Business Days Calculator - Count Working Days Between Dates

"Within 30 business days" - but which 30?

Contracts, legal deadlines and delivery estimates rarely mean calendar days. They mean business days - weekdays minus public holidays. The gap matters more than most people realize: 30 business days from January 2 is not January 31. It is somewhere around February 12, depending on how many holidays fall in that window.

This calculator takes two dates, strips out weekends (and optionally US federal holidays), and returns the exact count. No guessing, no manual crossing-off on a calendar.

How to use - step by step

Start date - pick the first day of the range. Both start and end dates are included in the count.
End date - pick the last day of the range.
Exclude US federal holidays - checked by default. Uncheck if you only want to skip weekends, or if your holidays differ.
Count Saturdays as working days - check this if your schedule includes Saturday shifts.
Read the results - the calculator shows business days, total days, weekend days and holidays side by side.

US federal holidays excluded by default

Holiday	Date rule
New Year's Day	January 1
Martin Luther King Jr. Day	3rd Monday in January
Presidents' Day	3rd Monday in February
Memorial Day	Last Monday in May
Juneteenth	June 19
Independence Day	July 4
Labor Day	1st Monday in September
Columbus Day	2nd Monday in October
Veterans Day	November 11
Thanksgiving	4th Thursday in November
Christmas Day	December 25

If your company or country uses different holidays, uncheck the option and count only weekends.

Worked examples

January 2 to January 31 (no holidays)
30 calendar days, 22 business days, 8 weekend days

January 2 to January 31 (with US holidays)
21 business days - MLK Day falls on a Monday and gets excluded

Full year: January 1 to December 31
365 calendar days, 251 business days (with 11 US holidays, non-leap year)

Q1: January 1 to March 31
90 days, 62 business days (63 without holiday exclusion)

One work week: Monday to Friday
5 calendar days = 5 business days (unless a holiday lands inside)

Business days per month - quick reference

Month	Typical range	Note
January	20-22	New Year + MLK Day
February	19-20	Short month + Presidents' Day
March	22-23	No federal holidays
April - August	20-23	Memorial, Juneteenth, July 4, Labor Day
November	19-21	Veterans Day + Thanksgiving
December	21-22	Christmas Day

What counts as a business day?

A business day is any day that is not a weekend (Saturday/Sunday) and not a public holiday. In most contexts, it means Monday through Friday, excluding nationally recognized holidays. Some industries define it differently - banking, courts and government agencies may each have their own list.

Are both the start and end dates included?

Yes. If you enter Monday as start and Friday as end, the result is 5 business days. Both boundary dates count if they fall on a working day.

What if a holiday falls on a weekend?

The calculator checks whether the holiday date itself is a weekday. If July 4 lands on a Saturday, it is already excluded as a weekend day - the count stays the same. The US federal "observed" shift (Friday or Monday) is not applied here because rules vary by employer.

Can I use this for non-US holidays?

Uncheck "Exclude US federal holidays" and the calculator will count weekdays only. You can then subtract your country's holidays manually. The weekend logic (Mon-Fri or Mon-Sat) still works regardless of country.

How many business days are in a year?

A typical year has 260 weekdays (52 weeks x 5). Subtract 11 US federal holidays that fall on weekdays and you get approximately 249-251 business days, depending on the year.

Why does "30 business days" take 6 weeks?

Each week has only 5 business days. So 30 business days = 6 full weeks = 42 calendar days minimum. Add holidays and it stretches further. That is why legal and shipping deadlines feel longer than they sound.

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