What day of the year is it?

Every date has a position in the year: 1 January is day 1 and 31 December is day 365, or 366 in a leap year. This tool gives that number for any date, along with how many days are left and how far through the year you are.

Pick a date

Result

October 23, 2026 is day 296 of 365.

Day number
296 of 365
Days remaining
69 days left in 2026
Year progress
81.1% complete
Quarter
Q4
ISO week
Week 43
Simple week
Week 43 counting from 1 January
Weekday
Friday
Leap year
No

How it is calculated

  • The day number is the difference between the date and 1 January of the same year, plus one.
  • In a leap year every date from 1 March onwards shifts up by one, because 29 February sits in between.
  • Days remaining is the length of the year minus the day number, so 31 December always shows zero days left.
  • The percentage is the day number divided by the length of the year, which is why a leap year never quite reaches the same percentages as a common year.

Where this is used in the real world

  • Logistics and manufacturing: batch codes and best-before stamps are often printed as a day number, sometimes called a Julian date.
  • Payroll and accounting: pro-rata calculations that divide an annual figure by days elapsed.
  • Agriculture and science: growing-degree days, sampling schedules and field records keyed to the day number.
  • Goal tracking: seeing how much of the year is left before an annual target.

Good to know

  • The day number used in industry is sometimes called a “Julian date”, but that name properly belongs to the astronomical day count that starts in 4713 BCE. They are different things.
  • Some systems print a five-digit code (year plus day number) and some print three digits; this tool gives the plain day number.

Questions people ask

What day of the year is today?

Open the tool without changing anything — it starts on today’s date in this site’s time zone and shows the day number straight away.

How many days are left in the year?

The result shows days remaining after the selected date, counting the last day of December as zero days left.

Why is the day number different in a leap year?

29 February adds a day before March, so every later date moves up one place. 25 December is day 359 in a common year and day 360 in a leap year.