PTO Calculator: How Much Paid Time Off Will You Have?

The PTO hours you have banked right now, as shown on your pay stub or HR portal.
Example: 120 hours a year paid biweekly = 120 ÷ 26 = 4.62 hours per paycheck.
Used for the per-period rate and for counting whole periods to your target date. In days-per-month mode it is used only for the per-period equivalent.
Usually 8. Set 7.5 if your standard day is 7.5 hours, so day conversions match your policy.
2,080 = 40 hours × 52 weeks (full-time). Part-time? Enter your real annual hours.
Defaults to today. Accrual is counted from this date to your target date.
The date you want to know your balance on — a vacation, year-end, or your last day.
If your plan stops accrual at a maximum balance, enter it here.
Shows what your current and projected balances are worth, gross before tax.

Try it: 40 hours banked, 4.62 hours biweekly, from 1 Jan to 30 Jun 2026 = 12 whole periods → 55.44 more hours → 95.44 hours projected.

Estimate only. This calculator models a simple accrual policy — it is not your employer's policy. Caps, carryover, and use-it-or-lose-it rules vary by employer and state, and payout depends on your employer's written policy. Check your handbook or HR before booking travel or assuming a payout.

PTO Calculator: How Much Paid Time Off Will You Have?

Quick Answer

PTO per pay period = annual PTO hours ÷ pay periods per year. With 120 hours a year (15 days) paid biweekly, that is 120 ÷ 26 = 4.62 hours per paycheck. With 80 hours a year, it is 80 ÷ 26 = 3.08 hours per paycheck.

But a per-paycheck rate alone does not tell you whether you will have enough time for a trip. Your projected balance on a target date is:

Projected balance = current balance + (accrual rate × whole periods to the target date) − PTO you plan to use before then.

Example: 40 hours banked today, accruing 4.62 hours biweekly, with a target date 12 whole pay periods away gives 40 + 55.44 = 95.44 hours (11.93 days) — before any planned use or cap. Use the calculator above with your own dates to get your number.

How PTO accrual works

Most US employers do not hand you the whole year’s PTO on January 1. Instead, you accrue it gradually — a slice lands each pay period, or each month, until you have earned the full annual amount. Two rhythms cover almost every policy:

  • Per pay period: a fixed number of hours lands each paycheck, whatever your hours that period. This is the simplest to check against your pay stub: find the accrual line and compare it with annual PTO ÷ pay periods.
  • Per hour worked: every hour on the clock earns a fixed slice of PTO (annual PTO ÷ annual hours worked). A 120-hour plan over a 2,080-hour full-time year earns 0.0577 hours of PTO per hour worked — about 3.46 minutes per hour. This method prorates itself for part-time schedules: work fewer hours, earn proportionally less PTO.

For full-time employees, a year of 2,080 hours means 40 hours × 52 weeks. If you work part-time, enter your real annual hours instead of 2,080 — the per-hour rate stays fair and everything else scales.

The formulas

  • Per-period accrual = annual PTO hours ÷ pay periods per year (52 weekly, 26 biweekly, 24 semi-monthly, 12 monthly).
  • Per-hour accrual = annual PTO hours ÷ annual hours worked.
  • Per-month accrual = annual PTO hours ÷ 12.
  • Days ↔ hours: days × hours per workday = hours. Fifteen days at 8 hours a day is 120 hours; at a 7.5-hour standard day, the same 15 days is 112.5 hours. Set the workday field to match your schedule so day conversions match your policy.

Worked example

Maya has 40 hours of PTO banked, earns 120 hours a year, and is paid biweekly. Her target date is 30 June 2026, and she is counting from 1 January 2026.

  1. Per-period accrual: 120 ÷ 26 = 4.62 hours per paycheck.
  2. Whole periods between the dates: 180 days ÷ 14 = 12 whole biweekly periods (a partial period does not accrue until it completes).
  3. Additional accrual: 12 × 4.62 = 55.44 hours.
  4. Projected balance: 40 + 55.44 = 95.44 hours, or 11.93 days at 8 hours a day.
  5. If Maya plans to take 40 hours before that date, her projected balance becomes 95.44 − 40 = 55.44 hours.
  6. If her plan caps balances at 120 hours and she had started with 80 hours instead, her raw projection would be 135.44 hours — capped at 120, with 15.44 hours that would stop accruing.

What most PTO calculators miss (and this one includes)

A target date, not just a rate. Most top PTO tools answer “how much do I earn per paycheck?” and stop. The question people actually need answered is “will I have enough by my vacation?” — so this calculator projects to a date you pick.

Planned use. A projection that ignores time you already plan to take overstates your balance. Enter any personal time you already plan to take and it is subtracted before the headline number.

