Excel MINUTE Function: Syntax, Examples and Tips

Part of the free Module 5: Excel Formulas and Functions · Function 58 of 105 · Full Excel course

The Excel MINUTE function returns the minute component of a time as a whole number from 0 to 59. It reads the time fraction of a serial number, so it works on times, full timestamps and time text such as “9:45 AM”. MINUTE is used together with HOUR and SECOND to split times into parts, round times to intervals and convert clock times into decimal values for calculations.

Table of Contents

Syntax

=MINUTE(serial_number)

Arguments

Argument	Required / Optional	Meaning
serial_number	Required	The time to read: a time or date-time cell, a decimal fraction of a day, a TIME or NOW result, or recognisable time text.

How MINUTE works

Excel stores a time as a fraction of a 24-hour day. MINUTE converts that fraction to hours, minutes and seconds and returns only the minutes. =MINUTE("15:45") returns 45, =MINUTE(0.5) returns 0 (12:00) and =MINUTE("2026-09-04 08:07:59") returns 7. The date part and the seconds are ignored, and the value is never rounded up, so 08:07:59 still returns 7. Text that is not a valid time gives #VALUE!; negative values give #NUM!.

Step-by-step example: round clock-in times to 15 minutes

Column A holds clock-in times such as 08:52.
In B2 enter =MINUTE(A2) and fill down to see the raw minutes (52).
In C2 enter =TIME(HOUR(A2),MROUND(MINUTE(A2),15),0). For 08:52 this returns 09:00 because 52 rounds to 60 and TIME rolls the extra minutes into the hour.
Format column C as h:mm and fill down. The times are now aligned to quarter-hour slots for payroll.

Practical use cases

1. Total minutes from a time

=HOUR(A2)*60+MINUTE(A2)

Converts 2:35 into 155 minutes. For durations that may exceed a day use =A2*1440.

2. Decimal hours for invoicing

=HOUR(A2)+MINUTE(A2)/60

3. Check that appointments start on the hour or half hour

=MOD(MINUTE(A2),30)=0

4. Strip seconds from a timestamp

=TIME(HOUR(A2),MINUTE(A2),0)

5. Minutes late against a scheduled start

=MAX(0,(A2-B2)*1440)

Here subtraction is better than MINUTE, because the delay could exceed 59 minutes.

Common mistakes and tips

Using MINUTE for durations: a duration of 1:30 returns 30, not 90. Multiply the time by 1440 for total minutes.
Result displayed as a time: a cell formatted h:mm shows 45 as a date-time. Change the format to General.
Text with the wrong separator: “15.45” is not a time on most systems; replace the full stop with a colon.
Rounding expectations: MINUTE truncates; 08:07:59 gives 7. Use MROUND or ROUND on the minute value if you need rounding.
#VALUE! error: the argument is text Excel cannot read as a time. Convert with TIMEVALUE or fix the source.

MINUTE compared with HOUR, SECOND, TEXT and time arithmetic

HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND each return one component of a time within a single day, and TIME reverses the process. They are the right tools when you need the clock reading itself, for example to test whether something happened at :00 or :30, or to rebuild a time with one part changed. When you need an amount of time, elapsed minutes, billable hours or a delay, multiply the time difference by 24, 1440 or 86400 instead, because the component functions wrap at 24 hours and cannot represent totals. TEXT(A2,”mm”) returns the minutes as two-digit text for labels only; note that “mm” means months unless it follows an hour code, so write TEXT(A2,”h:mm”) when building a time label.