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Notice Period Calculator: When Do You Have to Give Notice?

Choose an employment contract or a lease and enter the end date you want. The calculator shows the last day your notice must be received, when to send it and which rule applies. Or the other way round: when the contract ends if you give notice today.

100% freeNo data storedBased on the German Civil Code, as of September 2026

Not legal advice

The calculator applies the statutory rules (§§ 622, 573c, 187, 188, 193 BGB) to your input. It cannot check deviating clauses, special protection against dismissal, fixed-term contracts or individual circumstances. If a lot depends on it, have the deadline confirmed by a lawyer, your trade union or a tenants' association.

Contract & notice

Which contract?
Who gives notice?
years

Agreed notice period

Which period applies under the contract?

Date & delivery

What do you want to know?

Your notice must be received by

Thursday, 3 December 2026

Send by

30 Nov 2026

Safe receipt by

3 Dec 2026

End of contract

31 Dec 2026

If the notice arrives even one day later, the contract only ends on 15 Jan 2027.

How this was calculated

  • 4 weeks to the 15th or the end of a month

    § 622(1) BGB, basic notice period

Your timeline

From hand-over or sending to the last day of the contract

  1. 1SendMonday, 30 November 2026
  2. 2ReceiptThursday, 3 December 2026
  3. 3End of contractThursday, 31 December 2026

Employer's notice period by length of service

§ 622(2) BGB. Under 2 years the period is 4 weeks (≈ 0.9 months). Employees always have 4 weeks by law. Your value is highlighted.

Making sure your notice is valid

  • Written form with a handwritten signature on paper (§ 623 BGB for employment, § 568 BGB for leases). Email, fax, text messages or messengers are not enough.
  • What counts is receipt by the other party, not sending. A letter is received once it is in the letter box at a time when it would normally be emptied.
  • You have to prove receipt. Safest are hand-over against a signed acknowledgement or a messenger who knows the content and records the delivery.
  • Employees: register as a job seeker with the employment agency at least 3 months before the end, or within 3 days if the period is shorter (§ 38 SGB III).

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Guide: Notice Periods in Germany

Employment contracts, probation, leases, proof of receipt and termination agreements explained

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Frequently Asked Questions

The basic notice period is 4 weeks to the 15th or to the end of a calendar month (§ 622(1) BGB). It always applies to employees unless the contract says otherwise. For employers it increases to 1 month after 2 years of service and up to 7 months after 20 years, each to the end of a month (§ 622(2) BGB).

With the statutory 4 weeks, your employer must receive the notice by 3 December at the latest. The period starts the day after receipt and ends 28 days later. If you give notice on 4 December, the contract only ends on 15 January. For employers with a longer period, e.g. 3 months after 8 years, the last day is 30 September.

Only receipt counts. Written notice is received when it reaches the recipient's sphere so that they can normally take note of it, e.g. when it is in the letter box at the usual delivery times. A postmark is not enough. If you send it by post, allow a few working days of buffer.

For employment contracts nothing moves. According to the Federal Labour Court, § 193 BGB does not apply to notice periods because the full period is meant to benefit the recipient. The notice must therefore arrive earlier. For leases, public holidays do not count as working days, which pushes the 3rd working day back. Saturday does count as a working day there.

During an agreed probation period of up to 6 months the notice period is 2 weeks (§ 622(3) BGB), to any day, not only to the 15th or the end of the month. It is enough for the notice to be received on the last day of probation. The employment then ends 2 weeks later, i.e. after probation.

Not by law. The scale in § 622(2) BGB only applies to notice given by the employer. Many employment contracts, however, extend it to both sides. That is allowed, because the only rule is that employees may not have a longer period than the employer (§ 622(6) BGB). So check your contract and choose "Employment contract" in the calculator.

Tenants give 3 months' notice. If the notice is received by the 3rd working day of a month, that month already counts and the tenancy ends at the end of the month after next (§ 573c(1) BGB). Example: receipt on Tuesday 5 January 2027, end on 31 March 2027. On 6 January it would only be 30 April. For landlords the period extends to 6 months after 5 years and to 9 months after 8 years.

Yes. § 622(2) BGB used to say that periods before the age of 25 do not count. In 2010 the European Court of Justice rejected this as age discrimination (case C-555/07), and the rule was no longer applied. On 1 January 2019 the sentence was deleted from the statute. The entire length of service counts, and according to case law usually also an apprenticeship with the same employer.