Military Time Converter

Military time is the 24-hour clock written as four digits with no colon and no AM or PM. The day starts at 0000 (midnight) and runs to 2359. The first two digits are the hour (00 to 23) and the last two are the minutes (00 to 59). Most of the world writes the same times with a colon, like 19:45, and calls it the 24-hour clock.

The rule

• From 1:00 AM to 12:59 PM, the hour stays the same. Add a zero in front of a one-digit hour: 7:45 AM is 0745.
• From 1:00 PM to 11:59 PM, add 12 to the hour: 7:45 PM is 7 + 12 = 19, so 1945.
• From 12:00 AM to 12:59 AM (just after midnight), the hour is 00: 12:30 AM is 0030.
• Going back, if the hour is 13 or more, take 12 away and add PM. If it is 00, write 12 and AM. 12 itself is PM (noon).

The formula

12-hour to military: military hour = hour + 12 for PM (but 12 PM stays 12) · hour for AM (but 12 AM becomes 00)
military time = two-digit hour then two-digit minutes, with no colon
Military to 12-hour: 12-hour hour = military hour − 12 when it is 13 or more · 12 when it is 00 · otherwise the same
AM when the military hour is 00 to 11 · PM when it is 12 to 23

Worked example

7:45 PM. It is PM and the hour is not 12, so add 12 to the hour: 7 + 12 = 19. The minutes stay 45. Write the hour and the minutes together with no colon: 1945. Say it as “nineteen forty-five hours”. It is 19 × 60 + 45 = 1,185 minutes after midnight, which is 1,185 ÷ 60 = 19.75 hours.

Going back, 1945: the hour 19 is 12 or more, so take 12 away: 19 − 12 = 7, and it is PM. That gives 7:45 PM.

12 AM, 12 PM, 0000 and 2400

How to say military time

Say the hour as one number and the minutes as another, then add “hours”. Minutes of 00 are said as “hundred”. A zero at the start is said as “zero” (people also say “oh”).

• 0700: “zero seven hundred hours”. 0830: “zero eight thirty hours”. 0005: “zero zero zero five hours”.
• 1000: “ten hundred hours”. 1945: “nineteen forty-five hours”. 1905: “nineteen zero five hours”.
• On the radio, pilots and controllers read the digits one by one and say 9 as “niner”: 1945 is “one niner four five”.

Time between two times and decimal hours

Change both times to minutes after midnight and take the start from the end. If the answer is below zero, the time ran past midnight, so add 1,440 minutes (24 hours). Take off any unpaid break, then divide by 60 for decimal hours. Example: 0800 to 1730 is 1,050 − 480 = 570 minutes; less a 30-minute break is 540 minutes = 9.00 hours. Overnight: 2200 to 0630 is 390 − 1,320 = −930, plus 1,440 = 510 minutes = 8 hours 30 minutes = 8.50 hours.

Decimal minutes are hundredths of an hour, not minutes: 15 minutes is 0.25 hours, 30 minutes is 0.50 and 45 minutes is 0.75. Rounding to 6 minutes gives tenths of an hour (6 minutes = 0.1 hour).

Military time zones

Each military time zone has a letter and a word from the phonetic alphabet. Z (Zulu) is UTC, the time used for aviation and military plans worldwide. A (Alpha) to M (Mike) are 1 to 12 hours ahead of UTC, skipping J. N (November) to Y (Yankee) are 1 to 12 hours behind. J (Juliett) means local time wherever you are. A time is written with its letter, like 1945Z or 1945R. To work with Zulu time, see the Zulu time converter; for real places with daylight saving, use the time zone converter; for timesheets over a week, use the hours calculator.

The military time-zone letters are fixed offsets defined by NATO and are not the same as the local time zones countries use. Who says “hours” after a time, or “zero” rather than “oh”, varies between services and countries.