Lead Time Calculator

Turn an order time, a cut-off, processing days and transit days into ship and delivery dates.

Estimated delivery

Mon, Nov 16 – Thu, Nov 19

Ships Tuesday, November 10, 2026 – Thursday, November 12, 2026.

as of Saturday, November 7, 2026

Processing counts business days from the day the order is received; transit counts Monday–Friday from the ship date. US federal holidays are skipped.

Order counts from: Mon, Nov 9
Ships: Tue, Nov 10 – Thu, Nov 12
Arrives: Mon, Nov 16 – Thu, Nov 19

Step by step

Ordered Saturday, November 7, 2026, which is not a business day, so the order counts from Monday, November 9, 2026.
Processing 1–2 business days → ships between Tue, Nov 10 and Thu, Nov 12.
Transit 3–5 business days (Monday–Friday, holidays skipped) → arrives between Mon, Nov 16 and Thu, Nov 19.

Processing time and transit time

A delivery estimate has two parts. Processing is the time the seller needs to prepare the order: picking, packing, making or approving it. Transit is the time the carrier needs to move it. A listing that says “ships in 1–2 business days, arrives 3–5 days after shipping” gives both.

The calculator adds them in order. It finds the day the order counts from, adds the processing days to get the ship window, then adds the transit days to each end of that window. The earliest delivery uses the shortest processing and the shortest transit; the latest uses the longest of each.

How cut-off times work

Sellers and warehouses usually have a daily cut-off. Orders placed before it count as received that business day; orders placed after it count from the next business day. Weekend and holiday orders also count from the next business day.

Example: ordered on Friday, November 20, 2026 at 18:00 with a 14:00 cut-off, processing 1–2 business days and transit 3–5. The order counts from Monday, November 23, 2026, ships Tue, Nov 24 – Wed, Nov 25 and arrives Mon, Nov 30 – Thu, Dec 3, with Thanksgiving on November 26 skipped. Ordering the same day at 10:00, before the cut-off, brings delivery forward to Fri, Nov 27 – Wed, Dec 2. If the carrier also delivers on Saturdays, the late order arrives Sat, Nov 28 – Wed, Dec 2.

Times are compared as entered, so use the seller’s time zone for both the order time and the cut-off.

Choosing the numbers

Use the processing time the seller states, not a guess, and enter it as a range if they give one. For transit, use the time the carrier quotes for the service you pay for between the two locations. If you only have a single number, put it in both boxes. Planning to a deadline? Work from the latest delivery date, not the earliest, and leave a buffer for anything that must arrive before a fixed date.

What the estimate does not include

The result is a planning estimate from the numbers you enter. It does not know a seller’s backlog, a carrier’s local delays or weather. Carriers set their own service days and holiday schedules, so check the carrier’s published options when an exact date matters.

Frequently asked questions

What is lead time?

Lead time is the total time from placing an order to receiving it. For a shipped product it has two parts: processing time, while the seller prepares the order, and transit time, while the carrier moves it. Both are often quoted in business days.

What does an order cut-off time mean?

It is the latest time of day an order can be placed and still count as received that day. An order after the cut-off counts from the next business day. Ordered Friday, November 20, 2026 at 18:00 with a 14:00 cut-off, the order counts from Monday, November 23, 2026.

Do weekends count in shipping time?

Not when the time is quoted in business days. Processing almost always runs on business days. Transit depends on the carrier and the service: some deliver on Saturdays, so the calculator has an option to count Saturdays as transit days. Check what your carrier offers for your service.

Why does a holiday push my delivery back?

Holidays are not business days, so processing and transit both skip them. In the Friday, November 20, 2026 example, Thanksgiving on November 26 falls inside the transit window, so the earliest delivery is Monday, November 30, 2026 instead of Friday, November 27, 2026: the holiday and the weekend after it are both skipped.