How long was chihiro gone for in spirited away?

Answer 1

According to the moon phases shown in the movie, Chihiro had to be in the spirit world for about two weeks. However if you compare the area in front of the tunnel Chihiro's family parks in at the beginning and end of the film, far more time has passed. We can see in the beginning, there is a pebble/cobblestone road and there is that mound statue in front of the tunnel entrance. At the end of the film, we can see the car is dusty and covered in leaves, but there are also far more stark differences alluding to exactly how much time has passed.

There are many more fully-grown trees, the cobblestone road is now completely covered with grass, the red building that houses the tunnel entrance is now completely covered by plants (the building itself is even different in color) but the biggest clue is that mound statue itself. It no longer has a smiling face, it is now completely worn away and is just a rounded mound. All of these differences in the ending scenery do not occur in days, weeks, or months. They occur in YEARS. But the amount of changes that we see had to take at LEAST a decade. The rock statue in particular has been completely worn away in design by nature. Multiple decades had to have passed for that in itself to occur.

So little Chihiro and her family have been gone for at least but more likely more than a decade. Possibly 20 to 30 years. Maybe even more.