Time ZonesApril 3, 2026· 8 min read

Military Time Chart: Complete 24-Hour Clock Conversion Guide

A complete reference for converting between 12-hour and 24-hour (military) time, including a full chart, how to read it, common mistakes, and which countries use which format.

What Is Military Time?

"Military time" is just another name for the 24-hour clock. Instead of running 1–12 twice a day with AM and PM, the 24-hour clock counts hours straight through from 0 to 23. Midnight is 00:00, noon is 12:00, and one in the afternoon is 13:00. The name "military time" is mostly an American convention, since most of the rest of the world uses the 24-hour clock as the standard civilian format. But because the US military uses it routinely while most American civilians do not, "military time" became the casual term for the format itself.

The Full 24-Hour Conversion Chart

Here is the complete conversion between 12-hour and 24-hour time: 12:00 AM = 00:00 (midnight) 1:00 AM = 01:00 2:00 AM = 02:00 3:00 AM = 03:00 4:00 AM = 04:00 5:00 AM = 05:00 6:00 AM = 06:00 7:00 AM = 07:00 8:00 AM = 08:00 9:00 AM = 09:00 10:00 AM = 10:00 11:00 AM = 11:00 12:00 PM = 12:00 (noon) 1:00 PM = 13:00 2:00 PM = 14:00 3:00 PM = 15:00 4:00 PM = 16:00 5:00 PM = 17:00 6:00 PM = 18:00 7:00 PM = 19:00 8:00 PM = 20:00 9:00 PM = 21:00 10:00 PM = 22:00 11:00 PM = 23:00 If the hour is 13 or higher, subtract 12 to get the PM time. So 16:00 means 16 − 12 = 4:00 PM.

How to Convert From 12-Hour to 24-Hour

The conversion rules are simple. For AM times: 12:00 AM becomes 00:00. Other AM times stay the same, just add a leading zero if the hour is single digit. So 7:30 AM becomes 07:30. For PM times: 12:00 PM (noon) stays as 12:00. For 1:00 PM through 11:00 PM, add 12 to the hour. So 3:45 PM becomes 15:45. The minutes never change. The only "tricky" case is midnight and noon, which trip people up because 12:00 AM is the START of the day (00:00) and 12:00 PM is in the middle (12:00).

How to Convert From 24-Hour to 12-Hour

Going the other way: For 00:00 through 00:59, the time is 12:00 AM through 12:59 AM. For 01:00 through 11:59, just remove the leading zero (if any) and add AM. So 09:30 becomes 9:30 AM. For 12:00 through 12:59, the time is 12:00 PM through 12:59 PM. For 13:00 through 23:59, subtract 12 from the hour and add PM. So 17:45 becomes 5:45 PM. The minutes never change.

Common Mistakes

The two most common mistakes when converting: (1) Confusing 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM. Remember: midnight is the START of a day (00:00 in 24-hour), noon is the middle (12:00 in 24-hour). (2) Adding 12 to AM times. Only PM times from 1:00 to 11:59 get 12 added. AM times stay as-is (with leading zero for single-digit hours). A frequent error is converting 1:00 AM to 13:00 — it should just be 01:00. And converting 1:00 PM to 01:00 — it should be 13:00.

Why the 24-Hour Format Exists

The 24-hour clock removes ambiguity. With 12-hour time, "12:30" is meaningless without AM or PM — it could be the middle of the night or the middle of the day. In writing, "12:30 PM" can be misread or have the AM/PM dropped accidentally. With 24-hour time, every hour has exactly one designation: 00:30 is in the early morning, 12:30 is just after noon, 18:30 is dinner time. This is why aviation, healthcare, the military, public transport, and most international business use the 24-hour format — mistakes can be expensive or dangerous.

Which Countries Use Which Format

The 24-hour clock is the standard civilian time format in most of the world: nearly all of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The 12-hour clock with AM/PM is the standard civilian format in: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and a few smaller countries. Even within those countries, however, official documents, transportation schedules, and the military often use the 24-hour clock. So if you live in the US and have ever booked a train ticket showing "departure 22:15," that is the 24-hour clock making an unannounced appearance.

How to Read 24-Hour Time Aloud

There are two common conventions for speaking 24-hour time. In US military usage, hours are spoken without the colon, with "hundred" used for whole hours: "thirteen hundred hours" for 13:00, "fourteen thirty" for 14:30. The phrase "oh three hundred" is 03:00. In civilian European usage, the time is just spoken as a regular number: "thirteen o’clock" or "thirteen hours" for 13:00, "fourteen thirty" for 14:30. In writing, both styles use the form HH:MM with optional seconds (HH:MM:SS).

The "0" Hour Problem

A subtle quirk: in 24-hour time, midnight can be written as either 00:00 or 24:00. Both are technically valid. The end of one day at 24:00 is the same instant as the start of the next day at 00:00. Most modern systems (computers, phone displays) use 00:00 for midnight. Some military and aviation systems use 24:00 for "end of day." Train and flight schedules sometimes use either, which has caused real confusion when a midnight departure was misread. As a rule, use 00:00 unless context specifically calls for 24:00.

Quick Mental Tricks

A few shortcuts for converting on the fly: For PM times, subtract 12 if the number is greater than 12. So 19:00 minus 12 = 7:00 PM. For AM times, the hour is the same as 12-hour, just with a leading zero if needed. So 06:00 = 6:00 AM. The number after the colon (the minutes) NEVER changes. So 17:45 is 5:45 PM, not 5:33. And one common conversion to memorize: 13:00 = 1 PM, 18:00 = 6 PM, 21:00 = 9 PM. These three anchor times will help you orient quickly.

Use Clockzilla for Both Formats

Clockzilla displays time in whichever format your browser is set to use — so US visitors typically see 12-hour time, and international visitors typically see 24-hour. Some pages and tools support manual switching. The world clock view, the per-city pages, and the time-difference pages all show times in your local format automatically. So you do not have to do mental conversion when checking what time it is somewhere else — the display matches what you are used to. If you are doing a lot of conversion between the two formats, the chart in this article is the fastest reference.

The Bottom Line

Military time is just the 24-hour clock. Hours run 00 to 23 instead of 1 to 12 with AM/PM. To convert PM times to 24-hour, add 12 (so 5 PM = 17:00). To convert 24-hour times back, subtract 12 if the hour is greater than 12 (so 17:00 = 5 PM). The format eliminates AM/PM confusion and is the global standard for aviation, healthcare, transit, and the military. If you ever get stuck, this article's chart covers every hour of the day.

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