Unix Timestamp Converter
Convert between Unix timestamps (epoch time) and human-readable dates. Live current timestamp with multiple output formats.
How to Use the Unix Timestamp Converter
- View the current timestamp -- The live display at the top shows the current Unix timestamp, updating every second. Click to copy.
- Timestamp to Date -- Enter a Unix timestamp (in seconds or milliseconds) and click Convert to see the date in UTC, local time, ISO 8601, RFC 2822, and relative time formats.
- Date to Timestamp -- Select a date and time using the input fields, choose whether the input is UTC or local, and click Convert to get the Unix timestamp.
- Copy values -- Click any result card to copy its value to your clipboard.
About Unix Timestamps
A Unix timestamp, also known as epoch time or POSIX time, represents the number of seconds that have elapsed since the Unix epoch: January 1, 1970, at 00:00:00 UTC. This standard is used across virtually all operating systems and programming languages as a simple, unambiguous way to represent a point in time.
Unix timestamps are timezone-independent since they always reference UTC. They are stored as integers, making them efficient for computation, sorting, and storage. Common uses include database timestamps, API responses, log files, and file system metadata. JavaScript uses millisecond-precision timestamps (13 digits), while most other systems use seconds (10 digits). This converter handles both automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Unix timestamp (epoch time) is the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC. It is the standard way computers track time, used by virtually all operating systems and programming languages.
The Year 2038 problem occurs because many older systems store Unix timestamps as 32-bit signed integers, which will overflow on January 19, 2038 at 03:14:07 UTC. Most modern systems now use 64-bit integers, which won't overflow for billions of years.
Yes. If you enter a timestamp with 13 or more digits, the tool automatically treats it as milliseconds (common in JavaScript). Timestamps with 10 digits are treated as seconds.
The converter displays results in both UTC and your local timezone. Unix timestamps are inherently timezone-independent since they always reference UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).