Time to hire vs time to fill: definitions, formulas and what each one tells you (2026)
Time to hire measures the days from a candidate's application to their acceptance. Time to fill measures the days from a job opening to that acceptance. How to calculate each and which to use.
Last updated 3 September 2026. Competitor pricing and plan limits are re-verified against each vendor’s own pages.
How do you calculate time to hire?
Time to hire equals the offer acceptance date minus the application date of the candidate who accepted. For a role, average it across hires; for a company, average across roles in a period. Because it starts when the candidate enters the pipeline, it depends only on the steps the hiring team controls: screening, scheduling, interviewing and deciding.
How do you calculate time to fill?
Time to fill equals the offer acceptance date minus the date the job was opened, or approved, depending on the convention the company picks; pick one and keep it. It includes sourcing time, so a role with too few applicants shows a long time to fill even when the process itself is quick.
Which metric should you track?
Both, for different questions. A long time to fill with a short time to hire means the problem is attracting candidates, not processing them. A long time to hire means the process itself is slow, most often at interview scheduling. An applicant tracking system records the dates both formulas need; on ofper, the application date and every stage move are timestamped, which is what makes the calculation possible without a spreadsheet.
Benchmarks vary by role, country and source, and this page does not publish one. Compare your own numbers over time and by role rather than against a figure from a different market.
Questions, answered straight
Is time to hire measured in working days or calendar days?
Calendar days is the usual convention, because the candidate experiences calendar days. State which you use and do not mix them.
What is a good time to hire?
Shorter than last quarter's for the same kind of role. Published benchmarks differ so widely by role and country that a single target number is not useful.
Does ofper report time to hire?
Not as a dashboard figure. ofper records the application date and each stage move with a timestamp, so the dates needed to calculate it are in the candidate's history, but there is no built-in analytics report.