulu time. For durations across time zones and daylight saving changes, use the time duration calculator.