Military Time Converter

Convert 12-hour clock times to 24-hour military time and back, with the spoken form and the two rules everyone forgets.

How military time works

Military (24-hour) time runs from 00:00 to 23:59 with no AM or PM. The conversion has exactly two rules people trip on: PM times add 12 to the hour — except 12 PM, which stays 12 — and 12 AM becomes 00. This converter works both directions and shows the spoken form, because “fourteen thirty hours” is half the reason people look this up.

How to use it

  1. Pick the direction: 12-hour → 24-hour, or back.
  2. Enter the time.
  3. Read the converted time and how it’s said aloud.

The rules

PM → add 12 (12 PM stays 12) · 12 AM → 00 back again: subtract 12 after noon · 00 → 12 AM

A worked example

The converter opens with 2:30 PM. Add 12 to the hour and it becomes 14:30 — spoken “fourteen thirty hours”. Going the other way, 14:30 minus 12 gives 2:30 PM. The midnight cases are the ones worth memorising: 00:15 is 12:15 AM, and 12:15 is 12:15 PM. Change anything and the result updates instantly.

Common questions

Is 12 AM midnight or noon?
Midnight — the start of the day, 00:00 in 24-hour time. Noon is 12 PM, which stays 12:00. These two are the entire source of AM/PM confusion.
How do you say 0800?
“Zero eight hundred hours” — whole hours are read as hundreds, so 14:00 is “fourteen hundred”.
Who uses 24-hour time?
The military, aviation, medicine, transport timetables and most of the world outside the US — anywhere a missed AM/PM would be expensive.