MiniCalci

Calculators & Converters
Date & Time

Business Days Calculator

Free business days calculator excluding holidays. Count how many working days between two dates, skipping weekends and any holiday dates you list.

One date per line, in YYYY-MM-DD format

What Is a Business Days Calculator?

A business days calculator counts the number of working days (Monday through Friday) between two dates, excluding weekends and, optionally, any holidays you specify. This is different from a plain date-difference calculation, which counts every calendar day including Saturdays and Sundays. It's the tool to reach for when you need to know how many actual working days you have for a project, a shipping estimate, a notice period, or a payroll cutoff.

How to Use It

  1. Enter a start date and an end date for your range.
  2. Optionally list holidays in the text box, one date per line in YYYY-MM-DD format (for example, 2026-12-25 for Christmas).
  3. Click "Calculate Business Days" to see the total working days, along with a breakdown of total calendar days, weekend days, and excluded holidays.

The Method Used

The calculator walks through every calendar day from your start date to your end date, inclusive of both endpoints. For each day, it checks:

  • Is it a Saturday or Sunday? If so, it's excluded as a weekend day.
  • Otherwise, does it match a date you listed as a holiday? If so, it's excluded as a holiday.
  • Otherwise, it counts as a business day.

Holiday dates you enter are matched against the calendar date only (year-month-day), so it doesn't matter what day of the week the holiday falls on when you type it in — the calculator figures that out itself and only subtracts holidays that would have otherwise been counted as a business day.

Worked Example

Suppose your start date is Monday, December 22, 2025 and your end date is Friday, January 2, 2026, and you list two holidays: 2025-12-25 (Christmas Day) and 2026-01-01 (New Year's Day). The full range spans 12 calendar days. Walking through them:

  • Dec 22 (Mon), 23 (Tue), 24 (Wed) — 3 business days
  • Dec 25 (Thu) — excluded, listed holiday
  • Dec 26 (Fri) — 1 business day
  • Dec 27–28 (Sat–Sun) — excluded, weekend
  • Dec 29 (Mon), 30 (Tue), 31 (Wed) — 3 business days
  • Jan 1 (Thu) — excluded, listed holiday
  • Jan 2 (Fri) — 1 business day

That totals 8 business days, with 2 weekend days and 2 holiday weekdays excluded out of 12 total calendar days — which is exactly what the calculator would display for this range.

Practical Notes

  • This calculator assumes a standard Monday–Friday work week. If your organization uses a different work week (for example, Sunday–Thursday in some regions), the weekend exclusion logic won't match your needs directly.
  • Only holidays that fall within your selected date range and on a weekday affect the result — holidays outside the range, or that happen to fall on a weekend, are simply ignored.
  • For a plain count of every calendar day (including weekends), use the Date Difference Calculator instead.
  • No data is sent to a server; the calculation runs entirely in your browser.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does this business days calculator excluding holidays work?
Enter a start date and end date, and optionally list holiday dates (one per line, in YYYY-MM-DD format) in the holidays box. The calculator counts every day in the range, then excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and any listed holiday that falls on a weekday.
How many working days between two dates does it count?
It counts every Monday through Friday between (and including) your start and end dates, then subtracts any weekday that matches a date you entered in the holidays list.
Is a weekdays between dates calculator the same as this one?
Yes — 'business days' and 'weekdays' refer to the same thing here: Monday through Friday. If you don't enter any holidays, the result is simply the count of weekdays in your date range.
What format should I use for holiday dates?
Enter each holiday on its own line in YYYY-MM-DD format, for example 2026-01-01 for New Year's Day. Lines that don't match that format are ignored, so stray text or blank lines won't break the calculation.
Are the start and end dates both included in the count?
Yes. If the start date and end date both fall on weekdays and aren't listed as holidays, they're both counted as business days — the range is treated as inclusive on both ends.
What happens if a holiday falls on a weekend?
It's simply not counted, since weekend days are already excluded from the business day total. The calculator's 'Holidays Excluded' figure only counts holidays that land on a weekday, since only those actually change the result.
Can I use this to count working days for a project deadline?
Yes, that's one of the most common uses — enter your project start date, target completion date, and any public holidays that fall in between, to get an accurate count of actual working days available.

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How this is calculated: This tool uses standard, well-established formulas for date & time calculations. Results are estimates for informational and planning purposes — always double-check figures for anything with real-world consequences (e.g. ordering materials or submitting grades).