About this days between dates calculator
Counting the days between two dates sounds simple, but the details matter. This calculator gives the total day count (the difference between the dates — Jan 1 to Jan 31 is 30 days), and if you tick include the end date, it adds one — that's the difference between asking “how many days until” and “how many days long” (a stay from the 1st to the 31st spans 31 calendar days). You also get the duration as weeks and days, as a calendar years/months/days breakdown that handles month lengths and leap years the way standard date calculators do (Mar 31 to Apr 30 counts as exactly one month), and the number of weekdays (Monday to Friday) in the range, which is handy for rough business-day estimates. Dates are calculated exactly, with no timezone drift, entirely in your browser.
Inclusive or exclusive: which number do you want?
Almost every dispute about a day count comes down to this one choice, and the right answer depends on the question you are actually asking.
- Leave the box unticked when you want the gap between two moments — how many days until a deadline, how long ago something happened, how much notice you have left. From 1 January to 31 January is 30 days.
- Tick “include the end date” when you are counting a span you occupy — nights in a rental, days of a festival, the length of a contract term. That same range is 31 days long.
Contracts and immigration rules usually spell out which one they mean. If a rule says “within 30 days of”, it is normally the exclusive count; if it says “a period of 30 days”, it is normally inclusive.
Weekdays are not the same as business days
The weekday figure counts Mondays through Fridays in the range. It does not subtract public holidays, and it does not know about your country’s calendar or your company’s closures. Treat it as an upper bound: the real number of working days is the weekday count minus whatever holidays fall inside the range. For a rough plan that is usually close enough; for a legal deadline, check the official calendar for the jurisdiction that matters.
Worked examples
- A 90-day visa window
- Arriving 1 March and leaving 29 May: the exclusive count is 89 days, so you are inside a 90-day limit. Ticking the end date gives 90 — the number of days you were actually present, which is what most immigration rules count.
- A notice period
- Resigning on 3 April with 30 days’ notice: leave the box unticked and read the total, then count forward from 3 April to find the last working day.
- A project run
- From 6 January to 27 March is 80 days, of which 58 are weekdays. Subtract the public holidays in your calendar to get the working days you can actually plan against.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the count include both dates?
- By default it counts the difference between the two dates, so Jan 1 to Jan 2 is 1 day. Tick “include the end date” to count both ends — useful for durations like event days or rental periods.
- Does it handle leap years?
- Yes. The calculation uses real calendar dates, so Feb 29 in leap years is counted correctly.
- What does the weekdays number mean?
- It counts Mondays through Fridays in the range. Public holidays are not excluded, so treat it as an upper bound for business days.
- How do I count the days until a future date?
- Put today in the first box and the target date in the second, and leave the end date unticked. The total is the number of days remaining.
- Why do other calculators give a different number?
- Almost always because one of them includes the end date and the other does not. The two answers differ by exactly one. Check which convention each tool uses before comparing.
- Does it work for dates far in the past or future?
- Yes. The calculation uses calendar dates directly, so historical dates and dates decades ahead are handled the same way.