Use the free Business Days Calculator below: your data never leaves your browser — all work happens on your device, and nothing is uploaded to any server.
What the business days calculator does
Counting working days by hand is slow and error-prone, especially across weekends, months and holidays. This free business days calculator counts the working days between two dates for you. It treats Monday to Friday as working days, skips Saturdays and Sundays, and skips any holidays you list. You can choose whether the end date itself counts, which matters a lot for deadlines. It runs entirely in your browser, and nothing you type is uploaded.
The result shows the business day count in large type, plus the breakdown underneath: how many calendar days are in the range, how many weekend days were skipped, and how many holidays were skipped. That breakdown is the part people usually want to check, because it shows exactly why the count is what it is, instead of asking you to trust a single number.
How to use it
Pick a start date and an end date. Tick the box if the end date should count as a working day; leave it unticked if you want the days strictly between the two dates. If there are public holidays in the range, type one date per line in the holidays box, in year-month-day form, for example 2026-12-25. Press Count. Only holidays that fall on a weekday are subtracted, because a holiday that falls on a Saturday was already skipped as a weekend day.
Think carefully about the end-date box. A project that starts on Monday and ends on Friday has five working days if the end date counts, and four if it does not. Contracts, delivery promises and leave requests all turn on this choice, so check what your own rule is before you quote a number to someone else.
Why counting by hand goes wrong
People usually make three mistakes. They count calendar days instead of working days, they forget a bank holiday in the middle of the range, or they disagree about whether the start and end dates count. Any one of those can shift a deadline by several days, and across a long range the error grows. A tool that shows its working, with weekend and holiday counts visible, removes the argument about how the number was reached.
Different countries and different companies also define working days differently. Some workplaces include Saturday, some observe different public holidays, and some count the start date but not the end date. This tool uses the common Monday-to-Friday definition, with your own holiday list on top, which covers the usual office case. If your workplace works Saturdays, count those separately rather than forcing them into this tool.
A worked example
Suppose a task starts on Monday 26 October 2026 and ends on Friday 30 October 2026. Without the end date counted, the tool gives four business days: Monday to Thursday. With the end date counted, it gives five. Add a holiday on Wednesday 28 October and the count with the end date included drops to four. That single holiday line changes the answer, which is why the holidays box exists and why you should always list the holidays you know about.
Common questions
Are Saturdays business days? Not in this tool. Business days here mean Monday to Friday. If your business works Saturdays, add them by hand or adjust the result.
What if a holiday falls on a weekend? It is not subtracted twice. Weekend days are already skipped, so a Saturday holiday does not reduce the count further. Some workplaces move such holidays to a weekday; if yours does, list the moved weekday date instead.
Does the tool know my country holidays? No, and that is deliberate. Public holidays differ by country and region, and a built-in list would be wrong for half its users. Listing your own holidays takes seconds and guarantees the list matches your calendar.
Can I count a range longer than a year? Yes, the tool handles ranges of several years, but check the holiday list carefully for long ranges, because missing a whole year of holidays will undercount the skipped days.
Limits of this tool
This calculator counts days by the Monday-to-Friday rule plus your holiday list. It does not know your company calendar, regional holidays you forgot to list, or half days. Use the breakdown to sanity-check the result, and confirm deadline-critical counts against your own official calendar before you commit to them.