Business Day Calculator – Easily Calculate Business Days Between Dates

Plan Precisely: Exclude Weekends and Holidays

Need to know how many work days you actually have to complete a project? Or how many business days there are until an important deadline? Calculating work days can be tedious if done manually, especially when weekends and holidays are involved. Our Work Day Calculator simplifies this task, allowing you to get an accurate count in seconds.

With our tool:

✅ Quickly calculate the exact number of business days between two dates.

✅ Automatically excludes Saturdays and Sundays.

✅ Allows you to consider relevant holidays (ideally with an option for Chilean holidays!).

Use our calculator now and optimize your time and deadline planning.

Example of Calculating Business Days

Apply for any country and date in the world.

Example for the United States (US)

Let's calculate how many working days there were in the month of May 2025 in USA, considering the dates from May 1st to May 31st inclusive. We know that in the US, Memorial Day It is celebrated on the last Monday of May, which in 2025 corresponds to May 26.

Data for calculation:

• Start Date: May 1, 2025
• End Date: May 31, 2025
• US Federal Holidays (May 2025): Memorial Day – May 26 (Monday).

Performing the Calculation:

• Total days: From May 1st to May 31st there are 31 days.
• Weekends: May 2025 has the following weekends: (3-4), (10-11), (17-18), (24-25). Additionally, May 31 is a Saturday. In total, there are 5 Saturdays and 4 Sundays = 9 weekend days.
• Working holidays: The federal Memorial Day holiday (Monday, May 26) falls on a day that would normally be a workday. Therefore, it is one business holiday to exclude.
• Final calculation: Business Days = Total Days – Weekend Days – Business Holidays Business Days = 31 – 9 – 1 = 21 days.

📊 Result: Was 21 business days in the United States during May 2025 (including the period from May 1 to 31, inclusive, and the Memorial Day federal holiday).

Our calculator performs this complex calculation automatically for any date range and allows you to take into account country-specific holidays.

Example for Chile

Let's calculate how many working days there were in May 2025 in Chile, considering the dates from May 1st to May 31st inclusive. We know that in Chile, May 1st (Labor Day) and May 21st (Day of Naval Glories) are national holidays.

Data for calculation:

• Start Date: May 1, 2025
• End Date: May 31, 2025
• Holidays in Chile (May 2025): May 1 (Thursday), May 21 (Wednesday).

Performing the Calculation:

1. Total days: From May 1st to May 31st there are 31 days.
2. Weekends: The following weekends fall on May 2025: (3-4), (10-11), (17-18), (24-25). May 31 is also a Saturday. Total: 5 Saturdays and 4 Sundays = 9 weekend days.
3. Working holidays: The holidays of May 1st (Thursday) and May 21st (Wednesday) fall on days that would normally be working days. These are two working holidays that must be excluded.
4. Final calculation: Business Days = Total Days – Weekend Days – Business Holidays Business Days = 31 – 9 – 2 = 20 days.

📊 Result: Was 20 business days in Chile during May 2025 (considering the period from May 1 to 31 inclusive).

Our calculator performs this complex counting automatically for any date range.

📢 Calculate your available business days for any period now.

How Does Our Business Day Calculator Work?

Getting the number of business days between two dates is very easy:

Step 1: Define the Period

🗓️ Select the Start Date and the End Date of the time interval you wish to analyze using the interactive calendars.

Why is it important? These dates define the exact period for which working days will be counted.

Step 2: Consider Holidays (Key to Accuracy)

🎉 The calculator needs to know which holidays to exclude. Typically, you'll have options:

• Use Official Holidays: Ideally, the tool will have an option to automatically load the national holidays of the relevant country (e.g. Chilean Holidays for the corresponding year).
• Add Custom Holidays: You may have the option to manually enter specific dates that you consider non-working (regional holidays, company days off, etc.).

Why is it important? Excluding the correct holidays is crucial to obtaining an accurate count of days actually worked or available.

Step 3: The Calculator Performs Smart Counting

The tool runs an algorithm that:

1. Calculate the total number of days between the start and end dates (considering whether they are inclusive).
2. Identify and subtract all the Saturdays and Sundays within that range.
3. Identify the selected holidays (official or custom) that fall on Monday through Friday and subtract them. Business Days = Total Days − Weekends − Business Holidays

Why is it important? Automates a process that is prone to errors manually, especially over long periods.

Step 4: Get the Exact Number of Business Days

✅ Done! The calculator will show you the final number of business days within the period you defined.

🔹 Use this number to plan projects more accurately.

🔹 Calculate how many vacation days you need or have left.

🔹 Check legal or administrative deadlines expressed in business days.

📢 Need to plan your next project? Start by calculating your business days!

This is only for entrepreneurs, business owners and freelancers.

🚀 If you need to launch your website, SaaS or online store quickly and efficiently, visit NippyLaunch.comWe create your digital platform so you can start operating as quickly as possible.

📈 If you need to attract more customers and grow your business through effective digital advertising and marketing strategies, visit CleefCompany.comWe boost your visibility and conversions.

What are Business Days?

Weekdays, also known as business days or work days, are the days of the week on which business and work activities normally take place.

In most Western countries, including Chile, this typically corresponds to the days of Monday to Friday.

In addition to weekends (Saturday and Sunday), weekdays exclude official holidays recognized by law or custom in a particular region or country.

