Calculate a Notice Period Online Free
🚀 Find Your Last Working Day
Choose your jurisdiction and who is giving notice — the period and end date update live. Nothing leaves your device.
🌍 Jurisdiction & Who Is Giving Notice
👤 Parties & Role
📅 Dates & Contractual Notice
⏱️ Notice & Last Working Day
Counted from the notice date you enter — check whether your contract starts the clock the following day or on receipt.
📝 Letter Options
Quick answer: Choose UK, USA, or EU/Other and whether the employee or employer is giving notice. Enter the start date, the date notice is given, and the notice period in the contract. In the UK, the tool also works out the statutory minimum under section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 — an employer owes one week after one month's service, then one week per complete year up to twelve, capped at 12 weeks; an employee owes one week — and uses whichever is longer. In the US (at-will) and EU/Other it uses the period you enter. You get the last working day and a PDF resignation or termination letter, built locally with jsPDF. This is a calculation aid, not legal advice.
- Cost: Free, unlimited calculations and letters, no signup.
- Where it runs: 100% in your browser — no upload, no server storage.
- UK statutory floor built in: Section 86 ERA 1996, applied when longer than the contract.
- Both directions: Employee resignation or employer termination notice.
- US and EU supported: Uses the contractual or customary period you enter.
- Last working day: Calculated automatically, including month-end handling.
⚖️ Calculation Aid, Not Legal Advice: Your contract, collective agreement, or local law may set a different period.
🇺🇸 US Employment Is Usually At-Will: Two weeks is customary, not legally required — unless your contract or policy says otherwise.
🇪🇺 EU Rules Vary by Country: Each member state sets its own notice rules, so enter the period from your contract or national law.
✅ Privacy: Your details are processed locally — never uploaded, transmitted, or stored anywhere.
✅ 100% Private: Your calculation and letter are generated locally in your browser using JavaScript. No data is ever uploaded to a server or stored anywhere.
Note: Your data will be cleared once you close or refresh the page, so download your PDF before leaving.
How to Calculate a Notice Period and Write the Letter
Choose Jurisdiction & Role
UK, US, or EU/Other — and who is giving notice.
Enter the Dates
Start date and the date notice is given.
Enter Contractual Notice
The period in the contract, in days, weeks, or months.
Download the Letter
Check the last working day, then save your PDF.
🔒 Your Details Never Leave Your Device
This tool calculates the notice period and builds the letter using jsPDF running inside your browser tab. There is no upload step, no server-side processing, and no network request containing your name, employer, or dates.
Who Uses This Notice Period Calculator?
Employees Resigning
Work out your last working day and send a clear, dated resignation letter.
HR Managers
Check the statutory minimum before issuing a termination notice.
Small Business Owners
Get the notice right without specialist employment-law software.
Cross-Border Teams
Switch between UK, US, and EU/Other settings for each employee.
Payroll Teams
Confirm the end date so final pay and benefits line up.
Long-Serving Staff
See how statutory notice grows with years of service, up to 12 weeks.
Why Use This Notice Period Calculator?
- Fully Client-Side: jsPDF builds the whole letter in your browser — no upload.
- Real Vector Text: Sharp, small-file-size PDF output — not a flattened screenshot.
- Side-by-Side Preview: Check the calculation and letter as you build it.
- Statutory Floor Applied: UK notice uses the longer of contract and section 86.
- Complete Years Only: Service is counted as the statute does, not rounded up.
- Both Letters: Resignation from the employee, termination notice from the employer.
- Month-End Safe: Adding months clamps correctly, e.g. 31 Jan + 1 month.
- 100% Free & Private: No account, no watermark, no server storing your data.
Notice Period Calculator – Complete Guide
Most people know their contract says "one month" or "four weeks" - fewer know that in the UK the law quietly sets a floor under it for long-serving staff. Someone with eight years' service whose contract says one month is still owed eight weeks' notice by their employer.
UK Statutory Minimum Notice (Section 86, Employment Rights Act 1996)
| Continuous Service | Notice From Employer | Notice From Employee |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1 month | None by statute | None by statute |
| 1 month to under 2 years | 1 week | 1 week |
| 2 to under 12 years | 1 week per complete year | 1 week |
| 12 years or more | 12 weeks (maximum) | 1 week |
Based on section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 as published on legislation.gov.uk. A longer contractual period always applies; a shorter one gives way to these minimums. Either side may waive notice or accept payment in lieu.
US and EU Notice
In the US, most employment is at-will and no federal law requires an employee to give notice - two weeks is customary, but a contract or company policy may require more. In the EU, each member state sets its own minimums, often tied to length of service and sometimes different for each side, so this tool relies on the period you enter from your contract or national rules rather than guessing.
