index.md

---
title: <input type="time">
slug: Web/HTML/Element/input/time
page-type: html-element
browser-compat: html.elements.input.type_time
---

{{HTMLSidebar}}

{{htmlelement("input")}} elements of type **`time`** create input fields designed to let the user easily enter a time (hours and minutes, and optionally seconds).

While the control's user interface appearance is based on the browser and operating system, the features are the same. The value is always a 24-hour `hh:mm` or `hh:mm:ss` formatted time, with leading zeros, regardless of the UI's input format.

{{EmbedInteractiveExample("pages/tabbed/input-time.html", "tabbed-standard")}}

### Setting the value attribute

You can set a default value for the input by including a valid time in the [`value`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#value) attribute when creating the `<input>` element, like so:

```html
<label for="appt-time">Choose an appointment time: </label>
<input id="appt-time" type="time" name="appt-time" value="13:30" />
```

{{ EmbedLiveSample('Setting_the_value_attribute', 600, 60) }}

### Setting the value using JavaScript

You can also get and set the time value in JavaScript using the {{domxref("HTMLInputElement")}} `value` property, for example:

```js
const timeControl = document.querySelector('input[type="time"]');
timeControl.value = "15:30";
```

### Time value format

The `value` of the `time` input is always in 24-hour format that includes leading zeros: `hh:mm`, regardless of the input format, which is likely to be selected based on the user's locale (or by the user agent). If the time includes seconds (see [Using the step attribute](#using_the_step_attribute)), the format is always `hh:mm:ss`. You can learn more about the format of the time value used by this input type in [Time strings](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Date_and_time_formats#time_strings).

In this example, you can see the time input's value by entering a time and seeing how it changes afterward.

First, a look at the HTML. This is simple enough, with the label and input as we've seen before, but with the addition of a {{HTMLElement("p")}} element with a {{HTMLElement("span")}} to display the value of the `time` input:

```html
<form>
  <label for="startTime">Start time: </label>
  <input type="time" id="startTime" />
  <p>
    Value of the <code>time</code> input:
    <code> "<span id="value">n/a</span>"</code>.
  </p>
</form>
```

The JavaScript code adds code to the time input to watch for the {{domxref("Element/input_event", "input")}} event, which is triggered every time the contents of an input element change. When this happens, the contents of the `<span>` are replaced with the new value of the input element.

```js
const startTime = document.getElementById("startTime");
const valueSpan = document.getElementById("value");

startTime.addEventListener(
  "input",
  () => {
    valueSpan.innerText = startTime.value;
  },
  false,
);
```

{{EmbedLiveSample("Time_value_format", 600, 80)}}

When a form including a `time` input is submitted, the value is encoded before being included in the form's data. The form's data entry for a time input will always be in the form `name=hh%3Amm`, or `name=hh%3Amm%3Ass` if seconds are included (see [Using the step attribute](#using_the_step_attribute)).

## Additional attributes

In addition to the attributes common to all {{HTMLElement("input")}} elements, `time` inputs offer the following attributes.

> **Note:** Unlike many data types, time values have a **periodic domain**, meaning that the values reach the highest possible value, then wrap back around to the beginning again. For example, specifying a `min` of `14:00` and a `max` of `2:00` means that the permitted time values start at 2:00 PM, run through midnight to the next day, ending at 2:00 AM. See more in the [making min and max cross midnight](#making_min_and_max_cross_midnight) section of this article.

### list

The values of the list attribute is the {{domxref("Element.id", "id")}} of a {{HTMLElement("datalist")}} element located in the same document. The {{HTMLElement("datalist")}} provides a list of predefined values to suggest to the user for this input. Any values in the list that are not compatible with the [`type`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#type) are not included in the suggested options. The values provided are suggestions, not requirements: users can select from this predefined list or provide a different value.

### max

A string indicating the latest time to accept, specified in the same [time value format](#time_value_format) as described above. If the specified string isn't a valid time, no maximum value is set.

### min

A string specifying the earliest time to accept, given in the [time value format](#time_value_format) described previously. If the value specified isn't a valid time string, no minimum value is set.

### readonly

A Boolean attribute which, if present, means this field cannot be edited by the user. Its `value` can, however, still be changed by JavaScript code directly setting the {{domxref("HTMLInputElement")}} `value` property.

