How many business days are between two dates?
What counts as a business day?
A business day is a weekday: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Weekends (Saturday and Sunday) are excluded, and public holidays inside the range are usually excluded too. That last part is where two people can get different answers from the same dates, because holiday calendars differ by country, state, and even industry.
The counting rule is simple: start with the total calendar days in your range, then remove the weekend days, then remove any holidays that land on a weekday within the range. What remains is the business-day count. The Business Days Calculator applies exactly this logic so you can run your own dates without tallying a calendar by hand.
A worked example
Say your range is a 7-calendar-day span that starts on a Monday. Those seven days are Monday through Sunday. Five of them are weekdays and two are the weekend, so the count is 5 business days.
Any 7-consecutive-day span contains exactly one Saturday and one Sunday, so it works out to 5 business days no matter which weekday it starts on. The count only shifts once the length changes or a holiday falls inside: a longer span that straddles two weekends loses four weekend days instead of two, and a holiday on a weekday removes one more. This is why calendar length alone does not fix the business-day count once spans grow or holidays appear.
Why '5 business days' can span more than a week
Because weekends and holidays are skipped, a window measured in business days stretches across more calendar time than its number suggests. A '5 business day' turnaround starting on a Wednesday runs into the following week, since the intervening Saturday and Sunday do not count.
Add a public holiday and the window grows further. Five business days that contain one weekday holiday will cover at least eight calendar days, and more if a weekend is also inside the span. When a deadline is quoted in business days, the actual calendar date it lands on depends entirely on which weekends and holidays fall in between.
Counting the start and end date
One detail changes the total before holidays even enter the picture: whether the start date, the end date, both, or neither is included in the count. A range described as 'from Monday to Friday' can mean four days or five depending on that choice, and different tools and contracts make different assumptions.
There is no single correct convention. What produces agreement is that everyone measuring the same deadline uses the same one, which removes most disputes about business-day totals before holidays are even considered.
Frequently asked questions
How do I count business days between two dates?
Does a 7-day span always have 5 business days?
Why does '5 business days' take longer than a week sometimes?
Do you count the start and end date?
Sources: AskANumber methodology.
Last reviewed July 4, 2026 · Editorial policy · This is general information, not financial advice.