Counting is inclusive of both endpoints
This counts every weekday from the start date to the end date, including both. A Monday-to-Friday span is five working days, which matches how project plans and leave requests are normally written.
Holidays are only subtracted when they fall on a weekday — a public holiday landing on a Saturday costs you nothing in working days, which the breakdown above makes explicit.
Business days in contracts and shipping
When a contract says "within 10 business days", it almost always means weekdays excluding public holidays, counted from the day after the triggering event. Whether the start day counts is the most common source of dispute, so a well-drafted clause says so explicitly.
Courier and banking timelines work the same way, which is why a payment sent on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend may not clear until the following Wednesday.
Working out annual leave
Leave entitlements are usually expressed in working days, so a two-week holiday costs ten days of leave, not fourteen. Public holidays falling inside that period are typically not deducted, which is why booking around them stretches your allowance.
The holiday field above lets you model exactly that: enter the public holidays in your period and compare the working-day count with and without them.
Frequently asked questions
What if my weekend is Friday and Saturday? +
This calculator assumes a Saturday–Sunday weekend. For a Friday–Saturday working week, common across parts of the Middle East, the totals will differ by a day or two per week.
Are public holidays working days? +
No, where they are observed. Enter them in the holidays field and they are excluded — though only when they fall on a weekday, since a Saturday holiday costs nothing.
How many working days are in a year? +
Roughly 260 before public holidays, which is 52 weeks of five days. Most countries land between 245 and 255 once holidays are removed.