Add or subtract two times in hours, minutes and seconds. Perfect for adding up work hours, video lengths, cooking times or travel times.
1. Enter the first time in hours, minutes and seconds. 2. Choose Add (+) or Subtract (−). 3. Enter the second time and click Calculate Time.
Adding up times is harder than it looks, because time does not work in tens like normal numbers: there are 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute. Adding 2 hours 45 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes is easy to get wrong on paper, and subtracting times is even worse, because you have to borrow an hour when the minutes run out. This free time calculator does it all for you: enter two times, choose add or subtract, and it gives the exact answer in hours, minutes and seconds, plus the total in minutes and hours.
People use a time calculator for many everyday jobs. Workers add up their hours across a week, video editors add the lengths of clips to find a total video length, cooks add preparation time and cooking time to plan a meal, travellers add flight times and layovers, and students add study sessions to see how long they studied. In every case the problem is the same: minutes over 60 have to carry into hours, and seconds over 60 have to carry into minutes. The calculator handles all of that carrying automatically, so you never need to remember whether 45 plus 30 minutes is 75 minutes or 1 hour 15 minutes — it is 1 hour and 15 minutes, and the calculator shows it instantly.
Subtracting times has its own trap. If you subtract 2 hours 45 minutes from 5 hours 10 minutes, you cannot simply subtract the minutes, because 10 is smaller than 45 — you have to borrow an hour first, turning 5 hours 10 minutes into 4 hours 70 minutes, and then 70 minus 45 is 25 minutes, so the answer is 2 hours 25 minutes. The calculator does this borrowing for you, and it can even give a negative answer: if you subtract a bigger time from a smaller one, it shows the answer with a minus sign, so you know you went past zero.
Add 2 hours 45 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes. Add the hours first: 2 plus 1 is 3 hours. Add the minutes: 45 plus 30 is 75 minutes, and 75 minutes is 1 hour and 15 minutes. Add that hour to the 3 hours and you get 4 hours, with 15 minutes left over. The answer is 4 hours 15 minutes. Try it in the calculator above: enter 2 hours 45 minutes, choose Add, enter 1 hour 30 minutes, and click Calculate Time. You will see 4h 15m 0s, plus a total of 255 minutes, which is 4.25 hours.
Now add 1 hour 20 minutes 30 seconds and 45 minutes 50 seconds. Add the seconds first: 30 plus 50 is 80 seconds, which is 1 minute and 20 seconds. Add the minutes: 20 plus 45 plus the 1 carried minute is 66 minutes, which is 1 hour and 6 minutes. Add the hours: 1 plus the 1 carried hour is 2 hours. The final answer is 2 hours 6 minutes 20 seconds. Doing this by hand takes three steps of carrying, and it is easy to forget one of them — the calculator does all three in one click. As a subtraction example, 5 hours 10 minutes minus 2 hours 45 minutes is 2 hours 25 minutes, because you borrow an hour to make 4 hours 70 minutes, and 70 minus 45 is 25.
Time addition works from the smallest unit upwards: seconds first, then minutes, then hours. Add the seconds together. If the total is 60 or more, subtract 60 and carry 1 minute. Then add the minutes, including any carried minute. If the total is 60 or more, subtract 60 and carry 1 hour. Then add the hours, including any carried hour. Subtraction works the other way: start from the smallest unit, and if the top number is smaller than the bottom number, borrow 1 from the next unit up — borrow 60 seconds from a minute, or 60 minutes from an hour. This is exactly the same idea as carrying and borrowing in normal addition and subtraction, except the base is 60 instead of 10.
To check your answer, convert everything to the smallest unit. For example, 2 hours 45 minutes is 2 times 3,600 plus 45 times 60, which is 7,200 plus 2,700, or 9,900 seconds. Add 1 hour 30 minutes, which is 5,400 seconds, and you get 15,300 seconds. Divide by 3,600 and you get 4.25 hours, which is 4 hours and 15 minutes. The calculator shows you the total in seconds, minutes and hours as well, so you can check its answer in whichever unit you like.
Keep minutes and seconds under 60. The calculator will warn you if you enter 75 minutes — write it as 1 hour 15 minutes instead. Use seconds only when you need them. For work hours, hours and minutes are enough; leave seconds at 0. Check negative answers. A minus sign means the second time was bigger than the first — check you did not mix up the order. Add times one pair at a time. To add three times, add the first two, then add the third to the answer. Use the totals. The total in minutes is handy for payroll, and the total in hours is handy for billing.
Adding minutes like normal numbers. 45 minutes plus 30 minutes is not 75 minutes on a clock — it is 1 hour 15 minutes. Forgetting to borrow. In 5 hours 10 minutes minus 2 hours 45 minutes, you must borrow an hour before you subtract the minutes. Entering 60 or more minutes. Minutes and seconds only go from 0 to 59, so 90 minutes should be entered as 1 hour 30 minutes. Mixing up add and subtract. Check the operation before you click Calculate, because the two give very different answers. Reading 4.25 hours as 4 hours 25 minutes. 0.25 of an hour is 15 minutes, not 25, so 4.25 hours is 4 hours 15 minutes.
Pro Tip: To convert decimal hours to hours and minutes, multiply the decimal part by 60: 0.5 hours is 30 minutes, 0.25 hours is 15 minutes, and 0.75 hours is 45 minutes. The calculator's total in hours and total in minutes make this easy to check.
Note: This calculator adds and subtracts durations (lengths of time), not clock times. To find the time between two clock times, use the Hours Calculator, which handles start and end times including overnight shifts.
What is 2 hours 45 minutes plus 1 hour 30 minutes? 4 hours 15 minutes. The minutes add up to 75, which is 1 hour and 15 minutes, and that hour joins the 3 hours.
How do you subtract times? Work from seconds up to hours, borrowing 60 seconds from a minute or 60 minutes from an hour when the top number is smaller. For example, 5 hours 10 minutes minus 2 hours 45 minutes is 2 hours 25 minutes.
Why is adding time different from adding normal numbers? Because time uses base 60: 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make an hour, so you carry at 60 instead of at 10.
Can the answer be negative? Yes. If you subtract a bigger time from a smaller one, the calculator shows a minus sign, for example minus 30 minutes.
How many minutes are in 4.25 hours? 255 minutes. Multiply 4.25 by 60 to get 255. The 0.25 of an hour is 15 minutes, not 25 minutes.
Can I add three times together? Yes — add the first two, then add the third time to that answer. Or use the Hours Calculator, which can add up several shifts at once.
Does this calculator work with seconds? Yes. Enter seconds in the seconds boxes and the calculator carries them into minutes automatically when they reach 60.
Is the time calculator free? Yes, it is completely free, with no sign-up and no download, and it works on phones, tablets and computers.