This guide shows you how to get the most from the Time Between Dates Calculator. In a few clicks, you can compute exact differences in years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds; switch to business-day counts with custom workweeks and holidays; enable Age and Countdown modes; track recurring events; and export or share your results. Use the mini demo below to experiment, then follow the numbered steps to repeat the same flow in the full calculator.

1) Choose your input method

You can pick dates using the calendar fields or type them manually. Manual entry accepts MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, and YYYY-MM-DD; set the input format to avoid ambiguity. Provide times (hours:minutes) if you need precise durations; otherwise, the calculator treats dates as midnight. Select Timezone if you want to anchor the calculation to Local or UTC.

2) Label and use presets

Add labels such as “Project start” and “Deadline” to make results self-describing in exports. For speed, use quick presets: Today until… fills the start with the current date and time; From birthday to today turns on Age mode; and Next holiday countdown sets up a future event. Presets are great for day-to-day planning without retyping dates.

3) Pick a mode: Age, Countdown, Compare, Recurring

Age mode calculates exact age in years, months, and days from date of birth to now. Countdown emphasizes the time remaining to a future date and pairs nicely with Compare window vs now, which enables a progress bar and a pie chart of elapsed vs remaining. For anniversaries and birthdays, enable Recurring yearly event to see how many occurrences have passed and days until the next one.

4) Calendar vs business days (custom workweeks + holidays)

Toggle Business days to count only working days. Choose a workweek (Mon–Fri, Mon–Sat, or a custom pattern). You can also exclude holidays: paste dates (one per line in YYYY-MM-DD) or upload a CSV with a date column. This is essential for project schedules, SLAs, and legal timelines where weekends and holidays don’t count.

5) Read the results

The results table shows calendar difference in years, months, and days; a weeks/days view; a full breakdown into hours, minutes, and seconds; business-day totals (if enabled); leap years touched by the range; conversational context such as “ends in 12 days”; and recurring-event stats. When you enable Compare vs now, the timeline bar and pie chart visualize your progress through the window.

6) Export and share

Use Download CSV for spreadsheets; Save as PDF via the print dialog for reports; Copy results for quick pasting; Add to Calendar (.ics) to drop the window into your calendar; and Share to generate a URL with your inputs embedded. Labels you set earlier make exported artifacts self-contained and team-friendly.

7) Mobile & accessibility tips

The interface is responsive and keyboard-navigable, with ARIA labels and a high-contrast mode. On phones, reduce taps by using presets and letting the time fields default. Screen-reader users will find semantic section headings, labeled controls, and a live region on countdowns.