Date Difference
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Count the days, weeks, months and working days between any two dates.
- Pick the two dates — either order, it counts the same
- Read the headline for years, months and days
- Use the two boxes below it if you need the day count exactly
Between the dates
Counting both days
About this tool
Two dates, and every way of counting the gap between them. The headline is the answer people say out loud — one year, two months and five days — and underneath it are the same span in days, weeks, months, and Mondays-to-Fridays only. The number most tools get wrong is the simple one. "How many days between the 1st and the 5th" has two correct answers: four if you are counting the gap, five if you are counting the days you will be away. Holiday bookings, notice periods and invoice terms all use the second; every naive subtraction gives the first. Both are shown here, side by side and named, because picking one for you is how a tool sends somebody to the airport a day late. Working days are counted too, since "business days between two dates" is the same question with weekends taken out. Public holidays are not included — they differ by country, and a number that is quietly wrong for most of the world is worse than one that says what it counted. Dates are handled as calendar dates rather than timestamps, so the answer is identical in every timezone. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there two different day counts?
Because "between the 1st and the 5th" means four days if you are counting the gap and five if you are counting the days themselves. A hotel stay, a notice period and a holiday allowance all count both ends; a deadline counts the gap. Showing one number would mean guessing which you meant.
Does it count working days?
Yes — Monday to Friday only, listed with the other units. Public holidays are not deducted, because they depend on which country you are in and there is no single right answer to bake in. If you need those too, subtract them from the working-day figure.
Can the second date be earlier than the first?
Yes. The difference is the same either way round, so it counts between them and tells you which direction you asked in. There is also a swap button, which is mostly for having typed them into the wrong boxes.
How are months counted when they are different lengths?
By walking forward, not by subtracting. From 31 January, one month later is 28 or 29 February — the end of that month — rather than 2 or 3 March. That is how a person answers it, and it is the only way that keeps "one month later" inside the month it names.
Will I get the same answer as someone in another country?
Yes. Dates are treated as calendar dates rather than moments in time, so no timezone is involved at any point. Tools that parse a date into a timestamp are a day out for anybody west of Greenwich, and the error is invisible to whoever wrote them.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. The whole calculation is a few dozen integer operations and it happens in this tab. There is also a free API if you want the same numbers from a script — the same code runs on both sides.
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