Time converter
Hours to Decimal Calculator
Convert hours and minutes into decimal hours, or decimal back into hours and minutes. Type in either box and the other follows.
A free decimal hours calculator that works both ways
Type hours and minutes on the left and the decimal appears on the right. Type a decimal on the right and the hours and minutes fill themselves in. The same tool is therefore an hour to decimal calculator when you are filling in a timesheet, and a decimal to hours calculator when you are reading a payroll figure back and want to know what it means in real time.
It runs entirely in your browser, needs no account, and tells you when an answer has been rounded rather than quietly presenting an approximation as exact.
How to calculate hours to decimals
Divide the minutes by 60, then add the hours. That is the whole method.
- 7 hours 45 minutes → 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75 → 7.75
- 8 hours 30 minutes → 30 ÷ 60 = 0.5 → 8.50
- 6 hours 20 minutes → 20 ÷ 60 = 0.33 → 6.33
The mistake worth guarding against is writing 7 hours 45 minutes as7.45. That is a genuinely different number: 7.45 decimal hours is7 hours 27 minutes. Slip that into a timesheet five days a week and you have lost about an hour and a half.
Minutes to decimal chart
Every minute of the hour, rounded to two decimal places — the precision payroll systems use.
| Min | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.02 |
| 2 | 0.03 |
| 3 | 0.05 |
| 4 | 0.07 |
| 5 | 0.08 |
| 6 | 0.10 |
| 7 | 0.12 |
| 8 | 0.13 |
| 9 | 0.15 |
| 10 | 0.17 |
| 11 | 0.18 |
| 12 | 0.20 |
| 13 | 0.22 |
| 14 | 0.23 |
| 15 | 0.25 |
| Min | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 16 | 0.27 |
| 17 | 0.28 |
| 18 | 0.30 |
| 19 | 0.32 |
| 20 | 0.33 |
| 21 | 0.35 |
| 22 | 0.37 |
| 23 | 0.38 |
| 24 | 0.40 |
| 25 | 0.42 |
| 26 | 0.43 |
| 27 | 0.45 |
| 28 | 0.47 |
| 29 | 0.48 |
| 30 | 0.50 |
| Min | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 31 | 0.52 |
| 32 | 0.53 |
| 33 | 0.55 |
| 34 | 0.57 |
| 35 | 0.58 |
| 36 | 0.60 |
| 37 | 0.62 |
| 38 | 0.63 |
| 39 | 0.65 |
| 40 | 0.67 |
| 41 | 0.68 |
| 42 | 0.70 |
| 43 | 0.72 |
| 44 | 0.73 |
| 45 | 0.75 |
| Min | Decimal |
|---|---|
| 46 | 0.77 |
| 47 | 0.78 |
| 48 | 0.80 |
| 49 | 0.82 |
| 50 | 0.83 |
| 51 | 0.85 |
| 52 | 0.87 |
| 53 | 0.88 |
| 54 | 0.90 |
| 55 | 0.92 |
| 56 | 0.93 |
| 57 | 0.95 |
| 58 | 0.97 |
| 59 | 0.98 |
| 60 | 1.00 |
A few of these are not exact. Twenty minutes is 0.3333…, so 0.33 is very slightly short; ten minutes is 0.1667, shown as 0.17, which is slightly over. Across a single week the difference is seconds, which is why two places is the accepted standard — but the converter above tells you when an answer has been rounded, and offers three or four places when you need them.