A balance cap, stated plainly. Many plans stop accrual at a maximum balance, and the paused hours never come back. Enter your cap and the calculator shows the capped balance plus the exact hours that would stop accruing — so you can take time before the cap instead of donating it.

Payout value of the projected balance. Enter an hourly rate and the calculator prices both today’s balance and the projected balance, gross before tax. Note that this is not a payout promise: whether unused PTO is paid out at all, and up to what cap, depends on your employer’s written policy and your state’s rules.

Days-per-month entry and an adjustable workday. Some policies are quoted in days per month, not hours per paycheck, and some workdays are 7.5 hours, not 8. Both are supported here; most competitors support only one entry mode and a fixed 8-hour day.

Caps, carryover, and use-it-or-lose-it: where PTO gets lost

  • Carryover up to a cap: unused hours roll forward until the ceiling. This calculator models that ceiling.
  • Use-it-or-lose-it deadlines: where allowed, unspent hours expire on a fixed date. This calculator does not model an expiry date — if your plan has one, treat the projection as valid only up to that date and check the deadline in your handbook.
  • Front-loaded vs accrued: if your employer grants the full year up front, your available balance early in the year is higher than an accrual projection shows. This calculator models accrual, so for a front-loaded plan treat its projection as an upper bound: your current balance already includes the grant, and further accrual on top of it would double-count.
  • Separate banks: some employers track vacation and sick leave separately, sometimes required by state law. This calculator models a single accruing bank — run it once per bank if your vacation and sick time accrue at different rates.

No federal law requires employers to offer paid vacation, so these rules come from employer policy and state law, not a national standard. The commonly published US employer benchmarks — about 10 days for newer employees, 15 days at a few years of service, 20 days for longer-tenured staff — are useful for sanity-checking a job offer, but your handbook sets your actual rate.

How to check your result against your pay stub

  1. Find the PTO accrual line on a recent pay stub.
  2. Compare it with the calculator’s per-period figure. Small rounding differences (a cent or a hundredth of an hour) are normal; a whole-hour gap means your annual allotment, frequency, or workday assumption differs from payroll’s.
  3. Compare the running balance with the calculator’s “balance today” figure. If they disagree, the usual causes are unrecorded used hours, a different counting start date, or a cap that already applied.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much PTO do I earn per paycheck?

Divide your annual PTO hours by your pay periods per year. For 120 hours paid biweekly: 120 ÷ 26 = 4.62 hours per paycheck. For 80 hours: 3.08 hours biweekly, 3.33 hours semi-monthly, 6.67 hours monthly, and 1.54 hours weekly.

How much PTO will I have by a specific date?

Add your current balance to your accrual rate times the number of whole pay periods (or whole months) between now and that date, then subtract any PTO you plan to use before then. The calculator above does this and also applies a balance cap if you enter one.

How do I calculate PTO per hour worked?

Divide annual PTO hours by annual hours worked. A 120-hour plan over 2,080 hours gives 0.0577 hours of PTO per hour worked. Part-time employees should use their real annual hours — for example, 120 hours over 1,040 hours gives 0.1154 per hour, because the same annual allotment is earned over fewer hours.

What is the standard PTO accrual rate in the USA?

There is no legal standard rate. Commonly published employer benchmarks are about 80 hours (10 days) a year for newer employees, 120 hours (15 days) after a few years, and 160 hours (20 days) for longer-tenured staff — roughly 3.08, 4.62, and 6.15 hours per biweekly paycheck. Your employer’s policy is the only rate that applies to you.

What happens when I hit my PTO cap?

Accrual pauses until you use time and drop below the cap. The paused hours are not banked retroactively, so time taken before the cap is worth more than time taken after it. Enter your cap in the calculator to see how many hours would stop accruing.

Does unused PTO get paid out when I leave a job?

It depends on your employer’s written policy and your state’s rules — some states treat PTO an employee earned as wages that must be paid, others leave it to company policy. The gross payout formula is unused hours × hourly rate (for example, 40 hours × $30 = $1,200 before tax). The calculator shows this gross figure only; taxes and any payout cap are not estimated.

Disclaimer

This calculator is an estimate for personal planning only. It models a simple accrual policy with whole-period counting and does not reproduce any specific employer’s payroll rules, anniversary dates, waiting periods, or state requirements. Verify your balance with your pay stub, handbook, or HR before booking travel, resigning, or assuming a payout. This is not legal, tax, or financial advice.

References

  • U.S. Department of Labor, Vacation Leave guidance (federal law does not require paid vacation; accrual rules come from employer policy and state law).
  • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Benefits survey (paid-leave amounts by years of service).

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