Excel stores time as a fraction of a day, so converting minutes means dividing by 1440 — the minutes in a day — then formatting the result: =A1/(24*60), then Ctrl+1 → Custom and enter [h]:mm. The square brackets matter: without them, anything over 24 hours wraps around, so 1500 minutes shows as 1:00 instead of 25:00.
The TEXT function does both steps at once if you’d rather not change the cell format: =TEXT(A1/(24*60),"[h]:mm"), though the result is text and can’t be summed afterwards.
For a plain decimal number instead of a time value, divide by 60: =A1/60 turns 90 minutes into 1.5 hours — useful for timesheets and billing, and note the .5 is half an hour, not fifty minutes. =CONVERT(A1,"mn","hr") gives the same decimal result.
And to split the total into separate whole numbers, use =INT(A1/60) for the hours and =MOD(A1,60) for the leftover minutes.
To convert minutes to hours and minutes (HH:MM) in Excel, you need to use a formula where you need to multiply the number of minutes with the (24*60). When you use (24*60) which is the total number of minutes in a day, it returns and number with decimals. In this number integer part, represents hours, and decimals of minutes.
For converting that number into hours and minutes format, you need to apply [h]:mm in the custom formatting.
Formula to Convert Minutes into Hours and Minutes
You can use the below steps:
- First, in cell B1, refer to cell A1 where you have the minutes value.
- After that, type the division operator, and then enter starting parentheses.
- Now, enter 24, and again enter the multiply operator.
- Next, enter 60 and close the parentheses, and hit enter to get the result.
Once you hit enter, you will get the number of hours in the cell.
The next thing is to change the format of the cells. For this, select the cell and open the format cells option using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + 1.
Now from here, click on the Custom category, and enter the format [H]:mm into the type input bar.
In the end, click OK to apply the format.
=A1/(24*60)How does this Formula work?
In this formula, we have used 24*60 which returns the total number of minutes in a day (24 hours X 60 minutes = 1440 minutes).
After that, when you divide it by the number of minutes you have, it returns the days which is equivalent to the number of minutes that you have.
Now, show these days as hours and minutes, you need to use the [h]:mm format.
Using TEXT Function
If you don’t want to change the formatting of the cell. You can use the TEXT function to add time for the value within the formula.
This formula exactly works like the earlier method. The only difference is that you are using TEXT to format the result value.
=TEXT(A1/(24*60),"[h]:mm")Convert Minutes to Hours and Minutes (As a Number)
You can also use a formula where you can divide the number of number minutes by 60.
This formula will return the number of hours and minutes, where hours are an integer and minutes are decimal.
=A1/60Convert Function
There’s one new function in Excel, that you can use to convert minutes to hours, and that’s CONVERT.
In CONVERT, you need to refer to the minute value, the original unit of the value (you need to specify minutes “mn”), and then the conversion unit (specify “hr” for hours).
=CONVERT(A1,"mn","hr")
Written by
Puneet Gogia
Microsoft MVP — Excel · Founder, Excel Champs
Twelve years of teaching Excel, and a decade before that using it as a data analyst. Every tutorial here is written from a file I actually built.