Timestamp Converter

Convert Unix timestamps to human-readable dates and back — supports seconds, milliseconds, and all timezones.

Current Unix Timestamp
Current UTC Time

Unix Timestamp → Date

Date → Unix Timestamp

What is a Unix Timestamp?

A Unix timestamp (also called Unix time, POSIX time, or Epoch time) is a system for describing a point in time as the number of seconds that have elapsed since the Unix Epoch — 00:00:00 UTC on Thursday, 1 January 1970. It is widely used in operating systems, databases, programming languages, and APIs as a compact, unambiguous representation of time.

Unix timestamps are timezone-independent — they always count from the same reference point regardless of where in the world you are. This makes them ideal for storing and comparing times in databases, logging events, synchronizing distributed systems, and calculating time differences. Simply subtract two timestamps to get the elapsed time in seconds.

Many modern systems use millisecond-precision timestamps — multiply a second-precision timestamp by 1000 to get milliseconds. JavaScript's Date.now() returns milliseconds, while PHP's time() and most Unix system calls use seconds. The current Unix timestamp is around 1.7 billion (in seconds), and will reach 2 billion around March 2033.

The "Year 2038 problem" refers to systems using 32-bit signed integers to store Unix timestamps — they will overflow at 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038 (2,147,483,647 seconds). Modern systems use 64-bit integers which won't overflow for billions of years.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Unix Epoch (time zero)?
The Unix Epoch is 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970 — timestamp 0. All Unix timestamps are positive or negative offsets in seconds from this moment. Timestamps before 1970 are negative numbers (they're rare but valid).
Is a 13-digit number a millisecond timestamp?
Yes. A 10-digit timestamp is seconds (current: ~1.7 billion). A 13-digit timestamp is milliseconds (current: ~1.7 trillion). Divide a 13-digit timestamp by 1000 to convert to seconds. JavaScript's Date.now() always returns 13 digits (milliseconds).
How do I get the current timestamp in code?
JavaScript: Math.floor(Date.now()/1000) (seconds) or Date.now() (ms). PHP: time() (seconds). Python: import time; int(time.time()). Go: time.Now().Unix(). Java: Instant.now().getEpochSecond(). SQL: UNIX_TIMESTAMP() (MySQL), EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM NOW()) (PostgreSQL).

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