1500 military time
1500 = 3:00 PM
1500 is 3 o’clock in the afternoon. With a colon it is 15:00.
Convert another time
How to read 1500
1500 is after noon, so subtract 12 from the hours: 15 − 12 = 3. Keep the minutes (00) and add PM: 3:00 PM.
For hours 13 to 19, ignore the 1 and take 2 from the second digit: 15 gives 5 − 2 = 3, PM.
1500 falls in the afternoon: 15 hours after midnight, 62.5% of the way through the day, with 9 hours left until the next midnight.
How to say it
Pilots and air traffic controllers say each digit: “one five zero zero”. Off the radio, people usually read 1500 as two numbers.
Counting hours to and from 1500
Start and end times on a timesheet come down to this subtraction. The decimal column is the form many payroll systems want; the minutes to decimal chart covers every minute.
| Start | Length | Decimal |
|---|---|---|
| 0600 | 9 h | 9.00 |
| 0700 | 8 h | 8.00 |
| 0800 | 7 h | 7.00 |
| 0900 | 6 h | 6.00 |
| Add | Military | 12-hour |
|---|---|---|
| 1 h | 1600 | 4:00 PM |
| 2 h | 1700 | 5:00 PM |
| 4 h | 1900 | 7:00 PM |
| 8 h | 2300 | 11:00 PM |
| 10 h | 0100 | 1:00 AM (next day) |
| 12 h | 0300 | 3:00 AM (next day) |
1500Z: the same moment in other time zones
Written 1500Z, the time is in UTC, and the local clock depends on the zone and the season.
| Zone | Standard time | Summer time |
|---|---|---|
| US Eastern (New York) | 10:00 AM UTC−5 | 11:00 AM UTC−4 |
| US Central (Chicago) | 9:00 AM UTC−6 | 10:00 AM UTC−5 |
| US Mountain (Denver) | 8:00 AM UTC−7 | 9:00 AM UTC−6 |
| US Pacific (Los Angeles) | 7:00 AM UTC−8 | 8:00 AM UTC−7 |
| Alaska (Anchorage) | 6:00 AM UTC−9 | 7:00 AM UTC−8 |
| Hawaii (Honolulu) | 5:00 AM UTC−10 | no change |
| UK (London) | 3:00 PM UTC+0 | 4:00 PM UTC+1 |
| Central Europe (Berlin) | 4:00 PM UTC+1 | 5:00 PM UTC+2 |
| India | 8:30 PM UTC+5:30 | no change |
| Japan and South Korea | 12:00 AM (next day) UTC+9 | no change |
| Australia East (Sydney) | 1:00 AM (next day) UTC+10 | 2:00 AM (next day) UTC+11 |
For a particular date and city, use the time zone converter, which applies the exact daylight saving dates.
Nearby military times
The full chart is on the military time page.