12-hour to 24-hour time converter
Convert any clock time between the 12-hour (AM/PM) format, the 24-hour format, and military time. Type a time in either box and the others update as you go.
12-hour
3:30 PM
AM / PM format
24-hour
15:30
ISO / European format
Military
1530
fifteen thirty hours
Midnight is 12:00 AM = 00:00 · noon is 12:00 PM = 12:00
How the two formats line up
The 24-hour clock runs from 00:00 to 23:59 with no AM or PM, which is why it is used in aviation, medicine, the military and most of the world outside North America. The 12-hour clock splits the day in two, so every hour number appears twice. The two tricky cases are midnight and noon: 12:00 AM is 00:00 (the start of the day) and 12:00 PM is 12:00 (the middle of it). Everything from 1 PM onward is simply the 12-hour number plus twelve.
| 24-hour | 12-hour | Military | 24-hour | 12-hour | Military |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | 12:00 AM | 0000 | 12:00 | 12:00 PM | 1200 |
| 01:00 | 1:00 AM | 0100 | 13:00 | 1:00 PM | 1300 |
| 02:00 | 2:00 AM | 0200 | 14:00 | 2:00 PM | 1400 |
| 03:00 | 3:00 AM | 0300 | 15:00 | 3:00 PM | 1500 |
| 04:00 | 4:00 AM | 0400 | 16:00 | 4:00 PM | 1600 |
| 05:00 | 5:00 AM | 0500 | 17:00 | 5:00 PM | 1700 |
| 06:00 | 6:00 AM | 0600 | 18:00 | 6:00 PM | 1800 |
| 07:00 | 7:00 AM | 0700 | 19:00 | 7:00 PM | 1900 |
| 08:00 | 8:00 AM | 0800 | 20:00 | 8:00 PM | 2000 |
| 09:00 | 9:00 AM | 0900 | 21:00 | 9:00 PM | 2100 |
| 10:00 | 10:00 AM | 1000 | 22:00 | 10:00 PM | 2200 |
| 11:00 | 11:00 AM | 1100 | 23:00 | 11:00 PM | 2300 |
Questions
- Is midnight 12 AM or 12 PM?
- Midnight is 12:00 AM, written 00:00 on a 24-hour clock. Noon is 12:00 PM, written 12:00. Because this causes genuine confusion, timetables and contracts often write 23:59 or 00:01 instead.
- How do I convert PM to 24-hour time?
- Add 12 to the hour, except for 12 PM which stays as 12. So 3 PM becomes 15:00 and 9 PM becomes 21:00.
- How do I convert 24-hour time to AM and PM?
- Hours 00 to 11 are AM, with 00 written as 12 AM. Hours 12 to 23 are PM, subtracting 12 for anything above 12. So 18:45 becomes 6:45 PM.
- What is military time?
- The same as the 24-hour clock but written without a colon and usually spoken in pairs, so 15:30 is written 1530 and spoken as fifteen thirty hours.