How to use it
- Paste a timestamp in seconds, milliseconds, microseconds or nanoseconds.
- Read the date in your local time, UTC and ISO 8601.
- For the reverse, pick a date and time and choose local time or UTC.
- Copy the timestamp in seconds or milliseconds.
What Unix time is
Unix time (also called epoch time or POSIX time) counts the seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970, the Unix epoch. It is a single number with no time zone, which makes it ideal for storing and comparing moments in databases, logs, APIs and file systems.
For example, 1793577600 is a moment in November 2026. Unix time ignores leap seconds: every day is treated as exactly 86,400 seconds. Negative values are dates before 1970.
The page shows the current Unix time, updating every second, with buttons to copy it in seconds or milliseconds.
Seconds, milliseconds, micro and nano
Different systems use different units. The converter detects the unit from the number of digits:
| Digits (around today) | Unit | Typical source |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | seconds | Unix/Linux, PHP time(), Python time.time() (integer part), most APIs |
| 13 | milliseconds | JavaScript Date.now(), Java System.currentTimeMillis() |
| 16 | microseconds | PostgreSQL internals, some Python and Go code |
| 19 | nanoseconds | Go time.Now().UnixNano(), InfluxDB |
If a date comes out in 1970 or in the year 50,000, the number was probably read in the wrong unit. Dividing or multiplying by 1,000 fixes it.
Time zones
A timestamp is always UTC, but people read dates in their own time zone. For each timestamp, the converter shows:
- your local time, based on your computer's time zone setting,
- UTC,
- the ISO 8601 string, such as
2026-11-02T00:00:00.000Z, where theZmeans UTC, - how long ago or how far in the future that moment is.
When converting a date to a timestamp, tick Treat as UTC if the date you have is already in UTC, for example from a server log. Otherwise it is read in your local time zone, including daylight saving time. A 9:00 AM meeting in New York and one in Los Angeles are three hours apart in Unix time.
Common timestamp mistakes
- Mixing seconds and milliseconds. The most frequent bug. A JavaScript timestamp passed to a Python function that expects seconds lands thousands of years in the future.
- Storing local time as if it were UTC. If a server writes local wall-clock time into a timestamp column, every value shifts by the UTC offset, and the error changes twice a year with daylight saving time.
- Formatting too early. Keep timestamps as numbers (or native timestamp types) in storage and APIs, and format them for people only at display time.
- Comparing strings.
"1000000000" < "999999999"is true as text but false as numbers. Compare timestamps numerically.
Converting in code
| Language | Now (seconds) | Timestamp to date |
|---|---|---|
| JavaScript | Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) | new Date(ts * 1000) |
| Python | int(time.time()) | datetime.fromtimestamp(ts, tz=timezone.utc) |
| PHP | time() | date('c', $ts) |
| SQL (PostgreSQL) | extract(epoch from now()) | to_timestamp(ts) |
| Bash (GNU) | date +%s | date -d @1793577600 |
Note that JavaScript works in milliseconds, so multiply by 1,000 when passing a seconds timestamp to new Date().
The year 2038 problem
Systems that store Unix time as a signed 32-bit integer can count only up to 2,147,483,647, which is 03:14:07 UTC on January 19, 2038. One second later, the value overflows to a negative number and those systems will read the date as December 1901.
Modern operating systems, databases and languages use 64-bit time, which lasts for billions of years. The risk remains in old embedded devices, legacy file formats and database columns declared as 32-bit INT. If you design a schema today, use a 64-bit integer (BIGINT) or a native timestamp type.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a Unix timestamp to a date?
Paste it into the Timestamp to date box. The unit is detected automatically, and you get local time, UTC and ISO 8601.
What is the current Unix time?
It is shown at the top of the page and updates every second. Use the buttons to copy it in seconds or milliseconds.
Is a Unix timestamp in UTC?
Yes. It counts seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00 UTC and has no time zone of its own.
Why is my date in 1970?
You probably entered a seconds value where milliseconds were expected, or the reverse. Check the detected unit.
What happens in 2038?
Systems that store time as a signed 32-bit number overflow on January 19, 2038. Most modern systems use 64-bit time and are not affected.
Last updated: November 12, 2026