Chronic vs episodic migraine day calculator
Enter headache days and migraine-feature days for a typical recent month. The result compares those counts with the published chronic-migraine cutoffs. It does not diagnose you.
How the 15- and 8-day cutoffs work
Chronic migraine, inICHD-3 section 1.3, is headache on 15 or more days a month for more than 3 months, with migraine features on at least 8 days a month, in a person who has already had migraine. Under 15 headache days is the range people call episodic.
A calculator can check the arithmetic. It cannot tell a migraine day from a tension day, and it cannot see whether medication overuse is part of the story. If acute medicine days are also high, run them through themedication-day counter and bring both results.
The useful clinic version of this math is a month of dates, not a single remembered total. A blank week is on the printable migraine diary, and the longer version is the point of a tracker.
How many migraine days a month counts as chronic?
In the International Classification of Headache Disorders, chronic migraine means headache on 15 or more days a month for more than 3 months, with migraine features on at least 8 of those days, in someone who already has migraine. This calculator only checks the day counts and the time span you enter.
What is a migraine-feature day?
A day you would call a migraine: typical pain and symptoms, aura, or an attack you treated as migraine. A plain headache day still counts toward the 15. It does not automatically count toward the 8.
Is this a diagnosis?
No. Matching the published numbers is not a diagnosis. The full description also asks about your history and whether another headache disorder fits better. Take the counts to a clinician.