Military Time Chart and Converter

Minutes are the same in both systems. 1437 is 14:37 is 2:37 PM; 0815 is 08:15 is 8:15 AM. Military usage writes four digits with no colon and no AM or PM; the 24-hour clock used on timesheets and in most of the world writes the same numbers with a colon.

12-hour to military time

• AM times from 1:00 to 11:59: keep the number, pad to four digits. 7:05 AM = 0705.
• 12:xx AM (the hour after midnight): replace 12 with 00. 12:30 AM = 0030.
• 12:xx PM (the hour after noon): keep 12. 12:45 PM = 1245.
• PM times from 1:00 to 11:59: add 12 to the hour. 5:40 PM = 1740. 11:15 PM = 2315.

Military time to 12-hour

• 0000 to 0059: the hour is 12 AM. 0020 = 12:20 AM.
• 0100 to 1159: drop the leading zero and add AM. 0930 = 9:30 AM.
• 1200 to 1259: 12 PM. 1210 = 12:10 PM.
• 1300 to 2359: subtract 12 from the hour and add PM. 1740 = 5:40 PM. 2305 = 11:05 PM.

Shortcut for afternoon times: the last digit of the 12-hour hour plus 2 gives the last digit of the military hour for 1 PM through 7 PM (3 PM → 15, 7 PM → 19), and 8 PM through 11 PM map to 20 through 23.

Both appear. 0000 is the start of a day and 2400 is the end of the previous day; they are the same instant. Timetables and shift schedules write 2400 when the point belongs to the day that is ending, for example a shift from 1600 to 2400, and 0000 when it begins the day that is starting, for example 0000 to 0800. Times after midnight are always written from 0001 onward, never 2401.

In arithmetic, treat 2400 as 24:00. A shift from 18:00 to 24:00 is 6 hours; the same shift written 18:00 to 00:00 requires the midnight rule (add 24 hours to the end), which also gives 6 hours. The time duration calculator applies that rule automatically.

Hours are spoken as a number followed by hundred when the minutes are zero: 0800 is zero eight hundred, 1300 is thirteen hundred, 2000 is twenty hundred. With minutes, say the hour digits and then the minutes: 1437 is fourteen thirty-seven, 0905 is zero nine zero five. Midnight is zero hundred or twenty-four hundred, depending on which day it belongs to. Civilian 24-hour usage drops the leading zero and relies on context.

Hours worked are a subtraction, and subtraction only works on a single numbering scale. On a 12-hour clock, 5:40 PM minus 8:15 AM requires first deciding that 5:40 is in the afternoon; in 24-hour time, 17:40 minus 08:15 is a plain calculation giving 9 hours 25 minutes. A missing or wrong AM/PM marker is the single most common cause of a time card showing 20 hours instead of 8.

Federal recordkeeping under 29 CFR 516.2 requires employers to record the hours worked each workday and workweek. Time clocks and payroll exports record punches in 24-hour time or convert to it before calculating, and a personal record in the same format is easier to compare with the pay stub. The time card calculator accepts both formats and shows the 24-hour reading next to every entry.