Military time is the 24-hour clock, written as four digits
In the United States, "military time" is the everyday name for the 24-hour clock. The day runs from 0000 to 2359. Each time is four digits, two for the hour and two for the minutes, with no colon and no AM or PM.
00xx → 12:xx AM
01xx to 11xx → same hour, AM
12xx → 12:xx PM
13xx to 23xx → hour − 12, PM
The 12-hour clock needs a converter because it reuses its numbers. Every reading from 1:00 to 12:59 happens twice a day, and the labels at the two ends are a known trap: NIST, the US standards agency, says 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. are ambiguous and should not be used. The 24-hour clock gives each minute of the day its own reading.
It is not only a military habit. According to Military.com, the US Navy took it up in 1920 and the Army in 1942, and it is routine wherever work runs around the clock: hospitals, police and fire departments, aviation and railroads.
Which way of writing the time to use
- 1430: four digits, no colon. Military writing, logs and duty rosters, often followed by the word hours.
- 14:30: the same reading with a colon. Timetables and international use; it is the form ISO 8601 uses.
- 2:30 PM: everyday American use. It is fine until you reach 12 o'clock, where the words noon and midnight are safer than 12 PM and 12 AM.
- 1830Z: a reading in UTC, for when the people reading it are in different time zones.
- 0000 or 2400: both are midnight. Use 0000 for the start of a day and 2400 only for the end of one.
How to convert military time to standard time
- Type the four digits into Military time. A colon is accepted, and so is a trailing "hours" or Z.
- Split it in two: the first two digits are the hour, the last two are the minutes.
- If the hour is 13 or more, subtract 12 and call it PM. 1745 is 17 − 12 = 5, so 5:45 PM.
- If the hour is 01 to 11, keep it and call it AM. 0930 is 9:30 AM.
- Handle the two 12s: hour 12 stays 12 and is PM, and hour 00 reads as 12 and is AM. 1215 is 12:15 PM, 0015 is 12:15 AM.
- Leave the minutes alone. Open How it was converted to see these steps with your own numbers.
How to convert standard time to military time
- Type the time into Standard time with am or pm, or type it bare and tap AM or PM.
- For an AM time, keep the hour and write it with two digits. 6:05 AM is 0605.
- For a PM time, add 12 to the hour. 2:30 PM is 2 + 12 = 14, so 1430.
- The exceptions again: 12 AM becomes 00 and 12 PM stays 12. Midnight is 0000 and noon is 1200.
- Drop the colon and keep the minutes. Always write four digits, with a zero in front when the hour is below 10.
How to say military time
- Hour, then minutes: 1430 is "fourteen thirty", 2359 is "twenty-three fifty-nine".
- Whole hours take "hundred", never "thousand": 1000 is "ten hundred" and 2000 is "twenty hundred".
- The leading zero is spoken: 0600 is "zero six hundred", 0543 is "zero five forty-three".
- "Hours" is optional: "fourteen thirty hours" is the formal form.
- On the radio, each digit is read on its own: "zero five four three".
The main variant is "oh" for the zero. The Editor's Manual gives "oh six hundred" and "eighteen oh nine" next to the "zero" forms. The converter leads with "zero", which is what the military sources use, and shows the "oh" reading beside it.
Taking the answer with you
- Copy the answer puts the converted time alone on the clipboard, ready for a message, a form or a log entry.
- Copy all threegives one line with both formats and the spoken form, such as 1430 = 2:30 PM, said "fourteen thirty".
- Copy the chart copies all 24 hours as tab separated text. Paste it into a spreadsheet or a document and it lands as a three-column table you can print and pin up.
- For a timesheet, the second tab gives a shift as hours and minutes and as decimal hours. 0730 to 1615 is 8 hr 45 min, or 8.75.
Where the conventions differ
- US and allied militaries: no separator, leading zeros written and spoken, and a letter for the time zone. Z is UTC and J, "Juliett", is local time, so 0200R is 2:00 AM in zone R, US Eastern standard time.
- Midnight: NIST and style guides describe 0000 as the start of a day and 2400 as the end. Military communication instructions discourage 2400, and the Navy correspondence manual has used 0000 through 2359 since 2015.
- Civilian 24-hour time: written with a colon. The name military time is American; elsewhere it is simply the 24-hour clock.
- Weather services: observations are timed in UTC. NOAA calls it Z time or Zulu time and notes that it does not move with daylight saving time.
- US time zones: Eastern is 5 hours behind UTC on standard time and 4 on daylight time; Central 6 and 5; Mountain 7 and 6; Pacific 8 and 7. To compare cities directly, use the time zone converter.
What to watch for
- Digits without a colon are read as military time. Typing 230 gives 0230, which is 2:30 AM. For the afternoon, type 1430 or 2:30 pm.
- The date can change. A shift from 2200 to 0600 ends on the next day, and 2400 on Monday is the same moment as 0000 on Tuesday.
- Clock changes. The shift tab counts clock time. On a night when daylight saving time starts or ends, an overnight shift is an hour shorter or longer than the two readings suggest.
