Military Time Converter: 24-Hour and 12-Hour Clock

How to use the military time converter

1. Type a time into the input field using either 24-hour format like 14:30 or 12-hour format like 2:30 PM.
2. The military time converter updates automatically as you type, showing both formats below.
3. Use the results for scheduling, travel itineraries, or reading international timetables.

How 24-hour and 12-hour time relate

The 24-hour clock counts from 00:00 at midnight to 23:59 just before the next midnight. The 12-hour clock splits the day into two halves marked AM (ante meridiem, before noon) and PM (post meridiem, after noon). To convert 24-hour to 12-hour, subtract 12 from any hour greater than 12 and append PM. Hours 01 through 11 stay the same with AM appended. Hour 00 becomes 12 AM, and hour 12 stays 12 PM.

For example, 17:45 in 24-hour time is 17 minus 12 equals 5, so the result is 5:45 PM. Going the other way, 8:20 AM is simply 08:20 in 24-hour notation, while 8:20 PM requires adding 12 to the hour, giving 20:20.

Military time reference chart

This table lists common hours side by side so you can quickly convert military time without calculating each one.

Where the 24-hour clock is used

Military organizations worldwide use the 24-hour clock to eliminate ambiguity during operations. Aviation, maritime navigation, and emergency services rely on it for the same reason. In many countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, the 24-hour format is the civilian standard for train schedules, television listings, and digital clocks.

In the United States and a few other nations, daily life uses the 12-hour clock, which makes a military time converter handy when reading international flight boards or coordinating with colleagues abroad. If you also need to shift between zones, an eastern to pacific time converter or a central time to ist converter handles the offset math.

Common mistakes when converting

The most frequent error involves noon and midnight. People often write 12:00 AM for noon or 12:00 PM for midnight, but the convention is the opposite: 12:00 PM is noon and 12:00 AM is midnight. In 24-hour time there is no confusion because noon is always 12:00 and midnight is always 00:00.

Another mistake is forgetting to pad single-digit hours with a leading zero in 24-hour format. While 9:05 works in casual writing, strict military notation requires 09:05. Finally, mixing up AM and PM when adding or subtracting 12 leads to a 12-hour shift, turning a morning appointment into an evening one.

Converting time to decimal hours

Sometimes you need to express a duration as a decimal number rather than hours and minutes, especially for payroll or billing. For instance, 1 hour and 45 minutes equals 1.75 hours because 45 divided by 60 is 0.75. A dedicated time converter to decimal chart automates that calculation. The military time converter on this page focuses strictly on switching between 12-hour and 24-hour representations of a specific time of day, not on durations.

Worked examples

Each result below was produced by the same code the tool runs, so you can check your own numbers against them.