Project your paid time off balance through any date — holidays & weekends excluded automatically.
Stop guessing your vacation balance. Enter your accrual rate or yearly allowance, add your planned trips, and see your exact PTO balance for any future date — with holidays and weekends automatically excluded.
Tap to toggle. Green = observed (free day, not PTO). Grey = not observed (costs PTO if taken).
Add a single day or a range — great for week-long closures like Christmas week.
Paid time off (PTO) is any paid leave your employer gives you — most often vacation days, but the term frequently covers paid sick leave and personal days too. Some employers keep these in separate buckets; others combine everything into a single "PTO bank" you can use for any reason. The United States has no federal law requiring paid vacation, so how much PTO you get, how it builds up, and whether it's paid out when you leave are all set by your employer's policy and, in some states, by state law.
Employers grant PTO in one of two ways. With a lump-sum (or "flat") grant, you receive your full yearly allowance at once — often on January 1 or your work anniversary. With accrual, you earn PTO gradually with every paycheck. Accrual is the more common model, and it's what trips most people up when they try to estimate their balance for a future date.
To find your accrual rate, divide your annual PTO by the number of paychecks you get per year, then convert to hours:
Annual PTO days × 8 hours ÷ paychecks per year = hours accrued per paycheck
For example, 15 vacation days a year on a bi-weekly schedule works out to 15 × 8 ÷ 26 ≈ 4.6 hours of PTO per paycheck. Here's how that same 15-day allowance accrues on the most common pay schedules:
| Pay schedule | Paychecks / year | Accrued per paycheck (15 days/yr) |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 | ~2.3 hours |
| Bi-weekly | 26 | ~4.6 hours |
| Semi-monthly | 24 | 5.0 hours |
| Monthly | 12 | 10.0 hours |
Many policies limit how much PTO you can bank. An accrual cap stops you from earning more once your balance hits a ceiling — you have to use some time off before you start accruing again. A rollover limit caps how many unused hours carry into the next year, and a use-it-or-lose-it policy forfeits anything above that limit at year-end. A handful of states (notably California) treat earned vacation as wages and prohibit forfeiting it outright. Our guide on what happens to unused PTO breaks down the rules state by state.
Once you know your projected balance, the PTO Optimizer helps you spend those days strategically — lining them up with holidays and weekends to turn a handful of vacation days into the longest possible breaks. For the full formulas behind accrual, see our guide to calculating your PTO accrual rate.
Divide your total yearly PTO days by the number of paychecks you receive per year, then multiply by 8 (hours per day). For example, 15 days ÷ 26 bi-weekly paychecks × 8 = 4.62 hours per paycheck. You can use the "days per year" input mode in the calculator above to have this calculated automatically.
In most companies, yes — PTO continues to accrue based on your pay schedule even when you're using vacation time, since you're still receiving a paycheck. Some companies pause accrual during unpaid leave. Check your employee handbook to confirm your company's policy.
A PTO cap is the maximum number of hours you're allowed to accumulate. Once you hit the cap, you stop accruing until you use some time off. This is different from a rollover limit, which caps how many hours you can carry from one year to the next. Enter your cap in the "Max PTO Cap" field to see when you'd hit it.
The average US private sector worker receives about 11 vacation days after one year of employment, rising to around 15 days after 5 years and 17 days after 10 years. Government workers typically receive more. Many companies also offer additional sick days or personal days on top of vacation PTO.
Yes. PTO Planner's calculator is completely free with no account required. A free account is optional and only saves your plan so you can return to it later.
Any date you choose. Enter a target date and the calculator projects your accrued balance up to that day, subtracting planned time off and accounting for holidays, weekends, accrual caps, and rollover limits.
It depends on your employer. If your company observes a federal holiday (like Thanksgiving or Christmas), you get that day off without it counting against your PTO balance. If your company does not observe a holiday and you take it off anyway, it typically comes out of your PTO. Use the Holiday Settings above to toggle which holidays your company observes.