24-Hour to 12-Hour Time Converter

What 24-Hour and 12-Hour Time Actually Mean

Every clock on earth measures the same 24 hours in a day — the only thing that changes is how those hours get written down. The 24-hour clock (also called military time or "full time") numbers every hour once, from 00:00 at midnight through 23:59 just before the next midnight. The 12-hour clock instead splits the day into two identical 12-hour laps — AM for midnight to just before noon, and PM for noon to just before midnight — and reuses the numbers 1 through 12 twice.

Neither format is "more correct." The 24-hour clock removes any chance of mixing up morning and evening on a schedule, which is why hospitals, airlines, railways, and armed forces rely on it. The 12-hour clock is simply what most English-speaking countries grew up saying out loud, so it stays the default for everyday conversation, wall clocks, and casual scheduling. This tool moves a time between the two instantly, in either direction.

Common 24-Hour to 12-Hour Time Conversions

Use this chart to compare every full hour of the day in both formats at a glance.

How to Convert 24-Hour Time to 12-Hour Time

To convert 24-hour time to 12-hour AM/PM time, keep the minutes exactly as written and change only the hour and the AM/PM label. Four rules cover every possible time of day:

The two hours people trip up on most are midnight and noon, because both involve the number 12. Midnight (00:00) becomes 12:00 AM, not "0:00 AM" — and noon (12:00) becomes 12:00 PM, not "0:00 PM." Everywhere else, the rule is pure arithmetic.

Military Time to Standard Time

The 24-hour clock is often called military time, especially in the United States, because it's the format armed forces use to avoid AM/PM confusion during operations. It uses the exact same hours as standard 24-hour time — 00 through 23 — but is usually written as four digits with no colon and read aloud digit by digit: 0700 is "oh-seven-hundred," 1900 is "nineteen-hundred."

24-Hour Time vs. 12-Hour Time