Business Days Calculator
Calculate working days between two dates
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All dates and times follow your device's time zone
Add any dates you observe by hand, one per line.
Timeline
About this tool
Calculates the number of working days (excluding weekends, and optionally holidays) between two dates - useful for project planning, calculating delivery estimates, or figuring out deadlines that only count business days rather than calendar days.
How to use this tool
- Set start and end datesChoose range for the business-day interval you need.
- Configure weekends/holidaysApply working-calendar assumptions for your region or policy.
- Run business-day calculationExclude non-working days from total duration.
- Use result in planningApply output to SLA, delivery, and project commitments.
Business days, shipping times and working days explained
A business day is a working weekday - normally Monday to Friday, not counting public holidays. That is why a business day shipping estimate always takes longer than the number suggests: "3-5 business days" from a Thursday crosses a weekend and can mean a full week on the calendar. To count the working days between two dates, use Between Dates; to find a deadline such as 10 working days or 80 business days from today, use Add Business Days.
Public holidays differ by country, so pick your region. The calculator can skip US, UK, Canadian or Indian public holidays as well as weekends - for a UK business days calculation that means bank holidays such as Easter Monday are not counted as working days.
Key features
- Provides realistic timelines vs raw calendar days.
- Useful for contracts, shipping, and operations planning.
- Reduces deadline errors from weekend miscounting.
- Supports policy-aligned workday assumptions.
Common uses
- Estimating delivery timelines for customers.
- Calculating notice periods in HR/legal workflows.
- Planning sprint/task completion windows.
- Checking SLA due dates in support teams.
Tips for better results
- Confirm whether count is inclusive or exclusive for your policy.
- Include regional holidays for customer-facing timelines.
- Document weekend definition for international teams.
- Recheck around year-end holiday-heavy periods.
Mistakes to avoid
- Using calendar days for business-day contracts.
- Ignoring country-specific weekend differences.
- Forgetting holiday exclusions in official estimates.
- Applying one region calendar globally without adjustments.
Frequently asked questions
Five business days is one full working week. Starting from any weekday it lands exactly 7 calendar days later, so something ordered on a Monday is due the following Monday. Start on a Saturday and it is 6 calendar days; on a Sunday, 5. Each public holiday in the window pushes the date out by one more calendar day. The same rule scales: 10 business days is 2 calendar weeks, 15 is 3 and 20 is 4.
Two business days means two working days, but the calendar gap depends on where the weekend falls. Start on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and two business days is 2 calendar days. Start on a Thursday or Friday and the weekend intervenes, making it 4 calendar days. A quoted range such as "1-2 business days" means the next working day at best and the one after that at worst, so an order placed Friday afternoon usually arrives Monday or Tuesday.
Couriers quote a business-day range because transit time varies. Counting from a Monday, 2 business days is that Wednesday and 7 business days is the Wednesday of the following week, so the real window is 2 to 9 calendar days. From a Thursday the same range runs from the following Monday to the Monday after, which is 4 to 11 calendar days. Use the Add Business Days mode above with your actual start date rather than adding the numbers to a calendar by eye.
No. Business-day counting is exclusive of the starting day, so day zero is the day of the order and the first business day is the next working day. An order placed on Monday with a 2 business day estimate is due Wednesday, not Tuesday. Orders placed after a cut-off time are usually treated as if they arrived the next working day, which shifts everything by one.
It depends on what the company counts, and the two readings differ a lot. If they mean 48 hours of an 8-hour working day, that is 6 working days. If they mean two 24-hour days that only run on working days, that is 2 business days. Most support teams mean the second, but the phrase is ambiguous enough that it is worth asking rather than assuming.
Basic calculation excludes weekends (Saturday/Sunday); if holiday exclusion is supported, check the tool's options to specify relevant holidays for your region, since these vary by country.
The standard Monday-Friday work week is the default assumption in most calculators, though some countries/regions have different weekend days (like Friday-Saturday in parts of the Middle East) - check the tool's settings if your context differs from the standard assumption.
Most business day calculators support both: finding the number of business days between two dates, or projecting forward N business days from a given start date to find an end date.
Start from the order date (or the next working day if the order came in after the cut-off), add the business days and skip weekends and holidays. Add carrier transit time on top if the promise is for dispatch only.
Usually not for banks, couriers' guaranteed services and most offices, though some retailers and postal services deliver on Saturdays. Check how the business you are dealing with defines it.
Notice periods, payment terms and response deadlines often count business days. Holidays differ by state and country, so contracts that cross borders should say whose holidays apply.