Most months have either 720 or 744 hours, depending on whether the month is 30 or 31 days long. The average across all 12 months works out to about 730 hours.
Hours by Month Length
Every day has 24 hours, so the math is straightforward: multiply the number of days by 24. Since calendar months range from 28 to 31 days, the totals break down like this:
- 28-day month (February): 672 hours
- 29-day month (February in a leap year): 696 hours
- 30-day month (April, June, September, November): 720 hours
- 31-day month (January, March, May, July, August, October, December): 744 hours
Seven months out of the year have 31 days, four have 30 days, and February stands alone at 28 (or 29 in a leap year). That means the most common answer is 744 hours, though 720 is a close second.
The Average Month
If you need a single number, divide the total hours in a year by 12. A standard 365-day year contains 8,760 hours, which gives an average of 730 hours per month. In a leap year (366 days), the total is 8,784 hours, bumping the monthly average to 732.
For quick estimates, 730 is the number most people use. It comes up often in billing cycles, energy usage calculations, and project planning where you need a round monthly figure without worrying about which specific month you’re in.
Work Hours in a Month
If you searched this because you’re thinking about pay or productivity, the number you actually want is lower. A typical full-time work schedule is 40 hours per week, which translates to roughly 160 to 184 work hours per month depending on how weekdays fall. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management uses 2,087 as the standard number of work hours in a year for federal employees. That averages out to about 174 work hours per month. Most private employers use a similar ballpark figure when converting annual salaries to hourly rates.
Lunar Months
Calendar months are loosely based on the Moon’s cycle, but the two don’t line up perfectly. The Moon takes about 29.5 days to go from one new moon to the next (a synodic month), which equals roughly 708 hours. A sidereal month, the time it takes the Moon to complete one full orbit relative to the stars, is shorter at about 27.3 days, or roughly 655 hours. Neither matches our calendar months exactly, which is why lunar calendars and solar calendars have always drifted apart.