Decimal to hours and minutes
Going the other way, multiply the decimal portion by 60. For 7.75, that is 0.75 × 60 = 45 minutes, so 7 hours 45 minutes. Type a decimal into the right-hand box above — as a decimal to hour calculator it fills in the hours and minutes as you type, which is the quickest way to make sense of a figure like 38.42 on a payslip.
| Decimal | Hours and minutes |
|---|---|
| 0.25 | 15 minutes |
| 0.50 | 30 minutes |
| 0.75 | 45 minutes |
| 1.50 | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| 7.75 | 7 hours 45 minutes |
| 40.50 | 40 hours 30 minutes |
Converting hours to decimal in Excel
Excel stores a time as a fraction of a day, which is why the conversion is a multiplication by 24 rather than 60.
| Situation | Formula |
|---|---|
| Duration in A1 as a time value (7:45) | =A1*24 |
| Hours in A1, minutes in B1 | =A1+B1/60 |
| Clock-in A1, clock-out B1 | =(B1-A1)*24 |
| Same, but the shift crosses midnight | =(B1-A1+(B1<A1))*24 |
| Decimal in A1 back to a time | =A1/24, formatted as h:mm |
Format the result as a plain number, not as a time — otherwise Excel helpfully converts your answer straight back into a clock reading. If you would rather skip the spreadsheet, the time card calculator exports a real.xlsx workbook with the hours already stored as numbers.
Why payroll runs on decimal hours
Pay is a multiplication, and decimal hours multiply cleanly. At $20 an hour,7.75 × 20 = $155 in one step. Hours and minutes do not work that way — you have to convert first, which is exactly where errors creep in. Every payroll system, timesheet import and accounting package therefore expects decimals.
It also explains why timesheets look wrong at a glance. A 40-hour week with 20 minutes of overtime reads as 40.33, not 40.20.
Related calculators
- Time duration calculator — find hours, minutes and days between two times or dates.
- Military time converter — 24-hour ↔ 12-hour, with the full 24-hour chart.
- Time card calculator — turn a week of clock-in and clock-out times into decimal hours automatically, with breaks and overtime.
- How to calculate hours worked — the full method by hand, including overnight shifts.
- Overtime calculator — split a week into regular and overtime hours.
- With lunch and breaks — deduct unpaid meal periods before converting.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate decimal hours?
Divide the minutes by 60 and add them to the hours. 7 hours 45 minutes becomes 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75, so 7.75 decimal hours. That single step is all there is to calculating hours in decimals, and the calculator above does it as you type, in both directions.
How do I calculate hours worked in decimals?
Work out the shift length first, then convert. Subtract the clock-in from the clock-out, adding 24 hours if the shift crossed midnight, take off any unpaid break, and divide the remaining minutes by 60. A 9:00 to 17:30 shift with a 30-minute lunch is 8 hours exactly, so 8.00. For a whole week of shifts the time card calculator does all of it at once and reports the total in decimal hours.
What is 7 hours 45 minutes in decimal?
7.75 hours. The common mistake is writing it as 7.45, which is a different number — 7.45 decimal hours is actually 7 hours 27 minutes. Over a five-day week that habit costs roughly an hour and a half.
What is 20 minutes in decimal hours?
0.33 hours, rounded. The exact value is 0.3333… because 20 does not divide evenly into 60. Payroll normally uses two decimal places, so 0.33 is what you enter, but be aware it is slightly short of the true value.
What is 90 minutes in decimal?
1.5 hours. You can type 90 straight into the minutes box — the converter does not cap minutes at 59, because durations longer than an hour are a perfectly normal thing to convert.
How do I convert decimal hours back to hours and minutes?
Multiply the decimal part by 60. For 7.75, that is 0.75 × 60 = 45 minutes, giving 7 hours 45 minutes. Type a decimal into the right-hand box above and the hours and minutes fill in automatically.
How do I convert hours to decimal in Excel?
If the duration is in A1 as a time value, use =A1*24 and format the result as a number. If hours and minutes are in separate cells, use =A1+B1/60. Excel stores times as fractions of a day, which is why multiplying by 24 gives you hours.
Why does payroll use decimal hours instead of hours and minutes?
Because pay is a multiplication. Decimal hours multiply straight by an hourly rate, while hours and minutes need converting first. 7.75 × $20 is immediate; 7 hours 45 minutes × $20 is not.