Business Days Calculator
Count working days between any two dates, automatically excluding weekends. Free for project planning, payroll, and deadline calculations.
What Is a Business Days Calculator?
A business days calculator counts the working days between two dates, automatically skipping Saturdays and Sundays. You pick a start and end date, and the tool returns the number of Monday-through-Friday days in that range, with no manual counting.
The difference between calendar days and business days matters more than you'd think. 14 calendar days sounds like 2 weeks of work, but it's only 10 business days. A 30-day contract period contains roughly 21 or 22 business days, not 30. These gaps compound quickly when you're calculating project deadlines, payment terms, or delivery SLAs.
Note: this calculator excludes Saturdays and Sundays only. Public holidays are not automatically deducted because they vary by country, region, and company calendar. If your deadline falls around major holidays, subtract those days from the result.
How to Count Business Days Between Two Dates
The manual method: list every day in the range, cross out Saturdays and Sundays, count what's left. Fine for a week, error-prone for a month, impractical for a quarter.
There's an arithmetic shortcut: divide total calendar days by 7 (complete weeks × 5 business days) and handle the partial week at the end. It breaks down, though, when the range doesn't start on a Monday. The calculator handles the partial week for you.
- 1Select your Start Date in the date picker above
- 2Select your End Date, which can be the same day as the start date or later
- 3Click Calculate Business Days and the result appears with the number of calendar days and weekend days in the range
The count includes the start date and the end date if they fall on weekdays.
Missed deadlines cost more than time: A PMI Pulse of the Profession report found that 55% of complex projects run into delivery disruptions such as missed deadlines. Counting weekends and holidays as available time is one easy way to build an unrealistic schedule, which is why planning in working days helps.
Business Days vs Calendar Days: Why It Matters
These two measures diverge significantly as timelines grow:
| Range | Calendar Days | Business Days |
|---|---|---|
| 1 week | 7 | 5 |
| 2 weeks | 14 | 10 |
| 1 month | ~30 | ~22 |
| 1 quarter | ~90 | ~65 |
| 6 months | ~180 | ~130 |
Check whether a contract means calendar days or business days. Payment terms such as "Net 30" are normally read as 30 calendar days from the invoice date, but a clause like "within 10 business days" counts only weekdays, and the contract should say which one applies. Thirty business days would be about six calendar weeks, so mixing the two can move a due date by two weeks.
Project plans often use business days because people, equipment, and vendors operate on weekday schedules. 20 business days is 4 calendar weeks, or 28 calendar days, so a plan that treats it as 20 calendar days leaves out 8 days.
Business Days by Country: Holiday Rules Differ
Most countries treat Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, but not all do: Saudi Arabia and Israel, for example, have a Friday and Saturday weekend, which this calculator does not model. Public holidays differ everywhere, and for cross-border projects that matters.
United States
11 federal holidays per year (New Year's, MLK Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, July 4th, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas). State-specific holidays add more variation.
United Kingdom
Bank holidays vary by nation: England and Wales have 8, Scotland has 9, Northern Ireland has 10. Easter's date shifts every year, so a cross-Atlantic "10 business day" SLA in March or April can fall on different calendar dates each side.
India
3 national holidays (Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti), plus a central government list of gazetted holidays (roughly 16 to 20 a year, including festivals such as Diwali) and a restricted list from which central government employees may take two. States and private companies add their own, so closures vary widely.
Australia
Holidays shared across the country include New Year's Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, ANZAC Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, plus state-specific days. Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday in Melbourne and parts of Victoria, which matters if your supplier or client is there.
This calculator counts all weekdays as business days regardless of country. For holiday-aware calculations, subtract the relevant holidays from the result yourself, or check our Public Holidays calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a business day?
A business day is usually a weekday (Monday through Friday) that is not a public holiday. Public holidays depend on the country and company calendar, and a few countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, have a Friday and Saturday weekend instead. This calculator counts every Monday-to-Friday day as a business day and does not remove holidays, because they vary by location.
Does this calculator exclude public holidays?
This calculator excludes Saturdays and Sundays only. Public holidays are counted as regular business days. Holiday schedules differ by country, state, and industry, so for projects running around major holidays, subtract those days from the result yourself.
How do I calculate business days for a project deadline?
Select today as the Start Date and your deadline as the End Date, then click Calculate. The result tells you how many weekdays fall in that range, counting both the start and end dates. If you need to find a due date that is X business days away, count forward approximately 1.4 calendar days per business day (for example, 10 business days is about 14 calendar days).
How many business days are in a typical month?
Most months contain 20 to 23 business days, depending on where weekends fall. A year has 260 or 261 weekdays (262 in a leap year that starts on a Monday), which is about 21.7 per month. For planning purposes, 22 business days per month is a reasonable average, before holidays.
Is the start date counted?
Yes. Both the start date and the end date are counted when they fall on a weekday, so Monday to Friday of the same week is 5 business days, and picking the same weekday for both dates gives 1. If you want the days after today, set the start date to tomorrow.
Do US and UK business day rules differ?
The weekday definition (Monday to Friday) is the same in both countries. The difference is public holidays: the US has 11 federal holidays per year; the UK has 8 to 10 bank holidays depending on the nation (England and Wales 8, Scotland 9, Northern Ireland 10). For cross-Atlantic projects, check each side's holiday calendar before committing to business day deadlines, because a "10 business day" SLA in December can land on different calendar dates on each side of the Atlantic.