Terminal leave calculator: when your terminal leave starts

Terminal leave is regular leave you take at the very end of your service so you don't have to come back to your unit before your retirement or separation date. Your pay keeps coming while you're on it, and your separation date lands on the last day of the leave. Use the calculator to estimate how many days you'll have and the day you could walk out the door.

Terminal leave calculator

Separation or retirement date (last day of active duty, from your orders) Leave balance today (days, from your latest LES) Regular leave you'll take before terminal leave starts (days) Days you plan to sell back instead (optional)

How it works: you keep earning 2½ days for each month of active service, including while you're on leave before discharge (10 U.S.C. 701(a) and (d)). The calculator adds about 2½ days per month (days ÷ 30.4) from today to your separation date, rounded down to the half day, subtracts leave you'll use or sell, and counts terminal leave back from your separation date in calendar days. Your personnel and finance offices set the official dates on your orders.

The official rules for terminal leave

What it is: DoD policy says leave at retirement, separation or release from active duty, taken to use up your balance without returning to the separation site, should be granted if you want it (DoDI 1327.06, para. 3.10.g).
Orders and out-processing first: you must have your retirement, separation or release orders in hand and have finished all administrative processing before you leave on terminal leave (para. 3.10.g).
The date doesn't move: your retirement or separation date happens when the authorized terminal leave ends (para. 3.10.g).
You still earn leave: leave taken before discharge counts as active service (10 U.S.C. 701(d)), so the 2½ days a month keep adding up while you're on terminal leave.
Pay: DoD Military Compensation describes terminal leave as just like regular leave, so your normal pay continues.
Negative balance: if you separate while in advance leave, that leave is treated as excess leave on your separation date. Excess leave is unpaid, and the pay can be collected back (para. 3.10.b(3)).
Forfeiture: members discharged under other than honorable conditions forfeit all accrued leave (para. 3.7; 37 U.S.C. 501(e)).

Terminal leave or sell it back?

You can split your balance: take some as terminal leave and sell the rest. Selling pays basic pay ÷ 30 per day, before taxes, and there's a 60-day career cap on sold leave. Run the numbers with the sell-back leave calculator. Terminal leave keeps your regular pay coming while you transition. If you plan to start a civilian job while on terminal leave, check your service's rules with your unit first.

Plan it in this order

Check your current balance on your LES in myPay.
Count back from your separation date with the calculator above, and decide how much to sell.
Book your clearing and out-processing so it's finished before terminal leave starts. Your orders must be in hand.
Submit the leave request through your service's leave system and confirm the dates with your personnel and finance offices.
Line up the separation steps that have deadlines: see the leaving-the-service timeline, BDD claim and TRICARE after separation.

Official sources

Last checked Oct 16, 2026. Rates and rules change; the official source wins. Estimates only, not financial, legal or tax advice. Pay questions: your unit finance office or DFAS. In crisis? Dial 988, then press 1.