How to Convert Seconds to Hours and Minutes in PowerShell

To convert seconds to hours and minutes in PowerShell, turn the number into a TimeSpan with New-TimeSpan -Seconds. Its Hours, Minutes and Seconds properties hold the parts, and ToString formats it as hh:mm:ss:

$seconds = 7384
$time = New-TimeSpan -Seconds $seconds

"$seconds seconds = $($time.Hours) hours, $($time.Minutes) minutes, $($time.Seconds) seconds"
"As hh:mm:ss: $($time.ToString('hh\:mm\:ss'))"

Output:

7384 seconds = 2 hours, 3 minutes, 4 seconds
As hh:mm:ss: 02:03:04

The backslashes in ‘hh\:mm\:ss’ are required, because a colon means something special in TimeSpan formats. Every example ran in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1, with the same results.

Parts vs totals

[timespan]::FromSeconds does the same job as New-TimeSpan. Hours and Minutes are the parts of the time, while TotalHours and TotalMinutes are the whole length in one unit:

$time = [timespan]::FromSeconds(7384)

"Hours:        $($time.Hours)"
"Minutes:      $($time.Minutes)"
"TotalHours:   $([Math]::Round($time.TotalHours, 2))"
"TotalMinutes: $([Math]::Round($time.TotalMinutes, 2))"

Output:

Hours:        2
Minutes:      3
TotalHours:   2.05
TotalMinutes: 123.07

Minutes is 3 because 7,384 seconds is 2 hours and 3 minutes. TotalMinutes is 123.07 because that’s the full length in minutes.

Durations often come from date math, covered in date differences in PowerShell.

Convert seconds to minutes

Use TotalMinutes for a decimal number of minutes, or combine the whole minutes with the leftover seconds for a m:ss display:

foreach ($s in 45, 90, 754, 3600) {
    $t = [timespan]::FromSeconds($s)
    '{0,5} s = {1,6:N2} minutes = {2}:{3:D2} (m:ss)' -f $s, $t.TotalMinutes, [int][Math]::Floor($t.TotalMinutes), $t.Seconds
}

Output:

   45 s =   0.75 minutes = 0:45 (m:ss)
   90 s =   1.50 minutes = 1:30 (m:ss)
  754 s =  12.57 minutes = 12:34 (m:ss)
 3600 s =  60.00 minutes = 60:00 (m:ss)

Floor keeps whole minutes, since [int] would round 12.57 up to 13. Rounding numbers covers the rounding options.

More than 24 hours

Past one day, Hours starts over at 0 and the extra day goes into Days. A plain hh:mm:ss format then hides the day completely:

$time = [timespan]::FromSeconds(100000)

"Hours property only:   $($time.Hours)"
"hh:mm:ss format:       $($time.ToString('hh\:mm\:ss'))"
"With days:             $($time.ToString('d\.hh\:mm\:ss'))"
"Total hours as h:mm:ss: {0}:{1:D2}:{2:D2}" -f [int][Math]::Floor($time.TotalHours), $time.Minutes, $time.Seconds

Output:

Hours property only:   3
hh:mm:ss format:       03:46:40
With days:             1.03:46:40
Total hours as h:mm:ss: 27:46:40

Use the d.hh:mm:ss format, or build the text from TotalHours, whenever durations can run past a day.

A readable duration

For reports and emails, words read better than colons. This function lists only the parts that aren’t zero and handles singular and plural:

function Format-Duration {
    param([double]$Seconds)
    $t = [timespan]::FromSeconds($Seconds)
    $parts = @()
    if ($t.Days)    { $parts += '{0} day{1}'    -f $t.Days,    $(if ($t.Days -ne 1) { 's' }) }
    if ($t.Hours)   { $parts += '{0} hour{1}'   -f $t.Hours,   $(if ($t.Hours -ne 1) { 's' }) }
    if ($t.Minutes) { $parts += '{0} minute{1}' -f $t.Minutes, $(if ($t.Minutes -ne 1) { 's' }) }
    if ($t.Seconds -or -not $parts) { $parts += '{0} second{1}' -f $t.Seconds, $(if ($t.Seconds -ne 1) { 's' }) }
    $parts -join ', '
}

foreach ($s in 59, 61, 3660, 7384, 100000) { '{0,6} -> {1}' -f $s, (Format-Duration -Seconds $s) }

Output:

    59 -> 59 seconds
    61 -> 1 minute, 1 second
  3660 -> 1 hour, 1 minute
  7384 -> 2 hours, 3 minutes, 4 seconds
100000 -> 1 day, 3 hours, 46 minutes, 40 seconds

Convert a time string to seconds

Cast a time string to [timespan] and read TotalSeconds. The catch is that a short string like 2:30 is read as hours and minutes, not minutes and seconds:

foreach ($text in '00:02:30', '01:15:00', '2:30', '1.02:00:00') {
    '{0,-11} -> {1,6} seconds' -f $text, ([timespan]$text).TotalSeconds
}

Output:

00:02:30    ->    150 seconds
01:15:00    ->   4500 seconds
2:30        ->   9000 seconds
1.02:00:00  ->  93600 seconds

Write 00:02:30 for two and a half minutes. A day count goes before a dot, as in 1.02:00:00.

Minutes and seconds like 90:15

Lap times and video lengths are often written as minutes:seconds, with minutes over 59. The cast fails on those, so split the text instead:

$lap = '90:15'

try { "As a plain cast: $(([timespan]$lap).TotalSeconds)" }
catch { "As a plain cast: Failed. '$lap' is read as 90 hours and 15 minutes" }

$minutes, $seconds = $lap -split ':'
"Split into minutes and seconds: $([int]$minutes * 60 + [int]$seconds) seconds"

Output:

As a plain cast: Failed. '90:15' is read as 90 hours and 15 minutes
Split into minutes and seconds: 5415 seconds

Multiply the minutes by 60 and add the seconds. The same idea works for hours:minutes:seconds with more parts.

Seconds between two times

Subtracting one date from another gives a TimeSpan, so all of the above works on elapsed time too:

$start = Get-Date -Date '2026-09-29 08:15:00'
$end = Get-Date -Date '2026-09-29 10:47:30'

$elapsed = $end - $start
"Elapsed seconds: $($elapsed.TotalSeconds)"
"Elapsed time:    $($elapsed.ToString('hh\:mm\:ss'))"

Output:

Elapsed seconds: 9150
Elapsed time:    02:32:30

Measure-Command returns a TimeSpan as well, so its TotalSeconds works the same way. The New-TimeSpan documentation covers the -Start and -End parameters.

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