Accurately calculating the number of business days is critical in many fields—project management, human resources, finance, legal, and logistics—as many deadlines, payments, and scheduling are based on business days, not calendar days.

👉 Ensure efficient planning and meet your deadlines by correctly calculating business days.

Recommended books on Time Management and Projects

To complement your calculator use and improve your planning, consider these books:

1️⃣ Getting Things Done (Getting Organized Effectively) – David Allen

A classic personal productivity method that helps you manage tasks and projects efficiently, making understanding deadlines and available time (business days) crucial.

2️⃣ Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time – Jeff Sutherland

Introduces the principles of Scrum, an agile project management methodology where short-cycle planning (sprints) and estimating work in days are fundamental.

3️⃣ The PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Guide – Project Management Institute

Standard reference in project management that covers extensive project schedule planning, including the definition of project calendars that consider working and non-working days.

Why Use Our Business Day Calculator?

Our tool offers you significant advantages over manual counting:

• ✅ Guaranteed Accuracy – Avoid errors when counting days, weekends, and holidays in any period.
• ✅ Considerable Time Savings – Calculate in seconds what could take several minutes manually, especially for long ranges.
• ✅ Smart Holiday Management – Automatically considers relevant holidays (ideally those in your country) or allows you to add them.
• ✅ Essential for Professional Planning – A must for project managers, HR professionals, and anyone who manages deadlines.

Avoid These Common Mistakes When Calculating Business Days Manually

Counting by hand on a calendar is prone to errors. The most common ones are:

• 🚫 Forgetting Important Holidays – Not considering a holiday can completely throw off a business-day-based schedule.
• 🚫 Miscounting Weekends – Over long periods or across month changes, it’s easy to make a mistake when counting how many Saturdays and Sundays there are.
• 🚫 Start/End Date Confusion – Not being clear about whether the first and last days are included or excluded from the calculation can lead to an error of one or two days.

Use our calculator to eliminate these risks and always get the right number.

Comparison: Business Day Calculator vs. Manual Count

Why choose a digital tool instead of a physical or digital calendar?

• ✅ Extreme Speed – Instantly calculates for any date range, no matter how long.
• ✅ Total Reliability – Applies weekend and holiday exclusion rules without errors.
• ✅ Simplified Holiday Management – Integrate holiday lists or easily add new ones, which is tedious to do manually.
• ✅ Ideal for Repetitive Calculations – If you need to calculate business days frequently, the calculator is much more efficient.

Optimize your planning and ensure accuracy with our specialized calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Business Day Calculator

How to easily calculate working days between two dates?

The simplest way is to use our Business Day Calculator. Enter the start and end dates of the period. Make sure to indicate or select the relevant holidays (ideally, the Chilean holidays option). The calculator will automatically show you the number of days from Monday to Friday in that range, excluding weekends and the specified holidays.

What is this calculator for?

It is used to count the exact number of work days (Monday to Friday, not including holidays) between two specific dates. It is essential for planning projects, calculating delivery times, determining vacation periods, meeting legal or financial deadlines, and, in general, for any activity where time is measured in business days.

Which days are considered non-working days by default?

By default, the calculator considers as non-work the following: Saturdays and Sundays. Additionally, if the option is activated, it will exclude the official holidays (like those in Chile) or custom holidays entered by the user that fall between Monday and Friday.

Practical example of calculating working days

Let's calculate the business days for the week of Monday, May 19, to Friday, May 23, 2025, in Chile. Wednesday, May 21, is a holiday (Naval Glories Day).

• Total days in range (inclusive): 5 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday).
• Weekends in range: 0.
• Working holidays in the range: 1 (Wednesday 21st).
• Working days = 5 – 0 – 1 = 4 days. There were 4 working days in that specific week.

Does the calculator automatically include holidays for Chile or other countries?

Ideally, a good workday calculator for users in Chile or the world should have an option to automatically load the list of Chilean national holidays or the world for the selected year. Try it and you'll find out. 

Can I add my own holidays or non-working days?

Yes. Many calculators of this type offer the ability to manually enter additional dates that should be considered non-working (e.g., specific regional holidays, company-defined long weekends, planned closures). Try it!

Does the calculation include the start date and the end date?

This may vary depending on the calculator. Some calculate business days. between Some include both dates (excluding both), others include the start date but not the end date, and others include both. It's important to read the description or try a small example to understand how the specific calculator you're using works. Our description assumes an inclusive calculation of both dates if they fall on a business day.

How are half-holidays or “sandwich” holidays handled?

Generally, workday calculators treat days in a binary way: either it's a workday or it's not. A "half-holiday" or a "sandwich" day that isn't legally a full holiday is usually It is counted as a normal working day unless manually entered as a full holiday.

Can I calculate backwards (what will be the date X business days later/before)?

Some more advanced calculators offer this functionality: enter a start date and a number of business days, and calculate the resulting end date. Or vice versa, enter an end date and calculate the start date X business days in advance. Check to see if our tool includes this "Business Date Calculator" option.

Is this calculator useful for calculating vacation days?

Yes, it's very useful. You can enter the start and end dates of your vacation, and the calculator will tell you how many business days you're using, which is how many companies typically discount vacation time (excluding weekends and holidays that fall within the vacation time).

Ready to plan accurately? Calculate your work days now!