Set two dates and this calculator counts the working days between them, or switch modes to add or subtract a number of business days from a starting date and get the resulting deadline. It handles US federal holidays and UK bank holidays automatically — including the weekend substitution rules and the moving date of Easter — and lets you set a non-standard weekend or paste in your own company shutdown days. The results break down calendar days, weekend days and each holiday excluded, so you can see exactly how the number was reached. For plain day counts, try the date difference calculator.
Business Days Calculator
Working days counted properly — public holidays, your weekend pattern and your own days off all handled.
Business days
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Total calendar days—
Weekend days—
Holidays excluded—
Working weeks—
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What counts as a business day
A business day — also called a working day — is any day an organisation normally operates. In most of the world that means Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. The definition is not universal: much of the Middle East runs a Friday–Saturday weekend, Israel uses Friday–Saturday with a short Friday, and some sectors treat Saturday as a partial working day. This calculator lets you set the pattern rather than assuming one.
Why the count matters
Contracts, court deadlines, payment terms, shipping estimates and statutory notice periods are very often written in business days rather than calendar days, precisely because weekends and holidays would otherwise distort them. "Net 30 business days" is roughly six calendar weeks, not one month — a gap that causes real disputes when one side counted calendar days.
Inclusive or exclusive counting
This is the most common source of off-by-one errors. Most legal and commercial conventions count from the day after the start date up to and including the end date — so a deadline "within 5 business days" of Monday falls on the following Monday, not Friday. Other contexts count both endpoints. The toggle above lets you match whichever convention your agreement uses, and if it is ambiguous, that ambiguity is worth resolving in writing before it costs you.
US federal holidays
There are eleven: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (third Monday in January), Presidents' Day (third Monday in February), Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Juneteenth (19 June), Independence Day (4 July), Labor Day (first Monday in September), Columbus Day (second Monday in October), Veterans Day (11 November), Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November) and Christmas Day. Fixed-date holidays that land on a Saturday are observed the Friday before; those on a Sunday are observed the Monday after. This calculator applies that shift automatically.
UK bank holidays
England and Wales have eight: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the early May bank holiday (first Monday in May), the spring bank holiday (last Monday in May), the summer bank holiday (last Monday in August), Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Easter moves each year — it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March — so the calculator computes it rather than using a lookup table. Where a fixed-date holiday falls at a weekend, a substitute weekday is granted. Scotland and Northern Ireland differ slightly.
What it cannot know
Company shutdowns between Christmas and New Year, regional holidays, one-off royal or national commemorations, and industry-specific closures are not in any standard list — add them in the custom field. Bank clearing days differ again from working days, and if you are calculating a legal deadline, the governing rules of that jurisdiction override any general convention. Use this for planning, and check the actual rule for anything with legal consequences. For plain calendar arithmetic, see the date difference calculator or the days between dates calculator.
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Frequently asked questions
How many business days are in a year?
Typically 260 or 261 in a Monday–Friday week before holidays, since 365 ÷ 7 gives 52 weeks plus a day or two. Subtracting 11 US federal holidays leaves about 249–250; subtracting 8 UK bank holidays leaves about 252–253. Leap years and how the calendar falls shift it slightly.
Does the start date count as a business day?
Under the most common legal and commercial convention, no — you count from the day after the start date up to and including the end date. Use the include toggle to switch if your contract counts both ends. Getting this wrong is the single most frequent source of deadline errors.
How many business days is 30 calendar days?
Usually 21 or 22, depending on where the weekends fall and whether any holidays intervene. The reverse trips people up more: 30 business days is about six calendar weeks, not one month.
What happens when a holiday falls on a weekend?
In the US, a fixed-date federal holiday on a Saturday is observed the Friday before and one on a Sunday the Monday after. The UK grants a substitute weekday, normally the following Monday or Tuesday. This calculator applies both rules automatically.
Why does Easter move each year?
Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21 March, so it ranges from 22 March to 25 April. Because Good Friday and Easter Monday are UK bank holidays, this calculator computes the date from the lunar rule rather than a fixed table.
Can I exclude my company's shutdown days?
Yes — enter them in the custom days-off field as YYYY-MM-DD separated by commas. They are excluded on top of whichever public holiday set you choose, and any that fall on a weekend are not double-counted.