Minutes to decimal chart

Minutes to Decimal Chart

Every minute from 0 to 60 as a fraction of an hour: minutes ÷ 60. 20 minutes is 0.3333 hours, 45 minutes is 0.7500 hours, and 7 minutes is 0.1167 hours.

The full chart is printed below and needs no JavaScript. The converter is there for one value at a time, and shows the exact figure, the four-decimal chart value and the same value rounded to two decimals. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is uploaded.

The minutes box needs fixing. The figures below are from your last valid entry.

Decimal hours 4 decimal places 0.3333 20 minutes, rounded down from a repeating decimal

Exact value: 0.333333…
Decimal hours (2 dp): 0.33
Hundredths of an hour: 33 hundredths
As a fraction of an hour: 20/60 = 1/3 hour

How this was calculated

Divide the minutes by 60: 20 ÷ 60 = 0.333333…
Round to four decimals for the chart: 0.333333… → 0.3333.
Round to two decimals for payroll: 0.333333… → 0.33.

At two decimals, 0.33 hours is 12 seconds short of 20 minutes. Your employer and payroll system decide the rounding your paycheck actually uses.

The converter needs JavaScript, and the figures above are the worked example for 20 minutes. The chart below is plain HTML and works without it: find your minute value in the left column and read the decimal hours beside it.

The full 0 to 60 minute chart

Four blocks of the same table, split so the rows stay readable. The middle column is the value rounded to four decimal places. The right column is the same number rounded to two decimal places, the precision a payroll entry box asks for when it accepts two decimals. Check which precision your own timesheet or payroll form calls for.

The approximation symbol, read as “about” before a value, marks a value that has been rounded because the division repeats forever. A minute count that is a multiple of 3 — 3, 6, 9, 15, 30, 45 and so on — divides into 60 cleanly and is exact in both columns.

0 to 15 minutes
Minutes	Decimal hours (4 dp)	Decimal hours (2 dp)
0	0.0000	0.00
1	about 0.0167	about 0.02
2	about 0.0333	about 0.03
3	0.0500	0.05
4	about 0.0667	about 0.07
5	about 0.0833	about 0.08
6	0.1000	0.10
7	about 0.1167	about 0.12
8	about 0.1333	about 0.13
9	0.1500	0.15
10	about 0.1667	about 0.17
11	about 0.1833	about 0.18
12	0.2000	0.20
13	about 0.2167	about 0.22
14	about 0.2333	about 0.23
15	0.2500	0.25

16 to 30 minutes
Minutes	Decimal hours (4 dp)	Decimal hours (2 dp)
16	about 0.2667	about 0.27
17	about 0.2833	about 0.28
18	0.3000	0.30
19	about 0.3167	about 0.32
20	about 0.3333	about 0.33
21	0.3500	0.35
22	about 0.3667	about 0.37
23	about 0.3833	about 0.38
24	0.4000	0.40
25	about 0.4167	about 0.42
26	about 0.4333	about 0.43
27	0.4500	0.45
28	about 0.4667	about 0.47
29	about 0.4833	about 0.48
30	0.5000	0.50

31 to 45 minutes
Minutes	Decimal hours (4 dp)	Decimal hours (2 dp)
31	about 0.5167	about 0.52
32	about 0.5333	about 0.53
33	0.5500	0.55
34	about 0.5667	about 0.57
35	about 0.5833	about 0.58
36	0.6000	0.60
37	about 0.6167	about 0.62
38	about 0.6333	about 0.63
39	0.6500	0.65
40	about 0.6667	about 0.67
41	about 0.6833	about 0.68
42	0.7000	0.70
43	about 0.7167	about 0.72
44	about 0.7333	about 0.73
45	0.7500	0.75

46 to 60 minutes
Minutes	Decimal hours (4 dp)	Decimal hours (2 dp)
46	about 0.7667	about 0.77
47	about 0.7833	about 0.78
48	0.8000	0.80
49	about 0.8167	about 0.82
50	about 0.8333	about 0.83
51	0.8500	0.85
52	about 0.8667	about 0.87
53	about 0.8833	about 0.88
54	0.9000	0.90
55	about 0.9167	about 0.92
56	about 0.9333	about 0.93
57	0.9500	0.95
58	about 0.9667	about 0.97
59	about 0.9833	about 0.98
60	1.0000	1.00

60 minutes is listed because a chart that stops at 59 leaves people guessing: it is one whole hour, 1.0000 decimal hours. In hours-and-minutes notation the minutes part itself never goes past 59 — the sixtieth minute rolls into the hours.