How This Calculator Actually Works
The tool measures complete months and complete years of service between the start date and the notice date. For UK employment it converts the section 86 minimum into a number of weeks, adds that to the notice date, and compares the result with the end date produced by your contractual period - entered in days, weeks, or months, with month additions clamped to the last day of shorter months. Whichever end date is later wins, and the tool tells you whether the contract or the statutory floor applied. For the US and EU/Other settings, only the contractual (or, for a US employee with nothing entered, a customary 14-day) period is used. The letter is then drawn by jsPDF as genuine vector text. Nothing ever touches a server.
Security and Privacy Considerations
- No Data Upload: Every field you fill in stays on your device.
- No Server Processing: Calculation and PDF generation run entirely as client-side JavaScript.
- No Storage: Nothing is saved once you close or refresh the tab.
- No Account Needed: There is no login, tracking, or usage cap.
Browser Compatibility and Technical Requirements
This Notice Period Calculator works in modern browsers that support JavaScript PDF generation (jsPDF) and Blob downloads.
- ✅ Chrome/Edge 76+
- ✅ Firefox 55+
- ✅ Safari 13.1+
- ✅ Mobile Chrome (Android), Mobile Safari (iOS) — download supported
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Explanation: For UK employees with at least one month's service, a shorter contractual period gives way to the section 86 minimum on the employer's side. Solution: This is expected — the tool uses the longer period and says so.
Explanation: When nothing is entered for a US employee, the tool assumes the customary two weeks and labels it as assumed. Solution: Enter the notice from your contract if there is one.
Explanation: For EU/Other the tool can't know the national minimum. Solution: Enter the period from your contract or your country's rules.
Explanation: The PDF needs both parties identified. Solution: Fill in both names, then download again.
Frequently Asked Technical Questions
Question 1: What actually builds the PDF - is it a known library?
Answer: This tool uses jsPDF, a widely used open-source JavaScript library for generating PDF documents in the browser, loaded directly in your browser tab.
Question 2: How are complete years of service counted?
Answer: The tool subtracts the start year from the notice year and removes one if the start-date anniversary hasn't yet arrived, so 23 months gives one complete year, not two.
Question 3: How is a period in months added to the notice date?
Answer: It adds the months to the date and, if the target month is shorter, clamps to its last day, so one month from 31 January lands on 28 February (or 29 in a leap year).
Question 4: How does the tool choose between contract and statute?
Answer: It computes both end dates from the notice date and takes the later one, reporting which source produced it; if they tie, the contract is credited.
Question 5: Does this tool need an account, server, or API key?
Answer: No. jsPDF and the live preview both run as ordinary JavaScript already loaded by this page — you never need an account or any API key to use it.
Glossary of Terms
- Notice Period
- The length of time between giving notice that employment will end and the date it actually ends.
- Statutory Minimum Notice
- The minimum notice set by law; in the UK, section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
- Contractual Notice
- The notice period written into an employment contract, which can be longer than the statutory minimum.
- Payment in Lieu of Notice (PILON)
- A payment made instead of the employee working out their notice, ending employment earlier.
- At-Will Employment
- The default US arrangement in which either side may end employment at any time, subject to contract and legal limits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, completely free with no watermark, no signup, and no limit on calculations or letters.
No. Everything is calculated and turned into a PDF inside your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is transmitted over the network.
Under section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employer must give at least one week's notice once an employee has one month's continuous service, one week for each complete year of service from two to twelve years, and twelve weeks from twelve years onward.
At least one week once they have one month's continuous service, however long they have worked. Their contract usually requires longer, commonly a month or more.
For someone with at least one month's service, a shorter contractual period is subject to the statutory minimum, so the statutory figure applies. This tool uses whichever is longer, though either side can waive notice or accept payment in lieu.
Yes. Statutory notice counts complete years of service, so someone with 23 months' service has one week's statutory notice, not two.
Most US employment is at-will, and no federal law requires an employee to give notice. Two weeks is widely treated as customary courtesy, but a contract or company policy may require a specific period, so check yours.
Each EU member state sets its own notice rules, often depending on length of service, and many differ for employer and employee. Select EU/Other and enter the notice period from your contract or national law.
Instead of working out the notice period, the employment ends earlier and the employee is paid for it. Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 recognises that either party may waive notice or accept payment in lieu, but whether an employer can impose it depends on the contract.
This depends on the contract and how notice was delivered. This tool counts from the notice date you enter, so check whether your contract starts the clock the following day or on receipt.
Final Thoughts
Notice is simple until the contract and the law disagree, or until you work across borders. This tool shows which period applies, why, and what the last working day is, then turns it into a clear letter — all without your details leaving your device.
Choose your jurisdiction above and download your notice letter!