Hours, Minutes & Seconds Converter

A minute is 60 seconds and an hour is 3,600 seconds: 1,800 seconds is 30 minutes, 1 hour 30 minutes is 5,400 seconds

To turn seconds into minutes, divide by 60. To turn minutes into seconds, multiply by 60. To go from hours to seconds, multiply by 3,600. So 1,800 seconds is 30 minutes (0.5 hours), 15 minutes is 900 seconds, 4 hours is 14,400 seconds, and 2 hours 15 minutes 30 seconds is 2 × 3,600 + 15 × 60 + 30 = 8,130 seconds (135.5 minutes).

The converter above updates every other field when you type into any of them: the hours, minutes and seconds boxes, or the total seconds, total minutes, total hours and total days boxes. The result header shows the same length in its most readable form, with the working underneath. When a value comes out as a decimal, such as 135.5 minutes or 2.2583 hours, the ruler beside the field shows how many seconds or minutes the decimal part really is.

Time counts in sixties, so decimal habits go wrong

Money and metres are decimal, so you can read the digits after the point as they are. Time is sexagesimal: 60 seconds make a minute and 60 minutes make an hour. Mixing decimals with hours-and-minutes notation causes these mistakes:

• Reading 1.5 hours as 1 hour 50 minutes: 0.5 hours is 30 minutes, so 1.5 hours is 1 hour 30 minutes. Written as a decimal, 1 hour 50 minutes is about 1.8333 hours.
• Reading 135.5 minutes as 135 minutes 50 seconds: 0.5 minutes is 30 seconds, so 135.5 minutes is 135 minutes 30 seconds.
• Treating 100 seconds as a round minute: 100 seconds is 1 minute 40 seconds, or about 1.6667 minutes. A round-looking 100 is not round in base 60.
• Writing 2.3 hours as 2 hours 30 minutes: 0.3 hours × 60 = 18 minutes, so 2.3 hours is 2 hours 18 minutes.

That is why a quick check helps whenever you have to re-enter a length in another unit: a video length typed into an editor in seconds, a workout or cooking timer set in the unit an app asks for, work hours written as decimal hours on a timesheet, or a duration converted to minutes in a spreadsheet.

How to calculate it

1. Convert everything to seconds: 1 minute = 60 seconds, 1 hour = 60 minutes = 3,600 seconds, 1 day = 24 hours = 86,400 seconds (units accepted for use with the SI, BIPM Table 8).
2. Hours, minutes, seconds to total seconds = hours × 3,600 + minutes × 60 + seconds. For 1 hour 30 minutes that is 3,600 + 1,800 = 5,400 seconds.
3. Total seconds to another unit: total minutes = total seconds ÷ 60, total hours = total seconds ÷ 3,600, total days = total seconds ÷ 86,400. For 8,130 seconds that gives 135.5 minutes, or about 2.2583 hours.
4. Total seconds to hours, minutes, seconds: divide the total by 3,600 for the hours, divide the remainder by 60 for the minutes, and what is left is the seconds. For 6,472 seconds, 6,472 ÷ 3,600 = 1 remainder 2,872, and 2,872 ÷ 60 = 47 remainder 52, so the answer is 1 hour 47 minutes 52 seconds.

Formula total seconds = hours × 3,600 + minutes × 60 + seconds · hours = ⌊total seconds ÷ 3,600⌋, minutes = ⌊remainder ÷ 60⌋, seconds = what remains

Inside, the converter stores each value as a whole number of milliseconds, so total seconds is exact to three decimal places. Total minutes and total hours are rounded to four decimal places and total days to six. A value that had to be rounded gets a ≈ in front of it.

Seconds to minutes table

Common numbers of seconds in minutes and in hours, minutes and seconds. Values that do not come out even are rounded to four decimal places.

Minutes and hours to seconds table

Multiply minutes by 60 or hours by 3,600 to get seconds. These are the values to use when a timer or interval field only takes seconds.

Reading decimal hours as hours and minutes

On a timesheet or payroll sheet, multiply the decimal part of the hours by 60 to get minutes. 0.1 hours is 6 minutes and 0.25 hours is 15 minutes.

