Military Time Converter: 24-Hour to Standard Time Chart

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To convert military time to standard time, look at the hour. From 0000 to 1159 it's AM (0000 is 12 AM, midnight). From 1200 to 1259 it's 12 PM, noon. From 1300 to 2359, subtract 12 from the hour and add PM, so 1630 becomes 4:30 PM. Minutes never change.

This guide is for schedulers, payroll and HR teams, nurses, dispatchers and anyone reading timesheets or shift plans written in 24-hour time.

Key takeaways

  • Military time runs from 0000 to 2359, so every time of day has one unambiguous label.
  • For PM hours, add 12 to convert to military time (except noon); subtract 12 to convert back (except 1200 to 1259).
  • Midnight is 0000 at the start of a day; some schedules write 2400 for the end of a day.
  • Most errors happen around midnight, noon and missing leading zeros.

What is military time and why do businesses use it?

Military time, also called the 24-hour clock, removes the AM/PM ambiguity of the 12-hour clock. "6:00" could be morning or evening. 0600 is always morning and 1800 is always evening. The international date and time standard, ISO 8601, uses the same 24-hour notation (for example, 18:00 for 6 p.m.).

The format is simple. Hours run from 00 to 23 and minutes from 00 to 59. In formal military use, times are written without a colon (0600, 1830, 2245) and spoken as "zero six hundred," "eighteen thirty" and "twenty-two forty-five." Civilian, healthcare and software contexts usually keep the colon: 06:00, 18:30.

You may also hear "Zulu time." According to NIST, that term is still used in military, nautical and aviation settings to mean Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). So 1400Z means 14:00 UTC, not local time.

Military time conversion chart

MilitaryStandardMilitaryStandard
000012:00 AM (midnight)120012:00 PM (noon)
01001:00 AM13001:00 PM
02002:00 AM14002:00 PM
03003:00 AM15003:00 PM
04004:00 AM16004:00 PM
05005:00 AM17005:00 PM
06006:00 AM18006:00 PM
07007:00 AM19007:00 PM
08008:00 AM20008:00 PM
09009:00 AM21009:00 PM
100010:00 AM220010:00 PM
110011:00 AM230011:00 PM

Minutes carry straight across. 1435 is 2:35 PM (14 minus 12 is 2; the 35 stays). 0847 is 8:47 AM because the hour is below 12.

How do you convert military time to standard time?

  1. Read the first two digits as the hour. In 1945, the hour is 19.
  2. If the hour is 00, write 12 and add AM. 0015 is 12:15 AM.
  3. If the hour is 01 to 11, drop any leading zero and add AM. 0730 is 7:30 AM.
  4. If the hour is 12, keep it and add PM. 1220 is 12:20 PM.
  5. If the hour is 13 to 23, subtract 12 and add PM. 1945 is 7:45 PM.
  6. Keep the minutes exactly as written.

How do you convert standard time to military time?

  1. For 12:xx AM, change the hour to 00. 12:40 AM is 0040.
  2. For 1:00 AM to 11:59 AM, keep the hour, add a leading zero if it's one digit, and drop the colon. 6:45 AM is 0645; 11:30 AM is 1130.
  3. For 12:xx PM, keep 12. 12:05 PM is 1205.
  4. For 1:00 PM to 11:59 PM, add 12 to the hour. 5:30 PM is 1730; 10:15 PM is 2215.

A quick sanity check for PM times: the military hour is always 12 more than the standard hour, so it can never be below 13. If you convert 3 PM and get anything other than 15, or 9 PM and get anything other than 21, recheck the math. Noon is the only PM hour that stays at 12.

Where is 24-hour time used in business operations?

Healthcare. Hospitals use 24-hour time for medication schedules, charting, lab results and shift handoffs. "Gave medication at 6:30" is ambiguous in a chart; 06:30 or 18:30 isn't.

Transportation and logistics. Airlines, rail and shipping schedule across time zones. Many systems store timestamps in 24-hour UTC so that regional offices see the same moment, then convert to local time for display.

Manufacturing and 24/7 operations. A maintenance window from 22:00 to 02:00 is clear at a glance. In 12-hour time you'd write "10 PM to 2 AM the following day" and hope nobody misreads the date.

Time and attendance. Most time and attendance systems store punches in 24-hour format internally even if the screen shows AM/PM. That matters when you're tracking employee time across overnight shifts. A shift from 22:00 Tuesday to 06:00 Wednesday is easy to read; "10 PM to 6 AM" invites date mistakes on the timesheet.

Break records benefit too. A lunch logged from 12:30 to 13:00 is clearer than "12:30 to 1:00" in a log spanning 24 hours, which helps when reviewing meal break tracking or clock-out attestations for compliance. And when night hours earn a differential, the cutoff (say, 18:00 to 06:00) is easier to configure and audit, which is why guides to automating shift premium calculations usually express windows in 24-hour time.

Common mistakes when converting military time

  • Mixing up midnight and noon. Midnight is 0000; noon is 1200. Swapping them creates a 12-hour error that can slip into payroll unnoticed.
  • Subtracting 12 from 1200. Noon stays 12. The subtraction rule only applies to 13 through 23.
  • Dropping leading zeros. Writing 900 instead of 0900 can break imports into scheduling or payroll software that expects four digits.
  • Forgetting the date on overnight shifts. 2300 to 0700 crosses midnight, so the end time belongs to the next day.
  • Confusing 2400 and 0000. They're the same instant. Some schedules use 2400 to mean "end of today," but many systems only accept 0000. Check what your software expects before importing.

A practical tip we see work well: when a team switches to 24-hour time, post a one-page conversion card next to the time clock and in the scheduling tool for the first few weeks. Most people stop needing it within days of regular use.

FAQ

What is 1900 in military time?

1900 is 7:00 PM. Because the hour (19) is between 13 and 23, subtract 12 to get 7, then add PM. The same rule gives you 1930 as 7:30 PM and 1959 as 7:59 PM. Spoken aloud in military style, 1900 is "nineteen hundred."

Is midnight 0000 or 2400?

Both refer to midnight, but they're used differently. 0000 marks the start of a day and is the standard form in most systems. 2400 is sometimes used to mark the end of a day, for example a shift ending "at 2400 on Monday." To avoid confusion in payroll, many organizations write 0000 with the next day's date instead.

How do you say military time out loud?

Say the hours and minutes as two numbers. 0600 is "zero six hundred" (or "oh six hundred"), 1830 is "eighteen thirty," and 2245 is "twenty-two forty-five." Whole hours end in "hundred." In civilian workplaces, people often just say "eighteen thirty" or convert to "6:30 PM" when talking.

What to do next

  1. Print the conversion chart above and post it near time clocks or scheduling screens.
  2. Check whether your time and attendance system stores punches in 24-hour format and how it handles 2400.
  3. Review a few recent overnight shifts to confirm end times landed on the correct date.
  4. Use the minute to decimal hours chart when you need to turn converted times into payable hours.

Sources

Last reviewed: October 2026.

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