Military Time Converter

What is military time?

Military time is the 24 hour clock written as four digits with no colon and no AM or PM. The first two digits are the hour (00 to 23) and the last two are the minutes, so 8:30 in the evening is 2030. Hours below 10 keep a leading zero: 7:45 AM is 0745.

Armed forces, emergency services, pilots and hospital staff use it because every minute of the day has exactly one name. Nobody has to ask whether "6 o'clock" means morning or evening. Times are often followed by a zone letter, such as Z for UTC ("Zulu"), so that a message means the same thing in every location.

When spoken, the hour is read in pairs: 0600 is "oh six hundred", 1330 is "thirteen thirty" and 2359 is "twenty-three fifty-nine". The word "hours" is often added.

How to convert military time to standard time

1. Look at the first two digits. If they are 01 to 11, the time is AM and the hour is unchanged (a leading zero is dropped).
2. If they are 12, the time is PM and the hour stays 12.
3. If they are 13 to 23, subtract 12 and add PM.
4. If they are 00, the hour is 12 and the time is AM.
5. Copy the last two digits as the minutes.

standard hour = military hour − 12 (for 1300 to 2359)

Examples. 0745 is 7:45 AM. 1530 is 15 − 12 = 3, so 3:30 PM. 2205 is 22 − 12 = 10, so 10:05 PM. 0030 is just after midnight, so 12:30 AM.

In the converter, enter exactly four digits including the leading zero, with or without a colon (0745 or 07:45). The hour can be 00 to 24 and the minutes 00 to 59; a time such as 1475 leaves the answer box empty because there are only 60 minutes in an hour.

How to convert standard time to military time

1. For AM times from 1:00 to 11:59, keep the hour and pad it to two digits.
2. For 12:00 AM to 12:59 AM, replace the hour with 00.
3. For 12:00 PM to 12:59 PM, keep 12.
4. For PM times from 1:00 to 11:59, add 12 to the hour.
5. Write the hour and the two-digit minutes together without a colon.

military hour = standard hour + 12 (for 1 PM to 11 PM)

Examples. 4:15 PM is 4 + 12 = 16, so 1615. 9:05 AM is 0905. 12:30 AM is 0030. 11:59 PM is 11 + 12 = 23, so 2359.

In the converter, type the standard time with AM or PM, such as 4:15 PM, 04:15 pm or 415pm. An hour from 1 to 12 is accepted with or without a leading zero.

Military time conversion chart

Tips for reading and writing military time

• Keep the leading zero. Writing 745 instead of 0745 is easy to misread.
• Minutes never exceed 59, so 1275 is not a valid time.
• To find the length of a shift, subtract in minutes. 0645 to 1515 is 8 hours 30 minutes. The hours between times calculator does it for you.
• For a pure change of clock style, see the 24 hour to 12 hour converter, which accepts times with a colon too.