Business days

Count weekdays in a date range

A working-week count is useful for estimating capacity, reviewing a delivery window, or checking how many weekdays fit into a project. This calculator uses a Monday-to-Friday week. It removes Saturdays and Sundays, but it does not know the public holidays, shutdown periods, or leave arrangements that apply to a particular workplace.

1. Choose the first date

   The start date is counted when it falls on Monday through Friday. A Saturday or Sunday contributes zero.

2. Choose the boundary at the end

   The end date is excluded. To include a particular final date, select the following calendar date as the end boundary.

3. Calculate the weekday baseline

   Read the result, then separately account for holidays or other non-working weekdays in your schedule.

A full week and a weekend example

Friday to Monday contains one counted weekday because Friday is included and Monday is the excluded boundary. The weekend contributes nothing. To count both Friday and Monday, use Tuesday as the end boundary. This small distinction matters when someone describes a range informally as “Friday through Monday”.

Public holidays need a separate check

A weekday is not necessarily a working day for your organisation. National holidays, regional holidays, and company closures can reduce the number of available days. Subtract only closures that land on counted weekdays; subtracting a holiday that already falls on an excluded weekend would remove the same day twice. Observed holidays may fall on a different date from the holiday itself.

From weekdays to realistic capacity

Twenty weekdays do not automatically mean twenty days of project effort. Meetings, part-time schedules, and individual leave affect the hours people can contribute. Start with the calendar count, then build a separate capacity estimate using the team’s actual availability. This keeps a reproducible date calculation separate from staffing assumptions that may change.

For a complete month, select its first day as the start and the first day of the following month as the end. February 2026 has twenty Monday-to-Friday weekdays before holiday adjustments. See working days in a month for more monthly planning examples.

When to use a different count

If your instructions say calendar days, weekends still count: use date difference. If your workplace uses a Sunday-to-Thursday week, this calculator’s Monday-to-Friday convention will not describe it. For delivery commitments and formal deadlines, confirm the organisation’s counting and holiday rules. The business versus calendar days guide explains why the wording matters.