What the Military Time Converter does
This military time converter turns 24-hour (military) time into 12-hour AM/PM time and back - 1700 is 5:00 PM, 2:30 PM is 1430 - and tells you how the time is said aloud, such as "fourteen hundred" or "zero eight thirty". It also converts a whole pasted list at once, gives decimal hours for timesheets, works out the hours between two times, and prints a 24-hour chart.
Type a time in whichever style you have. Anything with am or pm is converted to 24-hour time; anything without - 1430, 14:30, 0930 or even 930 - is converted to 12-hour time. The tricky cases are handled the standard way and explained when you hit them: 12 AM is midnight (0000), 12 PM is noon (1200), and 2400 means the end of a day. Nothing you type leaves the page.
How to use it
- Type a time, for example 1700, 0830, 14:30 or 2:30 pm. The answer appears as you type, in large type at the top of the result.
- Read the tiles for the other forms: military time with and without a colon, the 12-hour time, how it is said aloud, and the time as decimal hours.
- Choose whether zero is spoken as "zero" (the military and aviation convention) or "oh" (everyday speech), and whether to add "hours" at the end.
- To convert many times, open "Convert a whole list at once" and paste one time per line; any line that cannot be read is shown with the reason, and the list downloads as CSV.
- Open the 24-hour chart to see every hour (or every 30 or 15 minutes) side by side, and use Print chart for a copy to keep by the desk.
Reading the results
Military time counts the hours of the day from 00 to 23, so no AM or PM is needed. For 1 PM onwards, subtract 12 from the hour to get the 12-hour time (1700 - 1200 = 5 PM); for 12-hour PM times add 12 (2:30 PM becomes 1430). The minutes never change.
The hour before 1 AM is the easiest one to get wrong. 0000 to 0059 are 12:00 AM to 12:59 AM, because a 12-hour clock has no hour zero. In the same way 1200 to 1259 are 12:00 PM to 12:59 PM.
The spoken form follows the military habit of reading the four digits as two pairs: 1400 is "fourteen hundred", 1405 is "fourteen zero five" and 0800 is "zero eight hundred". Civilians often say "oh eight hundred", which the option switches to. "Hours" is added in formal use, as in "fourteen hundred hours".
Decimal hours divide the minutes by 60, so 14:45 is 14.75 hours. That is the number payroll and timesheet systems usually want; 14.45 would be a different time (14:27).
Worked example: a shift from 2200 to 0600 and a 5 PM meeting
1700 has an hour of 17, which is more than 12, so take 12 away: 17 - 12 = 5, giving 5:00 PM. Said aloud it is "seventeen hundred".
A night shift from 10 PM to 6 AM is 2200 to 0600. Because 0600 is earlier in the day than 2200, the shift runs past midnight: 2 hours from 2200 to 2400 plus 6 hours from 0000 to 0600 makes 8 hours, or 8.00 in decimal hours.
12:15 AM is a quarter past midnight. The 12 becomes 00, so it is 0015 - "zero zero fifteen" - not 1215, which would be a quarter past noon.
Formulas and scoring rules
- 12-hour to 24-hour
AM: 12 -> 00, 1-11 unchanged; PM: 12 unchanged, 1-11 -> add 12Minutes and seconds never change. 12 AM is 0000 and 12 PM is 1200.- 24-hour to 12-hour
00 -> 12 AM; 01-11 -> AM; 12 -> 12 PM; 13-23 -> subtract 12, PM- Decimal hours
hours + minutes / 60 + seconds / 3600Shown to 2 decimal places, rounded half away from zero.- Time between two times
end - start, plus 24 hours when the end is earlier than the startSo a shift that crosses midnight is counted correctly. 2400 as an end time means the end of the same day.
Who uses the 24-hour clock
"Military time" is mostly an American name. Most of the world simply writes the 24-hour clock in everyday life - on train timetables, shop opening hours and phones - and the international standard for writing times, ISO 8601, uses it with a colon, as in 14:30. Armed forces, emergency services, hospitals, airlines and air traffic control use it because a time without AM or PM cannot be misread when lives or schedules depend on it.
Military usage typically drops the colon (1430) and, for operations across time zones, adds a letter for the zone - Z or "Zulu" for Coordinated Universal Time. This page converts the clock format only; converting between time zones is a separate job.
Limitations: what the result does not prove
- It converts the format of a time, not its time zone. 1400 in one zone is a different moment from 1400 in another; use a time zone converter for that.
- Times with a zone letter (1400Z) or a date attached are not read; remove the letter or the date first.
- The spoken form shown is the common US military and aviation style. Other services and countries have their own customs, such as saying "fourteen thirty hours" or "half past two"; neither is wrong.
- 2400 is accepted as the end of a day because many rotas use it, but the current edition of ISO 8601 and many software systems only accept 0000 to 2359.
Privacy: where your data goes
Everything you paste, type or drop is processed in this browser tab. It is not uploaded, logged, stored or sent to analytics. Session recording and tag-manager scripts are switched off on this page.
Standards and sources
- ISO 8601 - Date and time format - checked 19 Sep 2026
- NIST Time and Frequency Division - Is 12 AM noon or midnight?
Frequently asked questions
What time is 1700 in military time?
1700 is 5:00 PM. For any military time from 1300 onwards, subtract 12 from the first two digits: 17 - 12 = 5, so it is 5 PM. It is said "seventeen hundred", or "seventeen hundred hours" in formal use.
Is 12 AM midnight or noon?
12 AM is midnight, the start of the day, which is 0000 in military time. 12 PM is noon, which is 1200. Because the labels confuse many people, it is clearer to write "12 midnight" or "12 noon", or simply use the 24-hour time.
How do you say 0800 in military time?
Usually "zero eight hundred", often with "hours" added. In everyday speech many people say "oh eight hundred" instead. 0830 is "zero eight thirty" and 0805 is "zero eight zero five".
Is midnight 2400 or 0000?
Both are used for the same instant. 0000 is the start of a day and 2400 the end of the previous one, so a shift ending at 2400 on Monday ends at the same moment as one ending at 0000 on Tuesday. Most digital systems only accept 0000.
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours in military time?
Divide the minutes by 60 and add them to the hour: 1445 is 14 + 45/60 = 14.75 hours, and 0915 is 9.25. Timesheet systems often want this decimal form, so the calculator shows it next to every conversion.
Can I convert a whole list of military times at once?
Yes. Open "Convert a whole list at once" and paste up to 500 times, one per line, in either style. Each line is converted on its own, any line that cannot be read is listed with the reason, and you can copy the results or download them as a CSV file.
Why is there no 2500 or 1260 in military time?
A day has 24 hours numbered 00 to 23 and each hour has minutes 00 to 59, so the largest valid time is 2359. 1260 would be the 60th minute of hour 12, which is already 1300; the converter rejects such times rather than guessing.
Last reviewed by the A2Z.Tools team against the sources listed above.
