How to Get Number of Days Between Two Dates in PHP

Do you want to calculate the difference between two dates in PHP? There is a simple way to get the number of days between two dates in PHP. Using the date_diff() function, you can easily count days between two dates in PHP.

First Method:
In PHP, use the date_create() and date_diff() functions to get the number of days between two dates.

• date_create() – This function returns a new DateTime object.
• date_diff() – This function returns the difference between two DateTime objects.

The following code snippet calculates the difference between two dates using PHP and shows the days count.

<?php
$date1 = date_create("2025-03-26");
$date2 = date_create("2025-05-15");

//difference between two dates
$diff = date_diff($date1,$date2);

//count days
echo 'Days Count: '.$diff->format("%a");
?>

Second Method:
Alternatively, you can use the PHP DateTime object to calculate the day’s difference between two dates.

$date_from = new DateTime("2025-03-26"); 
$date_to = new DateTime("2025-05-15"); 
$interval = $date_from->diff($date_to); 
 
echo 'Days Count: '.$interval->days;