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Time Calculator

Add and subtract hours and minutes, or shift a clock time — with decimal hours.

Updated July 9, 2026

How to use the time calculator

  1. 1Pick a mode: add up durations, or shift a time of day.
  2. 2In duration mode, stack rows and flip any to minus for breaks.
  3. 3Read the total in h:m, decimal hours, and minutes.
  4. 4In clock mode, watch for +1 day when crossing midnight.

Common uses

  • Totaling a week of shift durations minus breaks
  • Converting logged time to decimal hours for an invoice
  • Adding up video or audio segment lengths for an edit
  • Working out what time an overnight shift or flight actually ends

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert minutes to decimal hours correctly?

Divide the minutes by 60 — not by 100, which is the mistake that quietly shorts invoices. 45 minutes is 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75, so 7h 45m is 7.75 hours; writing 7.45 undercounts by 18 minutes, and across a month of billing that's real money. The cheat sheet worth memorizing: 15m = 0.25, 30m = 0.5, 45m = 0.75, and every 6 minutes is exactly 0.1.

Why do hours and minutes add so awkwardly by hand?

Because time is base-60 and everything else you add is base-10, so the carrying rules clash: 1h 45m + 2h 30m requires carrying at 60, giving 4h 15m — while your calculator, treating the numbers as decimals, happily reports 3.75 + wrong things. The adder here does base-60 carrying per row and keeps a running total, which is also why it shows raw minutes: multiplying a rate by minutes ÷ 60 avoids the whole problem.

How does subtracting time work in the duration mode?

Flip a row's plus to minus — the running total subtracts that row. The everyday case is unpaid breaks: 8:00 of shift, minus 0:30 lunch, minus 0:15 break = 7h 15m payable. Totals can legitimately go negative when comparing (planned versus actual, say), and the calculator shows that rather than clamping to zero, since a −1h 20m answer is information, not an error.

What does '+1 day' mean in the clock mode?

The result crossed midnight: 10:30 PM plus 3 hours is 1:30 AM the next day, and the calculator says so explicitly instead of just displaying 1:30 and letting you mis-plan. It matters constantly for overnight shifts, flight arrivals, and 'take the next dose in 8 hours' math. Subtracting works symmetrically — 2 hours before 1:00 AM shows 11:00 PM with −1 day.

About this tool

The time calculator handles both kinds of time arithmetic. Duration mode is a running adder: stack rows of hours and minutes, flip any row to minus for breaks or corrections, and read the total three ways — hours and minutes, decimal hours (what timesheets and invoices want), and raw minutes. Clock mode answers '2 hours 45 minutes after 9:30' — it wraps midnight correctly and says so (+1 day) instead of silently rolling over. Small but load-bearing detail included: 7h 45m is 7.75 decimal hours, not 7.45, the classic billing mistake.

Like most tools on UtilityBase, the time calculator runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded or stored on a server. It's free to use with no account required. Browse more calculators here.

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