Why do timestamps start from 1970?

January 1, 1970 was chosen as the Unix Epoch when UNIX operating systems were being developed in the early 1970s. It was a convenient recent date that was early enough to have no practical predecessor events to track. There is no deep significance —

What is the "Year 2038 Problem"?

Many older 32-bit systems store Unix timestamps as a signed 32-bit integer. The maximum value of a signed 32-bit integer is 2,147,483,647, which corresponds to January 19, 2038. After this date, the timestamp overflows and may reset to a negative num

How do I get the current timestamp in JavaScript?

A Unix timestamp always represents a single absolute moment in time — it has no timezone. When you display it as a human-readable date, you choose which timezone to show it in. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the global reference timezone with no

Unix Timestamp Converter

Convert Unix timestamps to readable dates instantly. Batch mode handles multiple timestamps at once. Auto-detects seconds, milliseconds and microseconds. ISO 8601, RFC 2822, week number, relative time. Live epoch clock and code snippets for 8 languages.

unix-timestamp.tool

Current Unix Timestamp

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ms: — | ns: —

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Unix Timestamp (seconds or milliseconds)

seconds-to-duration.tool

Convert Seconds to Human-Readable Duration

code-snippets.tool

How to get the current Unix timestamp and convert it in common languages. Click any snippet to copy.

Time Reference

1 minute60 s

1 hour3,600 s

1 day86,400 s

1 week604,800 s

30 days2,592,000 s

1 year (365d)31,536,000 s

batch-converter.tool

Paste multiple timestamps — one per line. Auto-detects seconds, milliseconds or microseconds.

Timestamps (one per line)

Results

Every Server Log, Database Record and API Response Uses This

Unix timestamps appear everywhere — database created_at columns, API response fields like "expires_at": 1800000000, server log entries, JWT token expiry times and file system metadata. They are just the number of seconds since midnight on 1 January 1970 UTC. Paste any timestamp above to see the full date, ISO 8601, RFC 2822 and relative time instantly.

Batch Conversion for Log Analysis

When debugging incidents, you often have a column of timestamps from a database query or log file that you need to read quickly. The Batch Converter panel accepts as many timestamps as you need — one per line — and converts them all simultaneously. It auto-detects seconds (10 digits), milliseconds (13 digits) and microseconds (16 digits) and labels each result accordingly.

Seconds vs Milliseconds vs Microseconds

A 10-digit timestamp is seconds. A 13-digit timestamp is milliseconds (divide by 1,000). A 16-digit timestamp is microseconds (divide by 1,000,000). JavaScript's Date.now() returns milliseconds. Python's time.time() returns seconds as a float. The converters on this page auto-detect the format so you never need to think about it.

RFC 2822 Format

RFC 2822 is the timestamp format used in email headers — it looks like Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000. It is also used in HTTP headers, RSS/Atom feeds, and some API responses. The timestamp→date converter shows both ISO 8601 and RFC 2822 so you have both formats ready to copy.

Code Snippets

The Code Snippets panel shows how to get the current timestamp and convert it in JavaScript, Python, PHP, Go, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Shell and C#. The snippets update with the live current timestamp so you can paste them directly into your project.

Frequently Asked Questions

10-digit timestamps count seconds since the Unix epoch. 13-digit timestamps count milliseconds — multiply seconds by 1,000. JavaScript uses milliseconds internally (Date.now() returns 13 digits). Python and most server-side languages use seconds. 16-digit timestamps are microseconds. This tool detects the format automatically based on digit count and shows the precision in the result.

Use the Batch Converter panel. Copy your timestamps from the log file, database query result, or spreadsheet — one timestamp per line — and paste into the batch input. Click Convert All and all timestamps appear as readable dates simultaneously. The output can be copied as a block to paste back into your document or spreadsheet.

ISO 8601 is the international standard for date-time representation: 2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z. It is used in databases, APIs, JSON payloads and programming. RFC 2822 is the format used in email headers and HTTP: Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000. Both represent the same moment — the choice depends on the system consuming the value.

Systems that store timestamps as signed 32-bit integers will overflow on 19 January 2038 at 03:14:07 UTC, rolling to a large negative number. Modern 64-bit systems are not affected — a 64-bit timestamp can represent moments billions of years into the future. The risk is in embedded systems, older databases with 32-bit TIMESTAMP columns (MySQL TIMESTAMP is affected; DATETIME is not), and legacy 32-bit C programs.

JWT tokens store the expiry time as a Unix timestamp in the "exp" claim. Paste that number into the Timestamp to Date converter here to see the actual date and time. The JWT Decoder tool on WTEC also decodes the entire token and shows all claims including expiry in a readable format.

Almost always a timezone issue. Unix timestamps are timezone-neutral — they represent an absolute moment in UTC. The displayed date depends on which timezone you convert them to. Lagos time (WAT, UTC+1) shows one hour later than UTC. Make sure you know whether you are comparing a UTC display with a local display, or whether your application is converting to the wrong timezone when storing.