To convert military time to minutes in Excel, multiply the leftmost two digits (the hour) by 60 and add the rightmost two digits (the minutes), wrapping each piece in VALUE() so Excel reads them as numbers: =VALUE(LEFT(A1,2))*60 + VALUE(RIGHT(A1,2)). That single formula turns a four-digit string like 1800 into 1080, the total minutes since midnight. Military time is normally stored without a colon, which is why Excel cannot treat it as a clock value directly — it sees "1800" as the number eighteen hundred, not as the time 6:00 PM. By splitting the string into an hour part and a minute part, converting both pieces to numbers, and doing the hours-times-sixty-plus-minutes math, you get the same minute count you would if you had converted the time first and then multiplied by 60.
The Formula at a Glance
If you just want a quick refresher on what each function does, the table below covers every piece of the conversion. All four are standard Excel functions, so the formula works in every recent desktop version of Excel and in Google Sheets without changes.
| Function | What it does | Role in the conversion |
|---|---|---|
| LEFT(text, num_chars) | Returns the leftmost characters of a text string | Pulls the hour digits ("18" from "1800") |
| RIGHT(text, num_chars) | Returns the rightmost characters of a text string | Pulls the minute digits ("00" from "1800") |
| VALUE() | Converts a text string that looks like a number into an actual number | Turns "18" into 18 and "00" into 0 |
| * and + operators | Standard arithmetic | Computes hours × 60 + minutes |
The same logic applies if your military time is in column A, column B, or anywhere else — just swap A1 for the cell that holds your value. If your sheet uses a named range (for example StartTime), point the formula at that name instead.
Build the Conversion Formula in Excel
- Confirm your military time is stored as text. Select the cell, look at the formula bar, and check whether the value is left-aligned (text) or right-aligned (number). If it is right-aligned and shows as 1800, Excel is treating it as the integer eighteen hundred, and you can skip straight to step 3 with a simpler formula.
- Make sure every entry has exactly four digits. Times like 800, 90, or 7 will break LEFT and RIGHT. Use a helper column with =TEXT(A1,"0000") to pad single-digit hours and minutes with leading zeros before you convert.
- Enter the conversion formula in a new column. In cell B1 (or any empty cell next to your data), type =VALUE(LEFT(A1,2))*60 + VALUE(RIGHT(A1,2)) and press Enter.
- Copy the formula down the column. Grab the small square at the bottom-right of B1 and drag it down, or double-click the fill handle to copy it through the whole column.
- Format the result column as a plain number. Right-click the result cells, choose Format Cells, pick Number, and set decimal places to 0. Otherwise Excel may display the minutes as a time value and roll over at 1440.
- Spot-check edge cases. Enter 0000 and confirm it returns 0, then enter 2359 and confirm it returns 1439. If those two values are correct, the formula is working for the entire 24-hour range.
If you would rather skip the formula and read the time directly, the Military Time Converter shows both the 24-hour and the standard 12-hour form for any HHMM value the moment you type it.
Worked Example: From 1800 to 1080 Minutes
Suppose cell A1 contains the text string 1800 and you want the total minutes since midnight. Here is exactly how the formula evaluates, piece by piece:
Step 1. LEFT(A1, 2) returns the leftmost 2 characters of "1800", which is the text string "18".
Step 2. VALUE("18") converts that text into the number 18.
Step 3. 18 × 60 multiplies the hour by 60 to get 1080.
Step 4. RIGHT(A1, 2) returns the rightmost 2 characters, which is the text string "00".
Step 5. VALUE("00") converts that to the number 0.
Step 6. The addition 1080 + 0 produces the final result: 1080 minutes since midnight, which is 6:00 PM.
The same arithmetic holds for every other military time value. For 1345 the formula returns 13×60 + 45 = 825 minutes (1:45 PM). For 0001 it returns 0×60 + 1 = 1 minute (one minute past midnight). As long as the input string is exactly four digits, the formula gives a precise minute count from 0 (midnight) up to 1439 (the last minute of the day, 11:59 PM).
When Military Time Is a Real Number, Not Text
If your military time is already a numeric value (right-aligned, no leading apostrophe), the formula can drop the VALUE wrappers. The bare version =LEFT(A1,2)*60 + RIGHT(A1,2) works because LEFT and RIGHT operate on numbers by first turning them into text internally. That said, the wrapped version is safer and survives copy-paste from other systems that store times as text, so it is the version worth memorizing.
For a numeric value of 1800, the unwrapped formula still returns 1080. For 2359, it still returns 1439. Behavior is identical across the 0000-to-2359 range, so pick whichever version reads more clearly in your sheet. If you ever paste military times from a hospital chart, airline itinerary, or CSV export, they almost always come in as text, so the VALUE-wrapped version is the safer default.
Skip the Formula: Read the Time With the Military Time Converter
The Excel formula is most useful when you already have a column of times and want to crunch the minute totals for payroll, billing, or scheduling math. When you just want to read a single military time — say a flight itinerary that says report at 0500 or a hospital chart that lists medication at 1800 — opening Excel is overkill. The Military Time Converter shows both the 24-hour form and the standard 12-hour form the moment you type, plus the spoken version (eighteen hundred hours) for radio read-backs and shift handovers.
To use it: pick a direction (12-hour to 24-hour, or 24-hour to 12-hour), enter your time — an hour, a minute, and AM or PM, or a four-digit value like 1800 — and read the converted result below. The tool also flags impossible inputs such as 2400, 13 AM, or 60 minutes, so you can sanity-check a number copied from a schedule without writing a single formula.
Key Military Time Reference Points
The values below are standard reference points for the 24-hour clock and are the same in every system that uses military time, so you can paste them straight into your Excel sheet as test data while you build the formula. They are not derived from the conversion formula on this page; they are the official definitions the formula is designed to reproduce.
| Military time (HHMM) | Standard 12-hour | Spoken form |
|---|---|---|
| 0000 | 12:00 AM (midnight) | Zero hundred hours |
| 0600 | 6:00 AM | Oh six hundred hours |
| 1200 | 12:00 PM (noon) | Twelve hundred hours |
| 1800 | 6:00 PM | Eighteen hundred hours |
| 2359 | 11:59 PM | Twenty-three fifty-nine hours |
The trickiest row is the first one: 0000 is not 12 AM in the AM/PM sense of "morning", it is the very start of the day, so it converts to zero minutes, not 720. Once you keep that distinction straight, the formula behaves the same way for every value in the 0000-to-2359 range.