To convert time to a decimal number of hours, multiply the cell by 24: =A1*24. So 6:30 becomes 6.5. Excel already stores time as a fraction of a day, so multiplying by 24 simply scales it back to hours.
Use *1440 for total minutes and *86400 for total seconds. The one step people miss is formatting — the result cell will inherit the time format and show something odd like 6:00 AM, so set it to Number with two decimals (Ctrl+1 → Number).
For whole hours only, wrap it in INT: =INT(A1*24). And to go the other way, decimal back to time, divide by 24 and format the cell as time: =A1/24.
Excel stores time as a decimal; only format it as a time. With the help of formulas, you can convert that time into decimals; still, those decimals make sense to the user.
Time into Decimals (Hours – Minutes – Seconds)
- Enter (=) in a cell
- Refer to the cell where you have the time.
- Type an asterisk (*).
- Enter (24) and hit enter to get the result.
The cell where you enter this formula must have the cell format “Number” with two decimals.
And for:
- Whole Hours: =INT(A1*24)
- Minutes: =A1*1440
- Seconds: =A1*86400
Remove Format to Get the Decimal for a Time
- Select the cell.
- Open the Format Cell Option.
- Click General.
- Click OK to Save.
When you click OK, it converts that value into a decimal value.
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.