Military Time Chart: How to Read, Convert and Say 24-Hour Time

Military time is the 24-hour clock written as four digits with no colon. Hours before noon keep their number (8:00 a.m. is 0800); from 1:00 p.m. on, add 12 (1:00 p.m. is 1300, 11:00 p.m. is 2300). Midnight is 0000, and noon is 1200.

The same system is used by the armed forces, hospitals, emergency services, airlines and most of the world outside the US, where it is simply called the 24-hour clock. Below you’ll find a full conversion chart, the quick rules for converting either way, how people say the times out loud, and how midnight, 2400 and time zones work.

Military time chart

Minutes carry straight across. 6:45 a.m. is 0645, 12:30 a.m. is 0030, 1:15 p.m. is 1315, and one minute before midnight is 2359.

How to convert regular time to military time

1. From 1:00 a.m. to 11:59 a.m.: drop the colon and add a leading zero if the hour is a single digit. 9:05 a.m. becomes 0905.
2. From 1:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.: add 12 to the hour. 4:20 p.m. becomes 16:20, written 1620.
3. The two 12 o’clock hours are the exceptions. 12:xx p.m. stays 12xx (12:40 p.m. is 1240). 12:xx a.m., the hour after midnight, becomes 00xx (12:40 a.m. is 0040).

How to convert military time to regular time

1. 0000 to 0059: the hour is 12 a.m. 0015 is 12:15 a.m.
2. 0100 to 1159: put the colon back and add a.m. 0730 is 7:30 a.m.
3. 1200 to 1259: the hour is 12 p.m. 1250 is 12:50 p.m.
4. 1300 to 2359: subtract 12 from the hour and add p.m. 1845 is 6:45 p.m., and 2210 is 10:10 p.m.

A quick check: any time from 1300 up is afternoon or evening, and the last two digits never change.

How to say military time

Spoken military time usually reads the first two digits as a number and the last two as a number, with “hundred” when the minutes are zero:

• 0800: “zero eight hundred” or “oh eight hundred”
• 1300: “thirteen hundred”
• 1430: “fourteen thirty”
• 0905: “zero nine zero five” or “oh nine oh five”
• 0000: “zero hundred”, or simply “midnight”

Some speakers add “hours” at the end, as in “fourteen thirty hours”. Usage varies between services and organizations, so follow the style of the place you work. In writing, the four digits are enough; the colon form (14:30) is the civilian 24-hour style and means the same thing.

Midnight: 0000 or 2400?

Both refer to the same instant, but they belong to different days. 0000 is the first minute of a day, and 2400 is used by some schedules to mean the very end of the previous day. A shift that runs “1600 to 2400 on Friday” ends at the same moment as “0000 on Saturday”.

Because the two can be confused, many schedules avoid 2400 and write 2359 for the end of a day, or give the next date with 0000. Digital clocks and most software never display 2400: the clock goes from 2359 straight to 0000. There is also no 2401; one minute after midnight is 0001.

Time zones and “Zulu” time

Military time on its own says nothing about the time zone. A message that needs to be clear across zones adds a letter, and the most common is Z for Zulu. According to NIST, the Z zone is equivalent to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and aviation and the military call it Zulu after the phonetic alphabet. So 1400Z is 2:00 p.m. UTC.

To turn Zulu time into US time, subtract the zone’s offset. In winter, Eastern time is UTC−5, so 1400Z is 0900 (9:00 a.m.) EST. In summer, under daylight time, Eastern is UTC−4, so 1400Z is 1000 (10:00 a.m.) EDT. Our UTC vs GMT guide explains the difference between those two names, and the UTC to Eastern time chart lists every hour with the right offset for the date. For other places, use the time zone converter.

Common mistakes

• Writing 12 p.m. as 2400. Noon is 1200. Only midnight can be written 0000 (or, as the end of a day, 2400).
• Adding 12 to a.m. times. Only p.m. hours from 1 to 11 get the extra 12. 10:00 a.m. is 1000, not 2200.
• Dropping the leading zero. 0745 and 745 mean the same thing to a person, but forms, scheduling systems and logbooks usually expect four digits.
• Mixing formats on one document. A schedule that switches between 1430 and 2:30 is easy to misread; pick one and stick to it.

If you only need to know what the clock will say after a set number of hours, the hours from now calculator gives you the time and date, including any daylight saving change along the way.

Adding and subtracting military time

The 24-hour clock makes time arithmetic easier, because there’s no a.m./p.m. switch to track. To find the length of a shift from 0630 to 1515, subtract 0630 from 1515: borrow an hour so 15 becomes 75 minutes, giving 45 minutes and 8 hours, so 8 hours 45 minutes. If the result passes 2400, take away 24 hours and move to the next day: 2130 plus 3 hours 45 minutes is 2515, which is 0115 the next morning.

The time calculator adds or subtracts hours and minutes from any clock time and shows the answer in 24-hour form, and the guide to calculating hours worked covers shifts, breaks and overnight work.

Frequently asked questions

What is 1700 in military time?

1700 is 5:00 p.m. Subtract 12 from any hour of 13 or more to get the p.m. time.

What is 12:30 a.m. in military time?

0030. The hour after midnight is hour 00 on a 24-hour clock, so 12:30 a.m. is written 0030.

Is midnight 0000 or 2400?

Midnight at the start of a day is 0000. Some schedules use 2400 for the end of a day, which is the same instant, but many write 2359 instead to avoid confusion.

What is 2100 in regular time?

9:00 p.m. 21 minus 12 is 9, and every hour from 13 to 23 is in the afternoon or evening.

Why do the military and hospitals use 24-hour time?

A four-digit time can’t be mistaken for the same hour 12 hours away, so there’s no risk of mixing up 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on a schedule, an order or a medical record.