Home › Health & Education › Screen Time Calculator
Screen Time Calculator
Use this free screen time calculator to add up the hours you spend on your phone, TV, computer, and tablet each day. Enter your hours per device, pick an age group, and it shows your daily total, your weekly total, and how your day compares with common age-based screen time limits — plus which device eats the most of your time.
Enter your average hours per day on each device. Use decimals for part hours, for example 1.5 for an hour and a half.
The limit for adults is the same 2-hour recreational guideline used as a reference, since there is no official adult daily limit.
| Device | Hours / day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | 3 h | 43% |
| TV | 1.5 h | 21% |
| Computer / laptop | 2 h | 29% |
| Tablet | 0.5 h | 7% |
| Daily total | 7 h | 100% |
| Weekly total | 49 h | — |
| Daily limit | 2 h | — |
How it works
Screen time is easy to underestimate because it is spread across four devices and dozens of small sessions. A half hour of morning news on the phone, an hour of TV after dinner, two hours on a laptop, and a few minutes on a tablet do not feel like much on their own — but added together they are a large slice of the day. This calculator simply adds the four device totals, so you see the real number instead of four small ones.
Enter your average hours per day for each device. If you are not sure, check your phone's built-in screen time report, which most phones now show by day and by app, and estimate the rest. Decimals are fine: 45 minutes is 0.75 hours, 20 minutes is about 0.33 hours, and 15 minutes is 0.25 hours. Leave a device at 0 if you do not use it.
Weekly total = daily total × 7
Difference from limit = daily total − recommended daily limit for your age group
The age-based limits come from widely used guidance. For children under 2, the recommendation is to avoid solo screen time except for video calls with family. For ages 2 to 5, the common guidance is about 1 hour a day of high-quality programming, watched together with an adult where possible. For ages 6 to 17, the usual reference point is about 2 hours a day of recreational screen time, with the emphasis on keeping screens from crowding out sleep, homework, exercise, and time with family and friends.
Adults have no official daily limit, so the calculator uses the same 2-hour recreational guideline as a reference point. That does not mean 2 hours is a hard rule for adults — a person who works on a computer all day will pass it before lunch. The useful comparison is recreational time: add up the hours spent on videos, games, and social feeds, and compare that part with the guideline. The breakdown table helps here, because it shows each device's share of your total.
One warning about the total: screens overlap. If the TV is on while you scroll on your phone, that hour is counted once in your day but twice across the devices. When the device sum passes 24 hours, the calculator flags it, and the honest reading is that the total measures screen exposure, not clock time. For a cleaner daily figure, count only the main screen in each hour.
Worked example
A teenager uses a phone for 3 hours a day, watches TV for 1.5 hours, uses a computer for 2 hours, and uses a tablet for 0.5 hours.
Step 1: Add the devices — 3 + 1.5 + 2 + 0.5 = 7 hours per day.
Step 2: Find the weekly total — 7 × 7 = 49 hours per week.
Step 3: Compare with the limit for ages 13 to 17, which is 2 hours a day — 7 − 2 = 5 hours over the limit each day, or 35 hours over across the week.
Step 4: Find the biggest share — the phone is 3 ÷ 7 = 43% of the total, so the phone is the first place to cut.
The result is 7 hours per day, 49 hours per week, 5 hours over the 2-hour daily limit — exactly what the calculator shows for those inputs.
FAQ
How much screen time is too much per day?
There is no single number that fits everyone, but the age-based limits in this calculator are a good starting point: about 1 hour a day of high-quality programming for ages 2 to 5, and about 2 hours a day of recreational screen time for ages 6 to 17. Adults have no official daily limit, so the calculator compares adult totals with the same 2-hour recreational guideline. Work and school screen time is usually counted separately from recreational time.
Does work or school screen time count?
It counts toward your total hours, but most screen time guidelines are written about recreational use, such as videos, games, and social media. That is why this calculator lets you enter computer hours separately: a full workday on a computer is normal, while the same number of hours spent only on entertainment is a different story. If your total looks high, check how much of it is entertainment and how much is work or school.
Why can my daily total be more than 24 hours?
Because screens overlap. If you watch TV for an hour while scrolling on your phone, that hour counts once in your day but twice in the device totals, so the sum can pass 24 hours. The calculator warns you when that happens. For a cleaner daily total, count only your main screen in each hour, or treat the total as the sum of screen exposure rather than clock time.
How do I cut down screen time without quitting cold turkey?
Start with the biggest device in your breakdown and trim it by 30 minutes a day. Charge your phone outside the bedroom, set app timers for the apps that eat the most time, and pick one screen-free hour each evening, for example the hour before bed. Small cuts stick better than a sudden ban, and the weekly total in this calculator shows the payoff: 30 minutes a day is 3.5 hours a week back.
Is screen time before bed really a problem?
It can be, for two reasons. Bright screens and engaging content keep your brain alert when it should be winding down, and late-night scrolling pushes bedtime later, which cuts into sleep. Most sleep guidance suggests stopping recreational screens 30 to 60 minutes before bed and keeping the phone out of reach overnight. If your sleep feels short, try moving your last hour of screen time earlier in the evening for a week and see how you feel.