Story Points vs Hours
Enter your team's velocity and sprint hours to find out what one story point is actually worth in hours — for your team specifically.
Quick presets
Your team's numbers
1 story point ≈
2.7 hrs
for your team specifically — this number is meaningless for any other team
Estimate a specific story
13.3
hours
1.7
dev-days (8h)
A 5-point story takes roughly 13.3 hours of focused work for your team. Add buffer for review, QA, and context-switching.
Estimate the stories first
Before you can convert points to hours, your team needs to agree on the point values. PointPoker makes that fast — share a link, vote in seconds, no signup.
Start estimating →How many hours is 1 story point?
There is no universal answer. One story point is not one hour, or two hours, or half a day. The conversion depends entirely on your team's velocity and how many focused hours you have per sprint. Use the calculator above to find your team's number — and understand that this number means nothing for any other team.
The formula
hours per point = sprint hours ÷ velocity
Example: 4 developers × 20 focused hours = 80 sprint hours. If velocity = 30, then 1 point ≈ 2.7 hours.
“Focused hours” means time actually spent on sprint work, not total calendar hours. Subtract meetings, on-call shifts, and context-switching overhead. Most developers have 4–6 focused hours per day, not 8.
Should story points map to hours at all?
Not directly. Story points are designed to capture complexity and relative effort — not calendar time. Teams that size stories in hours tend to inflate estimates (to protect themselves) or feel constant pressure when the hours don't match.
The conversion is useful for external communication only: when a project manager or client needs a time estimate. Do it once, from your known velocity, and communicate the uncertainty — don't treat it as a binding commitment.
Why you can't compare story points between teams
Points are anchored to one team's shared understanding of complexity. Team A's “5” might involve infrastructure the other team doesn't have. “Team A ships 60 points, Team B ships 30” tells you nothing about output or productivity. Using velocity in performance reviews is the fastest way to corrupt the metric.
Common questions
Is 1 story point equal to 1 day?
Not in general. Some teams anchor their scale that way, but it varies. The only reliable conversion is the one you calculate from your own velocity and sprint hours.
What about T-shirt sizes — how do those convert to hours?
T-shirt sizes (XS/S/M/L/XL) are even more relative than Fibonacci. If you want a time estimate, map them to a numeric scale first, then apply your velocity conversion.
My team uses hours instead of story points — is that wrong?
It works for some teams, especially mature ones who've been together long enough that their time estimates are reliable. The downside: hour estimates invite scope pressure and make planning meetings longer. Relative sizing (points) is usually faster and more honest about uncertainty.
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