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How to calculate elapsed time/days/months/years between two datetimes in Excel?

Author Sun Last modified

Here you have two time lists, one list is the start time, the other is the end time, can you calculate the elapsed time between two times in the same row quickly as below screenshot shown? Here, this tutorial introduces the tricks on calculating elapsed time, days, months, or years between two datetimes in Excel.
A screenshot showing a list of start and end times in Excel

Calculate elapsed time/days/months/years with formula

arrow blue right bubble Calculate elapsed time/days/months/years with formula

Calculate elapsed time

1. Select a blank cell, enter this formula =IF(B2< A2, 1 + B2 - A2, B2- A2), A2 is start time, B2 is End time, and press Enter key then drag auto fill handle to fill formulas to the cells you want.
A screenshot showing the formula for calculating elapsed time in Excel

2. Keep formula cells selected, right click to open context menu, and choose Format Cells, and in the Format Cells dialog, under Number tab, select Time from left pane, then to choose the time type you want to display in right section. See screenshot:
A screenshot showing the Format Cells dialog for setting time formats in Excel

3. Click OK. The elapsed times have been displayed.

Calculate elapsed days/month/years

To calculate elapsed days is so easy, you just need to apply this formula = B2-A2, A2 is the start date, B2 is the end date.
A screenshot showing the formula for calculating elapsed days in Excel

Tip: To calculate elapsed month, you can use this formula =DATEDIF(A2,B2,"m"), A2 is the start date, B2 is the end date. For elapsed years, apply =DATEDIF(A2,B2,"m")/12, and then format the cells as number.

Calculate elapsed year, month and days

For example, you have two dates, and you want to know the exact difference between these two dates, and display the elapsed period as x Years, x Month, x Days (such as 2 Years, 6 Months, 19 Days), you can apply below formula.

Select a blank cell which will place the calculated result, enter this formula =DATEDIF(A2,B2,"Y") & " Years, " & DATEDIF(A2,B2,"YM") & " Months, " & DATEDIF(A2,B2,"MD") & " Days", press Enter key to get the result.
A screenshot showing the formula for calculating years, months, and days between two dates in Excel

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