> **Note:** Because a read-only field cannot have a value, `required` does not have any effect on inputs with the `readonly` attribute also specified.

### step

The `step` attribute is a number that specifies the granularity that the value must adhere to, or the special value `any`, which is described below. Only values which are equal to the basis for stepping ([`min`](#min) if specified, [`value`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#value) otherwise, and an appropriate default value if neither of those is provided) are valid.

A string value of `any` means that no stepping is implied, and any value is allowed (barring other constraints, such as [`min`](#min) and [`max`](#max)).

> **Note:** When the data entered by the user doesn't adhere to the stepping configuration, the {{Glossary("user agent")}} may round to the nearest valid value, preferring numbers in the positive direction when there are two equally close options.

For `time` inputs, the value of `step` is given in seconds, with a scaling factor of 1000 (since the underlying numeric value is in milliseconds). The default value of `step` is 60, indicating 60 seconds (or 1 minute, or 60,000 milliseconds).

When `any` is set as the value for `step`, the default 60 seconds is used, and the seconds value is not displayed in the UI.

## Using time inputs

### Basic uses of time

The simplest use of `<input type="time">` involves a basic `<input>` and {{htmlelement("label")}} element combination, as seen below:

```html
<form>
  <label for="appt-time">Choose an appointment time: </label>
  <input id="appt-time" type="time" name="appt-time" />
</form>
```

{{EmbedLiveSample('Basic_uses_of_time', 600, 40)}}

### Controlling input size

`<input type="time">` doesn't support form sizing attributes such as [`size`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#size), since times are always about the same number of characters long. You'll have to resort to [CSS](/en-US/docs/Web/CSS) for sizing needs.

### Using the step attribute

You can use the [`step`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#step) attribute to vary the amount of time jumped whenever the time is incremented or decremented (for example, so the time moves by 10 minutes at a time when clicking the little arrow widgets).

It takes an integer value defining the number of seconds you want to increment by; the default value is 60 seconds. With this as the default, most user agent time UIs display hours and minutes but not seconds. Including the [`step`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#step) attribute with any numeric value other than a value divisible by `60` adds seconds to the UI, if the `min` or `max` value has not already caused the seconds to be visible.

```html
<form>
  <label for="appt-time">Choose an appointment time: </label>
  <input id="appt-time" type="time" name="appt-time" step="2" />
</form>
```

{{EmbedLiveSample('Using_the_step_attribute', 600, 40)}}

To specify minutes or hours as a step, specify the number of minutes or hours in seconds, such as 120 for 2 minutes, or 7200 for 2 hours.

## Validation

By default, `<input type="time">` does not apply any validation to entered values, other than the user agent's interface generally not allowing you to enter anything other than a time value. This is helpful, but you can't entirely rely on the value to be a proper time string, since it might be an empty string (`""`), which is allowed.

### Setting maximum and minimum times

You can use the [`min`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#min) and [`max`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#max) attributes to restrict the valid times that can be chosen by the user. In the following example we are setting a minimum time of `12:00` and a maximum time of `18:00`:

```html
<form>
  <label for="appt-time">
    Choose an appointment time (opening hours 12:00 to 18:00):
  </label>
  <input id="appt-time" type="time" name="appt-time" min="12:00" max="18:00" />
  <span class="validity"></span>
</form>
```

{{ EmbedLiveSample('Setting_maximum_and_minimum_times', 600, 40) }}

Here's the CSS used in the above example. Here we make use of the {{cssxref(":valid")}} and {{cssxref(":invalid")}} CSS properties to style the input based on whether the current value is valid. We add an icon as generated content icon on a {{htmlelement("span")}} next to the input.

```css
div {
  margin-bottom: 10px;
  position: relative;
}

input[type="number"] {
  width: 100px;
}

input + span {
  padding-right: 30px;
}

input:invalid + span::after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "✖";
  padding-left: 5px;
}

input:valid + span::after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "✓";
  padding-left: 5px;
}
```

The result here is that:

- Only times between 12:00 and 18:00 will be seen as valid; times outside that range will be denoted as invalid.