Exact and repeating patterns

These rows illustrate several exact and repeating conversion patterns.

Quarter hours. 15 minutes is 0.25, 30 minutes is 0.50, 45 minutes is 0.75. All three are exact.
Tenth hours. 6 minutes is 0.10, 12 minutes is 0.20, 18 minutes is 0.30, and so on in sixes up to 54 minutes at 0.90. Every multiple of 6 lands on a clean tenth.
Thirds. 20 minutes and 40 minutes are the awkward pair: 0.3333 and 0.6667, both repeating, both rounded in every column of the chart.
Five minutes is not 0.05. It is 0.0833. The value 0.05 hours belongs to 3 minutes.

60-minute hours and decimal hundredths

A clock hour holds 60 minutes. Written as a decimal, an hour is split into 100 parts instead — hundredths of an hour. Moving the decimal point in 0.33 hours produces 33 hundredths of an hour; it does not turn an hour into 100 minutes.

Decimal hours = minutes ÷ 60
Hundredths of an hour = decimal hours × 100 = minutes ÷ 0.6

So 15 minutes is 0.25 hours, or 25 hundredths of an hour. 30 minutes is 0.50 hours, or 50 hundredths. Nothing about the length of time changes; only the unit written on the page does. The trap is reading one format as the other: a card that says 45 minutes is 0.75 hours, not 0.45, and it is 75 hundredths, not 45.

Minutes past the hour are not decimal places

7:20 on a timesheet means 7 hours and 20 minutes, and 20 minutes is 0.33 of an hour. Entered as 7.20 in a box that reads decimal hours, the same entry means 7 hours and 12 minutes, because 0.20 × 60 = 12. That single misread is the reason this chart exists.

How the rounding in this chart works

Every figure in the chart is minutes ÷ 60 rounded to the nearest value at the stated precision. Four decimals in the middle column, two in the right-hand column. Both are rounded from the same exact division, never from each other, so the two-decimal column is not a re-rounding of the four-decimal one.

Only 21 of the 61 minute values divide into 60 without a remainder that repeats. The other 40 — every minute that is not a multiple of 3 — produce a decimal that goes on forever, so the chart shows a rounded value and marks it with the approximation symbol. Four decimals holds those values to within 0.18 seconds; two decimals holds them to within 12 seconds.

Timesheet rounding is a separate decision

Converting a minute value is not the same as recording it. An employer may log worked time in fixed increments first and only then convert. 29 CFR 785.48 addresses rounding to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter of an hour, and states that such a practice will be accepted provided it is used in a manner that will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate employees properly for all the time they have actually worked.

This chart does no such rounding: it converts the exact minutes you give it, so a quarter-hour recording system would show 20 minutes as 0.25 hours where this chart shows 0.3333. If a figure here does not match your paystub, compare it against the increments and rounding your own employer records in, and ask them if the difference is unclear. This page is general information, not legal, tax or payroll advice.

Common questions

What is 15 minutes in decimal hours?: 0.25 hours exactly, because 15 ÷ 60 = 0.25. Expressed in hundredths of an hour, the same quarter hour is 25 hundredths.
What is 20 minutes in decimal hours?: 0.3333 hours at four decimals, 0.33 at two. The exact value is 0.333333… and repeats forever, so every printed version of it is rounded.
What is 10 minutes in decimal hours?: 0.1667 hours, rounded up from 0.166666…. At two decimals it is 0.17. It is not 0.10 — that value belongs to 6 minutes.
Why does the chart go to four decimal places?: Because two decimals is not always close enough. 0.33 hours is 12 seconds short of a real 20 minutes; convert ten such entries and add them and you are two minutes light. The four-decimal column keeps each entry within 0.18 seconds. Use it when you are adding several values yourself, and use the two-decimal column when the form you are filling in takes two decimals.
Which minutes convert exactly?: The multiples of 3: 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48, 51, 54, 57 and 60. Those are the 21 unmarked rows. Every other minute value repeats and is shown rounded.
Can I enter 90 minutes in the converter?: No. The box takes 0 to 60 and shows an error otherwise, so a stray value cannot quietly become something else. 90 minutes is 1 hour and 30 minutes, which the time to decimal calculator handles as 1.50 hours.
How do I go back from decimal hours to minutes?: Multiply by 60: 0.75 × 60 = 45 minutes. The decimal to time calculator does it with rounding options.
Is anything I type sent to a server?: No. The converter runs in your browser on this page, and the chart is part of the page itself. This site's scripts do not upload or deliberately store what you enter, though your browser may restore form values according to its own settings.