Working days calculator

Count working days between two dates the way Indian payroll and attendance teams need it: your weekly-off pattern (including 2nd and 4th Saturdays), your holiday list, a month-by-month table, and paid days after loss of pay. Runs in your browser; nothing is stored.

Dates and pattern

Start date

End date (inclusive)

Weekly off pattern

Holiday list (one date per line, YYYY-MM-DD or DD/MM/YYYY; a name after the date is fine)

The button adds only the three national holidays (Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti). Gazetted, restricted and state holidays vary by state and employer, so paste your own list for those.

Payroll days

Loss-of-pay (LOP) days in this range

Result

Pick the dates and the result updates as you type.

A counting tool, not a compliance opinion. Which days are paid, which are weekly offs and which holidays apply are set by your appointment letter, your state's Shops and Establishments rules and your holiday policy. Check those before using the numbers in payroll.

How this is calculated

Calendar days = every day from the start date to the end date, both inclusive.
Weekly offs = days in the range matching the pattern. For "2nd & 4th Saturday", a Saturday is the nth of its month where n = ceiling(day of month ÷ 7), so the 8th to the 14th is the 2nd Saturday and the 22nd to the 28th is the 4th. A fifth Saturday (29th to 31st) is a working day under both Saturday patterns.
Holidays on working days = listed dates inside the range that are not already weekly offs. A holiday that falls on a weekly off is not counted twice, and no compensatory off is assumed.
Net working days = calendar days − weekly offs − holidays on working days.
Paid days = calendar days − LOP days. This follows the common Indian convention of paying salary on calendar days (so weekly offs and holidays are paid) and deducting only loss of pay. If your company pays on working days instead, use the net working days figure with your own per-day rate.

Assumptions

Dates are treated as whole days with no time zone; half-days are only supported in the LOP field.
The holiday list accepts YYYY-MM-DD, DD/MM/YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY and DD.MM.YYYY. Anything after the date on a line is treated as the holiday's name. Duplicate dates count once. Lines that cannot be read are reported, not silently dropped.
The "national holidays 2026" button adds the three days observed across India (26 January, 15 August, 2 October), verified on 1 November 2026. It deliberately does not add Holi, Diwali, Eid, Christmas or state days: those lists differ by state and by employer, and a wrong default is worse than none.
Ranges longer than ten years are refused to keep the month table readable.

ZekoHR keeps the weekly-off pattern and holiday calendar per company (and per location where they differ), so attendance, leave and the payroll pre-flight all count days the same way without anyone re-deriving them in a spreadsheet. See leave and attendance in Core HR →

FAQ

Common questions

Should payroll be computed on calendar days or working days?

Most Indian companies pay monthly salary on calendar days: a full month's pay covers weekly offs and holidays, and only loss-of-pay days are deducted at salary ÷ days in the month (or ÷ 30 by policy). Working days matter more for attendance, overtime, daily-wage staff and leave accounting. Your appointment letter or HR policy should state the convention; the tool shows both so you can use whichever applies.

How does the 2nd and 4th Saturday rule work when a month has five Saturdays?

The fifth Saturday is a working day. The nth Saturday is decided by the date: 1st to 7th is the first Saturday, 8th to 14th the second, 15th to 21st the third, 22nd to 28th the fourth, and 29th to 31st the fifth. Some companies treat the fifth Saturday as an off by policy; if yours does, switch to Custom and tick Saturday, or add those dates to the holiday list.

What happens when a holiday falls on a Sunday?

It is counted once, as a weekly off, and does not reduce working days further. Indian law does not generally require a substitute holiday in that case, though some state rules and many company policies grant a compensatory off. If yours does, add the substitute date to the list.

Why does the button only load three holidays?

Because only Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti are observed everywhere. The rest of the central government's gazetted list, the restricted holidays, and each state's own list under its Shops and Establishments or National and Festival Holidays Act differ, and festival dates move every year. A long default list would be wrong for most readers, so you paste your own.

Does this count working hours or overtime?

No, it counts days only. Multiply net working days by your standard daily hours (usually 8 or 9) for scheduled hours. Overtime depends on actual attendance and the applicable Act, so it needs attendance data, not a calendar.