#### Making min and max cross midnight

By setting a [`min`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#min) attribute greater than the [`max`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#max) attribute, the valid time range will wrap around midnight to produce a valid time range. This functionality is not supported by any other input types.

```js
const input = document.createElement("input");
input.type = "time";
input.min = "23:00";
input.max = "01:00";
input.value = "23:59";

if (input.validity.valid && input.type === "time") {
  // <input type=time> reversed range supported
} else {
  // <input type=time> reversed range unsupported
}
```

### Making times required

In addition, you can use the [`required`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#required) attribute to make filling in the time mandatory. Browsers will display an error if you try to submit a time that is outside the set bounds, or an empty time field.

Let's look at an example; here we've set minimum and maximum times, and also made the field required:

```html
<form>
  <div>
    <label for="appt-time">
      Choose an appointment time (opening hours 12:00 to 18:00):
    </label>
    <input
      id="appt-time"
      type="time"
      name="appt-time"
      min="12:00"
      max="18:00"
      required />
    <span class="validity"></span>
  </div>
  <div>
    <input type="submit" value="Submit form" />
  </div>
</form>
```

If you try to submit the form with an incomplete time (or with a time outside the set bounds), the browser displays an error. Try playing with the example now:

{{ EmbedLiveSample('Making_times_required', 600, 120) }}

> **Warning:** HTML form validation is _not_ a substitute for scripts that ensure that the entered data is in the proper format. It's far too easy for someone to make adjustments to the HTML that allow them to bypass the validation, or to remove it entirely. It's also possible for someone to bypass your HTML entirely and submit the data directly to your server. If your server-side code fails to validate the data it receives, disaster could strike when improperly-formatted data is submitted (or data which is too large, of the wrong type, and so forth).

## Examples

In this example, we create an interface element for choosing time using the native picker created with `<input type="time">`:

### HTML

```html
<form>
  <label for="appt-time">
    Choose an appointment time (opening hours 12:00 to 18:00):
  </label>
  <input
    id="appt-time"
    type="time"
    name="appt-time"
    min="12:00"
    max="18:00"
    required />
  <span class="validity"></span
```

### CSS

```css
input[type="number"] {
  width: 100px;
}

input + span {
  padding-right: 30px;
}

input:invalid + span::after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "✖";
  padding-left: 5px;
}

input:valid + span::after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "✓";
  padding-left: 5px;
}
```

### Result

{{ EmbedLiveSample('Examples', 600, 140) }}

## Technical Summary

<table class="properties">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td><strong><a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#value">Value</a></strong></td>
      <td>A string representing a time, or empty.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Events</strong></td>
      <td>
        {{domxref("HTMLElement/change_event", "change")}} and
        {{domxref("Element/input_event", "input")}}
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Supported common attributes</strong></td>
      <td>
        <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#autocomplete"><code>autocomplete</code></a>,
        <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#list"><code>list</code></a>,
        <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#readonly"><code>readonly</code></a>, and
        <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input#step"><code>step</code></a>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>IDL attributes</strong></td>
      <td>
        <code>value</code>, <code>valueAsDate</code>,
        <code>valueAsNumber</code>, and <code>list</code>.
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>DOM interface</strong></td>
      <td><p>{{domxref("HTMLInputElement")}}</p></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td><strong>Methods</strong></td>
      <td>
        {{domxref("HTMLInputElement.select", "select()")}},
        {{domxref("HTMLInputElement.stepDown", "stepDown()")}},
        and
        {{domxref("HTMLInputElement.stepUp", "stepUp()")}}.
      </td>
    </tr>
     <tr>
      <td><strong>Implicit ARIA Role</strong></td>
      <td><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/#dfn-no-corresponding-role"><code>no corresponding role</code></a></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

## Specifications

{{Specifications}}

## Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

## See also

- [`<input type="date">`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/date)
- [`<input type="datetime-local">`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/datetime-local)
- [`<input type="week">`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/week)
- [`<input type="month">`](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/month)
- The generic {{HTMLElement("input")}} element and the interface used to manipulate it, {{domxref("HTMLInputElement")}}
- [Date and time formats used in HTML](/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Date_and_time_formats)
- [Date and Time picker tutorial](/en-US/docs/Learn/Forms/HTML5_input_types#date_and_time_pickers)
- [Compatibility of CSS properties](/en-US/docs/Learn/Forms/Property_compatibility_table_for_form_controls)