A calendar year splits into four quarters of three months each. Here are the exact months and dates in every quarter, how many days each one holds, a quick month-to-quarter lookup, and how calendar quarters differ from the fiscal quarters businesses use.
Right now
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The four quarters at a glance
Each quarter ("Q" for short) is a run of three consecutive months. The dates below are for the standard calendar year, which is what people mean by "Q1, Q2…" unless a company specifies its own financial year.
Quarter
Months
Dates
Length
Q1
January – March
1 Jan – 31 Mar
90 days (91 in a leap year)
Q2
April – June
1 Apr – 30 Jun
91 days
Q3
July – September
1 Jul – 30 Sep
92 days
Q4
October – December
1 Oct – 31 Dec
92 days
Only Q1 changes length between years — it gains a day (to 91) in a leap year because of 29 February. The year totals 365 days, or 366 in a leap year.
Which quarter is a given month in?
A quick lookup — handy when you just need to place one month.
January
Q1
February
Q1
March
Q1
April
Q2
May
Q2
June
Q2
July
Q3
August
Q3
September
Q3
October
Q4
November
Q4
December
Q4
Halves of the year (H1 and H2)
Quarters are sometimes grouped into halves. H1 is the first half — Q1 plus Q2, January to June. H2 is the second half — Q3 plus Q4, July to December. You'll see "H1 results" or "second-half outlook" in business reporting, where it's a coarser view than quarter-by-quarter.
Calendar quarters vs fiscal quarters
The quarters above are calendar quarters, always anchored to January. But many organisations run on a fiscal (financial) year that starts in another month — and their "Q1" follows that start, not January. The same label can mean very different dates depending on whose calendar you're reading.
Year type
Runs
Notes
Calendar year
1 Jan – 31 Dec
Q1 starts in January. The default for most companies and personal use.
US federal government
1 Oct – 30 Sep
Fiscal 2026 runs Oct 2025 – Sep 2026; its Q1 is Oct–Dec.
United Kingdom (government & tax)
6 Apr – 5 Apr
The UK tax year is famously offset; the government financial year is 1 Apr – 31 Mar.
Common corporate (e.g. many tech firms)
varies
Plenty of companies pick a non-January fiscal start, so their Q1 may be Feb, Apr, Jul or Oct.
So when a company reports "Q3 earnings", check which calendar they mean — for a fiscal year starting in April, Q3 covers October to December, not July to September. For the full picture — the common fiscal years by country and how FY2026 labels are named — see what a fiscal year is.
See where you are in the current quarter
Want to know how far through the quarter today is, or count the days and business days left in it? The calculators on the week.hako.to home page work out quarter progress and date spans for you. To count working days between two dates, see the business-days reference. For the week-by-week view of the year, see the week number calendar.