How to Convert Decimal to Minutes and Seconds in Excel (3 Easy Ways)

Excel by default stores time in decimal format. But there are several built-in formats and custom formats to convert these decimal values to time format. In this article, we’ll demonstrate 3 easy methods, using the dataset below as an example.

Method 1 – Manually Converting Decimal to Minutes Only

Excel stores time as a fraction of one day. So, to convert it to minutes, we’ll multiply the decimal by 24 hours and then by 60 minutes.

Steps:

Activate cell D5 by clicking it.
Enter the following formula in it:

=C5*24*60

Press ENTER to return the value in minutes.

Drag down the Fill Handle icon to copy the formula to the rest of the cells.

All the decimal values are now converted to minutes.

Method 2 – Manually Convert Decimal to Seconds Only

In the same way, we can convert decimals to seconds only. We’ll multiply the decimal by 86400, because one day equals 24 * 60 * 60 = 86400 seconds.

Steps:

Insert the following formula in cell D5:

=C5*24*60*60

Press ENTER to return the output.

Copy the formula to the other cells by dragging down the Fill Handle icon.

We have all the values in seconds.

Method 3 – Using a Custom Format to Convert Decimal to Minutes and Seconds

For this example, we’ll use a new dataset that contains some the run times of some short films in minutes in number format. We’ll convert these values to minutes and seconds in time format using a custom time format. First, we’ll convert the minutes to decimal, and then will apply a custom format.

Steps: