1-3 Business Days: When Your Order Arrives
1-3 business days means one to three weekdays after the day you order, with Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays skipped. Order on a Monday and it should arrive between Tuesday and Thursday. Order on a Friday and the window runs from Monday to Wednesday, so it can take five calendar days.
Delivery windows for an order placed today:
| Estimate | Earliest | Latest |
|---|
Arrival days for every order day
The day you order is day 0, and counting starts with the next business day. This table counts Monday to Friday only and assumes no holiday in the window.
| Ordered on | 1-2 days | 1-3 days | 2-3 days | 3-5 days | 5-7 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Tue to Wed | Tue to Thu | Wed to Thu | Thu to Mon | Mon to Wed |
| Tuesday | Wed to Thu | Wed to Fri | Thu to Fri | Fri to Tue | Tue to Thu |
| Wednesday | Thu to Fri | Thu to Mon | Fri to Mon | Mon to Wed | Wed to Fri |
| Thursday | Fri to Mon | Fri to Tue | Mon to Tue | Tue to Thu | Thu to Mon |
| Friday | Mon to Tue | Mon to Wed | Tue to Wed | Wed to Fri | Fri to Tue |
| Saturday | Mon to Tue | Mon to Wed | Tue to Wed | Wed to Fri | Fri to Tue |
| Sunday | Mon to Tue | Mon to Wed | Tue to Wed | Wed to Fri | Fri to Tue |
An order placed on a Saturday or Sunday is treated like one placed late on Friday: Monday is day 1. A seller that ships the same day can beat the earliest date, and a parcel that misses a scan can miss the latest one.
Does Saturday count as a business day?
Usually not. US banking rules (Federal Reserve Regulation CC) define a business day as any day except Saturday, Sunday and the listed federal holidays. Unless a store says otherwise, read its estimate the same way. The US Postal Service is the exception. USPS says "Postal business days are Monday through Saturday, with the exception of Postal holidays." A USPS estimate can therefore end on a Saturday. If that day matters, check which carrier the store uses.
USPS Priority Mail is an example. USPS says it may arrive in 2 to 3 business days in most cases, depending on where the parcel goes, and that the delivery date is not guaranteed. Counting Monday to Saturday, that looks like this:
| Mailed on | 2-3 days |
|---|---|
| Monday | Wed to Thu |
| Tuesday | Thu to Fri |
| Wednesday | Fri to Sat |
| Thursday | Sat to Mon |
| Friday | Mon to Tue |
| Saturday | Tue to Wed |
| Sunday | Tue to Wed |
Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and some territories have longer Priority Mail expectations, 2 to 4 or 2 to 6 business days according to USPS.
Processing time and shipping time add up
Many stores list two numbers. Processing (or handling) time is how long they take to pack the order and hand it to the carrier. Shipping time is how long the carrier needs. "Ships in 1-3 business days" is processing only, so the carrier's days come on top. Two days of processing followed by Priority Mail at 2 to 3 business days is 4 to 5 business days in total, about a week if a weekend falls in between.
Holidays and cutoff times push the date later
Each public holiday in the window adds one day. The US federal holiday list shows the days to skip, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
Orders also have a daily cutoff time, and an order placed after it counts as placed the next business day. The cutoff is usually in the seller's time zone. A 2 p.m. Eastern cutoff is 11 a.m. in Los Angeles all year and 7 p.m. in London for most of the year, so a buyer on the West Coast has less of the day than the clock on the website suggests. To check a cutoff in your own time, use the time converter.
Frequently asked questions
Is 3 business days the same as 3 days?
Only when no weekend falls in between. An order placed on a Wednesday with 3 business days arrives by Monday, five calendar days later, because Saturday and Sunday are skipped.
Does the day I order count?
Not in most delivery estimates. The order day is day 0 and the count starts on the next business day. USPS counts Priority Mail the same way: the first postal business day counted is the day after the item was mailed.
How long is 2-3 business days from a Thursday?
Monday or Tuesday. Friday is day 1, the weekend is skipped, Monday is day 2 and Tuesday is day 3. If the carrier counts Saturday, as USPS does, it can be Saturday or Monday.
What if a holiday falls in the window?
Each holiday adds one day. Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday in November, is a US federal holiday, so 1-3 business days from the Wednesday before it means Friday to Tuesday. The Friday after Thanksgiving is not a federal holiday.
Need a different number of days, or the days between two dates? Use the business days calculator.
Sources
- What is Priority Mail? (USPS) (checked October 26, 2026)
- USPS Hold Mail: The Basics, definition of postal business days (USPS) (checked October 26, 2026)
- 12 CFR 229.2, definition of business day (eCFR, Regulation CC) (checked October 26, 2026)