A business day is any weekday — Monday through Friday — that is not a recognized public holiday. To calculate business days between two dates, count every weekday in the range and optionally subtract U.S. federal holidays. Use the free calculator below to get an instant count, including breakdowns of weekends and holidays excluded.
How Are Business Days Calculated?
A business day is any day from Monday through Friday that is not a recognized public holiday. This calculator iterates through every calendar day in your selected range and counts only those that fall on a weekday. In a typical year, this yields roughly 250 business days (261 weekdays minus the 11 federal holidays that land on weekdays).
The "Include start date" and "Include end date" toggles control whether the boundary dates are part of the count. For example, if your start date is Monday and you uncheck "Include start date," counting begins on Tuesday. This is useful for deadlines that say "within 5 business days of" an event — the event date itself is typically excluded.
When you enable "Exclude U.S. public holidays," the calculator subtracts eleven federal holidays that fall on weekdays. These are the holidays recognized by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM): New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. Floating holidays like Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and Memorial Day (the last Monday in May) are computed dynamically for each year in your range.
When Do You Need to Count Business Days?
Business day counts appear in countless professional and legal contexts. Here are some of the most common scenarios.
What Is the Difference Between Business Days and Calendar Days?
Understanding the difference matters — using the wrong count can throw off deadlines by days or even weeks. Here's a side-by-side comparison.
| Aspect | Business Days | Calendar Days |
|---|---|---|
| Days included | Mon – Fri only | All 7 days |
| Weekends | Excluded | Included |
| Public holidays | Often excluded | Always included |
| Per month (avg) | ~21 days | ~30.4 days |
| Per year (avg) | ~250 days | 365 days |
| Common usage | Legal, finance, shipping | Leases, insurance, age |
| Best calculator | This page | Homepage counter |
Business Days Calculator FAQ
Yes. When you check the "Exclude U.S. public holidays" option, the calculator removes eleven federal holidays from the business day count. Holidays that fall on a weekend are not double-counted — only those landing on a weekday are subtracted. If you need a full list of upcoming holidays, visit our Holiday Countdown page.
The eleven U.S. federal holidays are: New Year's Day (January 1), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (third Monday in January), Presidents' Day (third Monday in February), Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Juneteenth National Independence Day (June 19), Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (first Monday in September), Columbus Day (second Monday in October), Veterans Day (November 11), Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November), and Christmas Day (December 25). Floating holidays are calculated dynamically for every year in your date range.
Use the NETWORKDAYS function: =NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays]). The optional third argument accepts a range of cells listing holiday dates to exclude. Note that NETWORKDAYS always includes both the start and end dates. For more control, NETWORKDAYS.INTL lets you define custom weekend days.
No. In the standard U.S. definition, business days are Monday through Friday. Some industries — such as retail or hospitality — may operate on Saturdays, but for legal, banking, and shipping purposes, Saturday is not considered a business day. This calculator follows the standard Mon–Fri convention.
They're closely related but not identical. A banking day is any day a bank's offices are open for business, which typically aligns with Monday–Friday excluding federal holidays. However, some banks observe additional closures (e.g., Good Friday), and online transfers may process on different schedules. For most practical purposes, the terms are interchangeable.
The weekday count (Mon–Fri) is accurate worldwide. However, the holiday exclusion feature currently supports only U.S. federal holidays. If you're calculating business days for another country, leave the holiday checkbox unchecked and manually subtract any applicable local holidays from the result.
There are typically 261 weekdays in a standard year (52 weeks × 5 days, plus one extra day). After subtracting the eleven U.S. federal holidays that fall on weekdays, the average is approximately 250 business days. The exact number varies slightly each year depending on how holidays fall relative to weekends.
Most months contain between 20 and 23 business days, with an average of about 21. The exact count depends on which days of the week the month starts and ends, and whether any federal holidays fall on weekdays during that month.
When a company says "3–5 business days," it means 3 to 5 weekdays (Monday through Friday), excluding weekends and public holidays. For example, if a process starts on Wednesday, 3 business days would be the following Monday, and 5 business days would be the following Wednesday.
It depends on the context. Most shipping carriers and legal deadlines do not count the current day — the clock starts on the next business day. This calculator lets you control this with the "Include start date" toggle, so you can match whatever convention your specific deadline requires.