What Is 15 Minutes?
One quarter of an hour
Fifteen minutes is a quarter of an hour, written 0.25 in decimal hours and 00:15:00 in hours, minutes and seconds. It is 900 seconds, or 900,000 milliseconds.
It is also the standard unit of a great deal of ordinary life: appointment slots, parking increments, billing units in professional services, school break times and the classic short tidying block.
Count it down
If you would rather watch the quarter-hour pass than calculate it, this is the same timer used across the site.
15 Minute Timer
15:00
Ready
- Ends at
- —
- Elapsed
- 00:00
Settings
Space start or pause · R reset · F full screen
Questions people ask
Why is 15 minutes used for appointments?
It divides an hour evenly into four, which makes scheduling and billing simple, and it is long enough for a short consultation.
What is a quarter past?
Fifteen minutes after the hour. Quarter to means fifteen minutes before the next hour.