Overnight shift hours calculator
Hours for a shift that crosses midnight
Enter the clock-in and clock-out. When the end reads earlier than the start, the shift is counted as crossing midnight, with any unpaid break subtracted. Built for night, third-shift, and healthcare schedules.
Runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Why the midnight cross is tricky
Clock time resets at midnight, so a shift from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM looks like it runs backward if you just subtract. The fix is to add the time before midnight to the time after it. This tool does that for you: any time the clock-out is earlier than the clock-in, it treats the shift as overnight and adds the extra day.
Enter times in 12-hour form with AM and PM, or switch to 24-hour and type 23:00 and 07:00. Either way the result shows in hours and minutes and in decimal hours for payroll.
For a whole week of nights
To add up several overnight shifts into a weekly total with overtime, the time card calculator handles the midnight cross on every row. For a single span with no break, the hours between two times tool is the lighter version of this page.
To turn the result into decimal hours for a payroll system, use the decimal hours calculator, and to see what those hours pay after tax, send them to Plain Paycheck.
Common questions
How do you calculate hours for a shift that crosses midnight?
Count the time from the clock-in to midnight, then from midnight to the clock-out, and add them. A 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift is 2 hours before midnight plus 6 hours after, which is 8 hours. This calculator does that automatically whenever the clock-out reads earlier than the clock-in.
Why do most calculators get overnight shifts wrong?
A plain subtraction of clock-out minus clock-in gives a negative number when the shift crosses midnight, and some tools either show the negative or refuse the entry. This calculator adds a full day when the end is earlier than the start, so the overnight case just works.
Can I subtract an unpaid break on an overnight shift?
Yes. Enter the unpaid break in minutes and it is subtracted from the shift, including a break that itself falls after midnight. The result floors at zero if the break somehow exceeds the shift.
Does this handle a shift that is exactly 24 hours?
For a normal night shift the clock-out is earlier than the clock-in, which is all this tool needs. A true 24-hour on-call span where the in and out read the same time is an edge case the multi-day time card calculator is better suited to.