Military Time Converter

Military time is the 24-hour clock used by the US armed forces, aviation, hospitals, and most of the world. The day runs from 0000 (midnight) through 2359 (one minute before the next midnight), so there is no AM or PM and no repeated hours. Times are written as four digits with no colon, such as 1730, and spoken as the digits, for example seventeen thirty.

For AM times from 1:00 to 11:59, keep the same hour and pad it to two digits, so 9:05 AM becomes 0905. Midnight, written 12:00 AM, becomes 0000. For PM times from 1:00 to 11:59, add 12 to the hour, so 5:30 PM becomes 1730. Noon, written 12:00 PM, stays 1200.

If the hour is 00, the time is 12 AM, so 0015 is 12:15 AM. Hours 01 through 11 stay the same and are AM, so 0830 is 8:30 AM. Hour 12 is 12 PM (noon). For hours 13 through 23, subtract 12 and add PM, so 2000 becomes 8:00 PM.

The standard convention is to write midnight as 0000 (the start of a new day) and read it as zero hundred hours. Some schedules use 2400 to mark the end of a day instead, but 0000 is the common and unambiguous choice, and this converter uses it. The minute after midnight is 0001.

A 24-hour clock removes the AM and PM ambiguity that can cause costly mistakes in operations, scheduling, and logistics. Every time of day maps to exactly one value, so 1300 can never be confused with 0100. This is the same reason pilots, nurses, and emergency services rely on it.

On-the-hour times use hundred hours, so 0700 is zero seven hundred hours and 1200 is twelve hundred hours. Times with minutes read both pairs of digits, so 1730 is seventeen thirty and 0905 is zero nine zero five. A leading zero in the hour is pronounced zero.