Unix timestamp converter
Convert between Unix epoch timestamps and human-readable dates in seconds or milliseconds
Live Clock
Current Unix timestamp (updates every second)
Timestamp Converter
Convert between Unix timestamps and human-readable dates
TL;DR
What is Unix timestamp converter?
A Unix timestamp (also called epoch time) is the number of seconds elapsed since 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z (the Unix epoch). It is a timezone-independent, language-agnostic way to represent a point in time as a single integer. JavaScript uses milliseconds; most other systems use seconds.
Common use cases
- ‣Log analysis: convert a raw timestamp from a log file or API response to a readable date
- ‣Database queries: build a WHERE clause using Unix timestamps when the column stores epoch values
- ‣Token expiry: check whether a JWT "exp" claim or API token expiry has passed by converting to the current time
- ‣Time arithmetic: calculate the difference between two events by subtracting their Unix timestamps
Frequently asked questions
What is the Unix epoch?
The epoch is the reference point: 1970-01-01T00:00:00 UTC. All Unix timestamps are counted in seconds (or milliseconds) from this point. Timestamps before 1970 are negative.
What is the year 2038 problem?
Many legacy systems store Unix timestamps in a signed 32-bit integer, which overflows at 2,147,483,647 (2038-01-19T03:14:07 UTC). After that point, the value wraps to a large negative number. Modern systems use 64-bit integers, which will not overflow for hundreds of billions of years.