The rulers beside the total fields draw this table. The upper scale of the total hours ruler runs from 0 to 60 minutes and the lower one from 0 to 1 hour, so a marker at 15 minutes on top sits at 0.25 below. The ruler beside total minutes shows the seconds inside one minute (30 seconds = 0.5 minutes), and the one beside total days shows the hours inside a day (6 hours = 0.25 days). Drag a marker or move it with the arrow keys and only the value at that spot changes.

Worked examples

All values come from the same converter. A ≈ marks a value rounded to four decimal places.

100,000 seconds is 27 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds. Because that is more than 24 hours, the result header also shows it as 1 day 3 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds. On a timesheet, 7 hours 20 minutes is written as 7.33 hours (two decimals). Writing 7.2 hours would mean 12 minutes, which loses 8 minutes.

Converting time to minutes or seconds in Excel and spreadsheets

Excel stores a time as a fraction of a day. Microsoft's TIME function page puts it this way: "12:00 PM is represented as 0.5 because it is half of a day". The total days box in the converter shows exactly this number; 2 hours 15 minutes 30 seconds is about 0.094097 days.

• Time to minutes or seconds: with 2:15:30 in cell A1, =A1*1440 gives 135.5 (minutes) and =A1*86400 gives 8130 (seconds). Set the result cell's format to General or Number, otherwise it may still look like a time. For hours, use =A1*24.
• Seconds to a time: with 8130 in A1, enter =A1/86400 and give the cell the format [h]:mm:ss to get 2:15:30.
• Lengths over 24 hours: with a plain h:mm:ss format the hours wrap around after 24. A long value such as 100,000 seconds needs the bracketed [h]:mm:ss format to show 27:46:40.

Common mistakes

• Reading 12:34 on a video as 12 hours 34 minutes: a two-part display on a player is normally minutes:seconds, so it means 12 minutes 34 seconds (754 seconds). With three parts, as in 1:02:03, it is hours:minutes:seconds.
• Thinking 90 is not allowed in the minutes box: the converter accepts values over 60, such as 90 minutes or 75 seconds. Entering 0 hours and 90 minutes gives 5,400 seconds, and the result header tidies it to 1 hour 30 minutes.
• Multiplying a rounded decimal back: if you write 1,000 seconds as 16.67 minutes and multiply by 60, you get 1,000.2 seconds. If you may need seconds again, keep the total seconds or the hours-minutes-seconds value rather than the rounded decimal.
• Adding daily decimal hours that were already rounded: three days of 7 hours 20 minutes make 22 hours, but adding 7.33 three times gives 21.99. Add in minutes or seconds and convert once at the end.
• An Excel result that still looks like a time: if =A1*1440 shows something like 12:00:00, the cell is still formatted as a time. Switch the format to General and 135.5 appears.

Limits and cautions

• The tool converts lengths of time only. It does not work with clock times such as 3:20 PM, the difference between two clock times, or date arithmetic. For the gap between two clock times use a time duration calculator, and for a span across several days use an elapsed time calculator with a start date and time.
• One day is fixed at 86,400 seconds. On the changeover days of countries that use daylight saving time, a calendar day lasts 23 or 25 hours, so the real length can differ.
• Total minutes and total hours are shown rounded to four decimal places and total days to six. A ≈ means the value was rounded; check the exact figure in total seconds or in hours, minutes and seconds.
• Negative values are not accepted, and the limit is 10 billion seconds (about 317 years). Anything finer than a thousandth of a second is rounded.
• Units whose length varies, such as a month or a year, are not covered.

Sources

• 01BIPM: The International System of Units (SI Brochure, 9th edition)Table 8, non-SI units accepted for use with the SI: 1 min = 60 s, 1 h = 60 min = 3600 s, 1 d = 24 h = 86 400 s
• 02Microsoft Support: TIME functionTIME returns a value from 0 to 0.99988426; "12:00 PM is represented as 0.5 because it is half of a day"
• 03Microsoft Support: Calculate the difference between two times in ExcelTotal minutes =(B2-A2)*1440, total seconds =(B2-A2)*86400. With time format codes, hours never exceed 24 and minutes and seconds never exceed 60
• 04Microsoft Support: Review guidelines for customizing a number format[h] displays elapsed time in hours; for results over 24 hours use a format such as [h]:mm:ss

Sources checked 2026-10-18. Excel menu names can differ between versions.

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