How many hours does it take to make a friend? (calculator)

The short answer. About 50 hours together to turn an acquaintance into a casual friend, about 90 hours to become friends, and more than 200 hours to become close friends. These figures come from a 2018 study by Jeffrey Hall at the University of Kansas, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. They are averages, not rules.

Friend-hours calculator

Roughly how long from here:

Turn on JavaScript to use the calculator, or use the table below.

A rough guide only. People are not clocks: some friendships click in a weekend, some never do.

The same numbers as a table

Weeks to each level, by hours together each week (Hall, 2018: about 50, 90 and 200+ hours)
Hours together a week	Casual friend (50 h)	Friend (90 h)	Close friend (200+ h)
1 h	about 50 weeks	about 90 weeks	about 200 weeks
2 h	about 25 weeks	about 45 weeks	about 100 weeks
3 h	about 17 weeks	about 30 weeks	about 67 weeks
5 h	about 10 weeks	about 18 weeks	about 40 weeks
10 h	about 5 weeks	about 9 weeks	about 20 weeks
15 h	about 4 weeks	about 6 weeks	about 14 weeks

Weeks are rounded up. "Close friend" uses 200 hours, the lower end of "more than 200".

What the study found

Hall ran two studies. In the first, he surveyed 355 adults who had recently moved to a new city about the time they had spent with new people and how close they felt. In the second, he followed 112 first-year university students for nine weeks, asking three times how much time they were spending with two new acquaintances and how close they felt.

Putting both studies together, the university summed it up like this: 40 to 60 hours to form a casual friendship, 80 to 100 hours to become friends, and more than 200 hours to become good friends.

Not all hours are equal. Hanging out, joking around and catching up on each other's lives went with growing closer. Time together at work or in class did not count the same way.
Adults took longer. A longer summary of the study in UC Berkeley's Greater Good magazine reports that the adults needed more hours than the students to become casual friends, and again to become friends. If you are well past university, expect the slower end.
Hours are not enough on their own. Plenty of people spend hundreds of hours with a colleague and never become friends. The hours are the room friendship needs, not a guarantee.

A note on the numbers: the 50 / 90 / 200-hour figures are the ones the University of Kansas published with the study; the paper's abstract gives no hour figures. Other write-ups quote the separate student and adult figures, which differ. We use the university's figures and link every source below.

Short on hours with people nearby? Letters add up too. Write one letter to Sami: Sami's AI assistant replies, and when there's someone you might get on with, it asks you both. Free, no dating, nothing shared without your yes.

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How to find the hours as an adult

Repeat, don't reinvent. The same class, quiz night or walk every week builds hours without anyone having to plan. Two hours a week is about 100 hours a year.
Stay a little longer. The coffee after the class counts more than the class itself.
Say yes to ordinary plans. Errands, cooking, watching a match: easy time together is still time together.
Write between meetings. A letter or a long message keeps the conversation going when you can't meet. Pen pals for adults has ideas, and 60 pen pal questions help when you don't know what to say.
Be the one who asks. Most people are waiting to be invited. On being the one who texts first.

Cite or share this page

The text and table on this page are licensed CC BY 4.0. You may copy, adapt and republish them, including commercially, as long as you link back to this page. Please also cite the original research. The photo is not covered; see photo credits.

Cite as: Be My Friend AI (28 October 2026). How many hours does it take to make a friend? https://bemyfriendai.com/how-many-hours-to-make-a-friend. Based on Hall, J. A. (2019), Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(4), 1278-1296.

Copy this table onto your site (HTML)

<figure>
<table>
<caption>Weeks to each level, by hours together each week (Hall, 2018: about 50, 90 and 200+ hours)</caption>
<thead><tr><th scope="col">Hours together a week</th><th scope="col">Casual friend (50 h)</th><th scope="col">Friend (90 h)</th><th scope="col">Close friend (200+ h)</th></tr></thead>
<tbody><tr><th scope="row">2 h</th><td>about 25 weeks</td><td>about 45 weeks</td><td>about 100 weeks</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">5 h</th><td>about 10 weeks</td><td>about 18 weeks</td><td>about 40 weeks</td></tr><tr><th scope="row">10 h</th><td>about 5 weeks</td><td>about 9 weeks</td><td>about 20 weeks</td></tr></tbody>
</table>
<figcaption>Source: <a href="https://bemyfriendai.com/how-many-hours-to-make-a-friend">Be My Friend AI, How many hours does it take to make a friend?</a>, based on Hall (2018), Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407518761225">doi:10.1177/0265407518761225</a>. Licence: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>

Questions

How many hours does it take to make a friend?

About 50 hours together to go from acquaintance to casual friend, about 90 hours to become friends, and more than 200 hours to become close friends. These are the figures the University of Kansas gave for Jeffrey Hall's 2018 study. They are averages, not rules.

Does time at work or school count?

Less than you might think. In Hall's study, time spent together at work or school did not predict growing closer in the same way that free time did: hanging out, joking around, catching up on each other's lives.

Do online hours count?

The study did not look at online friendships on their own. Long letters, calls and video chats are real conversation, so counting them is a reasonable rough guide, but that is our view, not a finding of the study.

Why does it take adults longer?

Adults usually see new people less often, and their time is split between work, family and old friends. In the study, the adults who had moved to a new city reported needing more hours than the university students did.

Can I cite or reuse this page?

Yes. The text and table on this page are licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse them freely with a link back. The research itself belongs to its author, so please cite Hall (2019) too. The photo is not covered by our licence; see the photo credits page.

Sources

Hall, J. A. (2019). How many hours does it take to make a friend? Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(4), 1278-1296. First published online 15 March 2018. doi.org/10.1177/0265407518761225
University of Kansas, KU News (March 2018): "How to make friends? Study reveals how many hours it takes". The source of the 50 / 90 / 200-hour figures and the combined ranges. news.ku.edu
Newman, K. M. (25 May 2018). "How Long Does It Take to Make a Friend?" Greater Good Magazine, UC Berkeley. A longer summary, with separate figures for the students and the adults in the study. greatergood.berkeley.edu

Checked 28 October 2026. We are not connected to the researcher or the university. Written with AI help and checked against the sources above.

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