Counting working days between dates
Business days are the days offices, banks, courts and delivery networks actually operate: Monday to Friday, minus public holidays. Whenever a contract says "within 10 business days", a payroll runs "every 10 business days", or a project plan counts working days between a start and a deadline, this is the count you need. This calculator walks the calendar day by day between your two dates and tallies business days, weekend days and — optionally — US federal holidays separately, so you can see exactly what was skipped and why.
The counting rule, stated plainly
Excluding the start day matches how deadlines are normally quoted: "5 business days from Monday" is a deadline on the following Monday, counting Tuesday through Monday. If your situation counts the start day itself (for example, tallying days already worked including today), tick the include-start option and the count grows by one when the start is a business day. The holiday option removes the US federal holidays that fall on weekdays inside the period — including the federal observed day when a holiday falls on a weekend (for instance Friday, July 3, 2026, observed for Saturday, July 4). The list covers 2024–2028.
What counts as a holiday?
Only US federal holidays are built in: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. State holidays, company shutdowns and other countries' holidays are not included — if your workplace closes for extra days, subtract them from the result, or check the period week by week with the Weekday Calculator. To move in the other direction — add business days to a date — use the Business Date Calculator.
Worked example
From Monday, October 12, 2026 to Friday, October 23, 2026 there are 9 business days (the start day excluded) and 2 weekend days, out of 11 calendar days.
How to use this calculator
- Enter the start and end dates of the period.
- Tick “include the start date” if your count should contain it.
- Tick the holiday option to remove US federal holidays as well as weekends.
- Read the business-day total in the green panel and the full split in the table.
Business days around the world
The Monday–Friday week is common but not universal: some countries work Sunday–Thursday or Monday–Saturday, and holiday calendars differ completely. This tool follows the US convention throughout. If you are coordinating across countries, the Meeting Planner helps find times that land inside everyone's working day.