Military Time Converter
Convert between 12-hour AM/PM civilian time and 24-hour military time. Returns the time in the opposite format.
Last updated: September 2026
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About this calculator
Military time (24-hour clock) uses hours 0 through 23 rather than 12 AM through 12 PM. It removes AM/PM ambiguity — "12:00" can mean either noon or midnight in civilian usage, but "1200" is unambiguously noon and "0000" is midnight. The 24-hour clock is standard in military operations, aviation, medicine, and most of the world outside the US, Canada, Australia, and a few other English-speaking countries.
Conversion rules (12-hour → 24-hour): 12 AM = 0000. 1–11 AM = 0100–1100 (just add a leading zero). 12 PM = 1200. 1–11 PM = 1300–2300 (add 12 to the hour). Conversion rules (24-hour → 12-hour): 0000 = 12 AM. 0100–1100 = 1–11 AM. 1200 = 12 PM. 1300–2300 = 1–11 PM (subtract 12).
Military time is written without a colon in military correspondence (1430, not 14:30). ISO 8601 and civilian European usage typically keep the colon (14:30). Both are 24-hour — the colon/no-colon is a style convention, not a functional difference.
How to use
Example — 3:30 PM to military. Add 12 to the hour: 3 + 12 = 15. Result = 1530. Read as "fifteen-thirty" or "fifteen hundred thirty" in military speech. Example — 0745 to civilian. 0745 is already before noon, so hour 7 is AM: 7:45 AM. If the input were 1945, subtract 12 (19 − 12 = 7): 7:45 PM.
Frequently asked questions
Is 1200 noon or midnight?
1200 is noon (12 PM civilian). Midnight is 0000 (or sometimes 2400 in shipping and railway timetables, meaning the end of a day rather than the start of the next). In military communication, 0001 is one minute after midnight to unambiguously distinguish it from 2401.
How do you say military time out loud?
US military reads each hour as a four-digit block: 0800 is "oh-eight-hundred", 1300 is "thirteen-hundred", 1435 is "fourteen-thirty-five". Aviation uses similar phrasing. Civilian 24-hour usage in Europe typically says "quinze heures trente" (French) or "fünfzehn Uhr dreißig" (German).
What is 24:00?
ISO 8601 allows 24:00 as the end-of-day equivalent to 00:00 the next day, but it is rarely used in practice. Standard usage is 0000 for midnight-start-of-day. Trains and airline schedules sometimes list 24:00 as an end-of-day cutoff.
Do other countries use military time in daily life?
Most of continental Europe, most of Asia, and Latin America use 24-hour time by default in schedules, official documents, and digital displays. The US, UK, Canada, Australia, and some others use 12-hour AM/PM in daily speech but 24-hour in military, medical, and computing contexts.