Business Days Calculator
Count the working days between two dates — weekends and public holidays excluded. Pick a start date, an end date, and the country whose holidays should come out (United States, United Kingdom, or Australia), and the calculator shows the number of business days plus a named list of every holiday it skipped. Need hours and minutes too? Try the time duration calculator.
National holidays only — state, provincial, and regional holidays vary by location and are not included.
What Counts as a Business Day
A business day is any weekday — Monday through Friday — that is not a public holiday. That second part is where most quick mental counts go wrong: two dates can be the same distance apart on the calendar yet contain a different number of working days depending on which country's holidays apply. A US office loses Thanksgiving in late November; a UK office works straight through it but stops for Boxing Day a month later.
Observed dates add another wrinkle. When a fixed-date holiday lands on a weekend, the day off usually shifts: US federal holidays move to the preceding Friday or the following Monday, while UK and Australian holidays roll forward to the next free weekday as a substitute day. This calculator applies those shifts automatically, so when July 4 falls on a Saturday, it correctly removes the Friday before instead of quietly ignoring the holiday — the same way payroll departments and courts count it.
Holidays by Country
The United States option excludes the eleven federal holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. The United Kingdom option uses the eight England & Wales bank holidays — New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the Early May and Spring bank holidays, the Summer Bank Holiday, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. The Australia option covers the national public holidays: New Year's Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, the King's Birthday, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.
One honest caveat: regional holidays are not included. US state holidays, Scotland and Northern Ireland's extra bank holidays, and Australian state days like Melbourne Cup Day all vary by location, so your local count may be one or two days lower. Choose "No holidays" if you only want weekends excluded.
Business Days in Real Life
Most of the time you meet business days in a shipping estimate. "3 to 5 business days" means three to five weekdays after the order ships — so a Thursday shipment arrives the following Tuesday at the earliest, and a Monday holiday pushes everything back another day. The same arithmetic drives payroll (a payday that falls on a weekend usually pays out the Friday before) and bank transfers, which only settle on days banks are open.
Deadlines are where precision matters most. Contracts, court filings, and visa processing windows are routinely expressed in business days, and miscounting by one can mean a missed cure period or a late filing. Run the dates here, check the holiday list in the result, and you will know exactly which days were excluded — and why. For elapsed time in days, hours, and minutes instead, use the time duration calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
A standard week has 5 business days (Monday through Friday). A typical month has 21 to 22 business days once weekends and holidays come out. A full year in the US works out to roughly 250 to 252 business days, depending on where the 11 federal holidays land.
No. A business day is a weekday on which banks, government offices, and most businesses are open, so public holidays do not count. This calculator subtracts national holidays for the country you pick — US federal holidays, England & Wales bank holidays, or Australian national holidays — but not regional or state holidays.
In the US, UK, and Australia, no — business days are Monday through Friday, so Saturday and Sunday are excluded. Some carriers (like USPS) deliver on Saturdays, but for banking, contracts, and most shipping estimates, Saturday does not count as a business day.
Count forward 3 to 5 weekdays, skipping weekends and public holidays. An order placed on a Thursday with 3 to 5 business day shipping should arrive between the following Tuesday and Thursday — and a holiday Monday would push each of those dates back by one more day.
By default, yes — the "Include end date" box is checked because that matches how most people count deadlines (Monday to Friday feels like 5 working days, not 4). Untick the box if you want to count up to, but not including, the end date.