Excel TIME Function — How to Use It (with 3 Examples)

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What does TIME do?

TIME combines an hour, minute, and second into a single working time value, the same way DATE combines year, month, and day into a date.

It is most useful when those three components come from separate cells or calculations rather than being typed directly.

=TIME(hour, minute, second)

Example 1

Build 2:30 PM

=TIME(14,30,0)

Returns a time value displaying as 2:30 PM, depending on the cell's time format.

Example 2

Build a time from separate cells

=TIME(A2,B2,C2)

Combines hour, minute, and second values stored in three different cells.

Example 3

Add 90 minutes to a start time

=A2+TIME(0,90,0)

TIME correctly handles the overflow, so 90 minutes properly rolls into hours when added to a start time.

⚠️ Forgetting TIME wraps values over 24 hours

TIME(25,0,0) does not mean "25 hours" — it wraps around, the same way DATE handles month/day overflow.

Can TIME accept decimal seconds?

It accepts whole seconds; for finer precision, more advanced time arithmetic is needed.

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