Business Days Calculator
Pick a start and end date. We'll count every Monday through Friday in between, weekends skipped automatically.
A business day is any Monday through Friday that isn't a public holiday. To figure out the business days between two dates, you count up the weekdays and subtract any U.S. federal holidays in that stretch. The calculator below does all of that in a second and shows you exactly what it skipped.
How Are Business Days Calculated?
The Monday-to-Friday rule isn't arbitrary. It comes from 5 U.S.C. §6103, the federal law that defines when government offices are open and when they're not. In practice, that gives the U.S. roughly 261 weekdays per year, then the calendar trims that down to about 250 business days once you pull out the 11 federal holidays that actually fall on weekdays.
- Business Day
- Any Monday through Friday that is not a U.S. federal public holiday. Established under federal law at 5 U.S.C. §6103.
- Calendar Day
- Every day of the week, including weekends and holidays. Used in lease agreements, insurance policies, and general date arithmetic.
- Settlement Day / Processing Day
- A business day on which a financial transaction clears or a government application advances. ACH transfers, wire settlements, and USCIS processing times are all measured in business or banking days.
The "Include start date" and "Include end date" checkboxes let you control whether those days count. If a contract says you have 5 business days "from" a certain event, the event day itself usually doesn't count, so you'd uncheck that box. If the wording says "5 business days including today," leave it checked. Sounds minor, but it can shift your deadline by a full day.
Check "Exclude U.S. public holidays" and the calculator pulls out all eleven federal holidays that land on weekdays, using the official schedule from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under 5 U.S.C. §6103: New Year's Day, MLK Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples' Day), Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. The floating ones like Thanksgiving and Memorial Day get recalculated fresh for each year. When a fixed holiday like July 4th falls on a Saturday, the government moves it to Friday; on a Sunday, it shifts to Monday. The calculator handles both automatically.
Last updated: June 2026. Holiday list reflects the 11 U.S. federal holidays recognized as of 2026.
When Do You Need to Count Business Days?
Business days show up everywhere once you start looking. Shipping labels, legal notices, payroll cycles, SLA contracts. If you've ever wondered "wait, does this deadline include weekends?" then you already know why this matters. Here's where it comes up most.
What Is the Difference Between Business Days and Calendar Days?
Mix these up and you can miss a deadline by a week or more. Calendar days count everything, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays. Business days (same thing as working days) skip all of that. For general date math and time-until countdowns, our date countdown calculator works fine. For anything involving deadlines or delivery windows, you want this page. Here's the side-by-side.
| Aspect | Business Days | Calendar Days |
|---|---|---|
| Days included | Mon – Fri only | All 7 days |
| Weekends | Excluded | Included |
| Public holidays | Often excluded | Always included |
| Holiday on a Sunday | Observed Monday (skipped) | Counted as Sunday |
| 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
Optionally, yes. The holiday checkbox is off by default, so the raw count is just weekdays. Turn it on and the tool cross-references every date in your range against the official OPM schedule and removes any that are federal holidays. Holidays that fall on a weekend are already non-working days, so they're never double-counted. See the full list in the next question. Or for a calendar with countdown timers, check our U.S. federal holiday countdown page.
There are eleven. New Year's Day (January 1), MLK 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 / Indigenous Peoples' Day (second Monday in October), Veterans Day (November 11), Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November), and Christmas Day (December 25). The ones without fixed dates get recalculated for whatever year you're working with.
Type =NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date) and Excel counts the weekdays between those two dates, including both endpoints. If you've got a list of holidays to exclude, add that range as a third argument: =NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, holidays). Need non-standard weekends, like Friday/Saturday? Use NETWORKDAYS.INTL instead, which lets you define exactly which days are your "weekend."
Nope. Monday through Friday only, by the standard definition. Some businesses do operate on Saturdays, but for legal filings, bank transfers, and carrier shipping timelines, Saturday doesn't count. Neither does Sunday, and neither does a federal holiday that lands on a Tuesday.
Mostly the same thing. A banking day is any day the bank is actually open, which normally means Monday through Friday minus federal holidays. The small difference is that some banks close for Good Friday or other days the federal government doesn't. For ACH transfers and wire processing, you can treat them as the same.
The Monday-to-Friday counting works everywhere. The holiday exclusion is U.S.-specific though, so if you're working with a different country's calendar, leave that box unchecked and subtract the local holidays yourself from the raw weekday count.
In a standard year there are 261 weekdays (52 full weeks plus one extra day). Subtract the 11 federal holidays that land on weekdays and you get around 250 business days. In 2026 specifically, the count is exactly 250. It shifts a bit year to year depending on how holidays line up with weekends.
Between 20 and 23, depending on the month. In 2026, May has fewer than usual because Memorial Day takes one out. December and July both hit 23. The average across all twelve months works out to about 21.
It means 3 to 5 weekdays, not calendar days. If something ships on a Thursday, "3 business days" lands on Tuesday of the following week. "5 business days" gets you to Thursday. Weekends don't count toward that window at all.
Usually not. Most legal deadlines and shipping estimates start counting from the day after an event, not the event day itself. But some contracts say "including today," which is why this calculator has an "Include start date" toggle. Flip it on or off to match whatever your specific situation calls for.