- Your UTC offset is today's. It is read from your device when the page loads and changes when daylight saving time does.
- Spoken forms vary by service, unit and habit. The page shows the forms its sources give; follow your own unit or workplace where it differs.
- Not every form takes 2400. Military instructions themselves prefer 2359 or 0001 near midnight, so use one of those where 2400 is not accepted.
Frequently asked questions
What time is 1500 in military time?
1500 is 3:00 PM. For any military time from 1300 to 2359, subtract 12 from the first two digits and add PM: 15 minus 12 is 3. The last two digits are the minutes and do not change, so 1545 is 3:45 PM. Out loud, 1500 is "fifteen hundred", or "fifteen hundred hours" in formal use.
How do you convert military time to regular time?
Read the first two digits as the hour and the last two as the minutes. Hours 01 to 11 are the morning: drop the leading zero and add AM, so 0930 is 9:30 AM. Hour 12 keeps its number and takes PM. For 13 to 23, subtract 12 and add PM, so 2145 is 9:45 PM. Hour 00 is the hour after midnight and reads as 12 AM, so 0015 is 12:15 AM.
How do you convert regular time to military time?
Keep AM hours as they are, written with two digits: 6:30 AM is 0630. Add 12 to PM hours: 2:30 PM is 1430 and 11:59 PM is 2359. The two exceptions are the 12 o'clock hours. 12 AM is the hour after midnight, so it becomes 00 and 12:15 AM is 0015. 12 PM is the noon hour and stays 12, so 12:15 PM is 1215. The minutes never change, and the colon is dropped.
How do you say military time out loud?
Say the hour, then the minutes. 1430 is "fourteen thirty" and 2359 is "twenty-three fifty-nine". A whole hour takes "hundred", never "thousand": 1000 is "ten hundred" and 2000 is "twenty hundred". A leading zero is spoken, so 0600 is "zero six hundred" and 0543 is "zero five forty-three". Add "hours" at the end in formal use. On military radio each digit is read on its own: "zero five four three".
Is it "oh six hundred" or "zero six hundred"?
Both are in use. The chart published by Military.com and the convention shared by the US and allied forces say "zero six hundred". The Editor's Manual, a writing style reference, lists "oh six hundred" alongside it, and "eighteen oh nine" for 1809. In a military setting, say "zero". The converter shows the "zero" form first and gives the "oh" form as a variant whenever the time has a zero to soften.
Is midnight 0000 or 2400?
Both name the same instant, seen from two different days. NIST suggests 0000 for midnight at the beginning of a day and 2400 for midnight at the end of one. Military communication instructions discourage 2400 and suggest 2359 or 0001 near midnight to remove any doubt, and the US Navy correspondence manual has used 0000 through 2359 since 2015. This converter reads 2400 as 12:00 AM at the end of the day.
What are 12 PM and 12 AM in military time?
12 PM is noon, which is 1200. 12 AM is midnight, which is 0000. NIST calls the labels 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. ambiguous and advises against using them at all, which is one good reason to prefer the 24-hour clock around those two hours: the minute after 1159 is 1200, the minute after 2359 is 0000, and neither can be read as the other.
What is Zulu time?
Zulu time is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time on the zero meridian through Greenwich. In military notation each time zone has a letter, and Z, spoken "Zulu", is the one for UTC, so 1830Z means 1830 UTC. It does not change for daylight saving time. US Eastern time is 5 hours behind UTC on standard time and 4 hours behind on daylight time, so 1830Z is 1:30 PM EST or 2:30 PM EDT.
How many hours is 2200 to 0600?
Eight. When the end time is earlier than the start, the shift runs through midnight, so count it in two parts: 2200 to 2400 is 2 hours and 0000 to 0600 is 6 hours. The Hours between two times tab does this for any pair of times and also gives the answer as a decimal, 8.00 hours, which is handy for a timesheet. A 0730 to 1615 day, for example, is 8 hr 45 min, or 8.75 hours.
Do you write military time with a colon?
Not in military usage: the time is four digits with no separator, such as 0630 or 1430, often followed by the word hours or by a time zone letter. Outside the military the same 24-hour time is normally written with a colon, 06:30 or 14:30, which is also the form the international standard ISO 8601 uses. Both mean the same thing, and the converter accepts either.
Sources
- Military.com, What Is Military Time?: the conversion chart with how each hour is said, and when the Navy and Army adopted the 24-hour clock (checked October 5, 2026).
- Wikipedia, 24-hour clock, Military time: the allied convention from ACP 121(I) on separators, spoken leading zeros, "hundred", zone letters and 2400 (checked October 5, 2026).
- The Editor's Manual, Time on the 24-Hour Clock (Military Time): the "oh" and "zero" readings and the first hour of the day (checked October 5, 2026).
- NIST, Times of Day FAQs: why 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. are ambiguous, and 0000 against 2400 (checked October 5, 2026).
- NOAA National Hurricane Center, What is UTC or GMT Time?: Zulu time and the UTC offsets of the US time zones (checked October 5, 2026).
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