Choose the conversion you need
Use Hours + minutes → decimal hours for a duration such as 7 hours 30 minutes. Enter both fields, using 0 where needed. Use Decimal hours → hours + minutes for a number such as 7.5 hours. Select Calculate to convert.
Changing direction clears your entries and the result. Try example fills the active form without calculating; Reset returns to blank hours and minutes.
Method and examples
An hour contains 60 minutes, as listed in NIST’s time-unit conversion table. To convert hours and minutes, use decimal hours = hours + minutes ÷ 60. So 7 hours 30 minutes = 7 + 30 ÷ 60 = 7.5 hours.
For the reverse conversion, multiply decimal hours by 60 and round the total to the nearest whole minute. Split that total into whole hours and remaining minutes.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| 7 hours 30 minutes | 7.5 decimal hours |
| 7.30 decimal hours | 7 hours 18 minutes |
| 23.999 decimal hours | 24 hours 00 minutes, rounded |
| 49.25 decimal hours | 49 hours 15 minutes |
7.30 decimal hours is not 7 hours 30 minutes. The fractional part is 0.30 of an hour, and 0.30 × 60 = 18 minutes. A decimal point separates the fractional hour; a colon usually separates clock hours and minutes.
Precision and limits
Hours and minutes must be nonnegative whole numbers, with minutes from 0 to 59. Decimal input accepts up to six decimal places and uses a decimal point. The maximum total duration in either direction is 1,000,000 hours; at that limit, the minutes field must be 0.
Decimal output is rounded to at most four decimal places. For example, 1 minute becomes 0.0167 hours. In the reverse direction, half minutes round up: 0.025 hours is 1.5 minutes and becomes 2 minutes. Rounding is applied to the total minute count before splitting hours and minutes, so 23.999 hours correctly carries into 24 hours 00 minutes.
A duration can be longer than 24 hours. No dates, time zones or employer-specific rounding rules are applied. If you have start and end clock times, use the Time Duration Calculator first.