Minutes Abbreviations: min, mins, or m?
For scientific and technical unit notation, the accepted symbol for minute is “min.” SI-style unit symbols do not take a plural s or a period, so “5 min” stays “5 min.” In informal prose, words such as “mins” may appear, but they are not the SI unit-symbol form.
Use “min” as the standard unit symbol for minute: “1 min,” “5 min.” Do not pluralize the symbol to “mins” or replace it with “m,” which is the SI symbol for metre.
Key details
Further guidance
Avoid M
Do not use bare “m” for minute in SI-style measurement writing because “m” is the symbol for metre.
Pluralization
Unit symbols do not change for plural quantities, so write “5 min,” not “5 mins,” in SI-style notation.
Practical Application
Use “min” as the standard unit symbol for minute and keep the symbol unchanged for singular and plural quantities. Avoid “mins” as a pluralized symbol, and do not substitute “m” where it can be read as the SI symbol for metre.
Reader Check
Is the expression functioning as a unit symbol rather than an informal word abbreviation, and is it unambiguous next to other units?
Standard Form
Write “min” after a numerical value when using the standard unit symbol.
Worked Example
Write “1 min” and “15 min,” not “15 mins”; in a measurement-heavy document, “m” should not be used for minutes because it denotes metre in SI notation.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Writing with SI (Metric System) Units (opens in a new tab)National Institute of Standards and Technology · NIST unit-symbol rules, including no plural s on symbols