Unix Timestamp Converter
Convert Unix timestamps to human-readable dates and vice versa. Shows current Unix time live. Handles seconds and milliseconds.
Timestamp → Date
Date → Timestamp
What is Unix Timestamp Converter?
A Unix timestamp converter translates between Unix epoch time (the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC) and human-readable dates. Unix timestamps are the standard way computers store time — they're simple integers that avoid timezone ambiguity, daylight saving complications, and calendar irregularities. Every database, API, log file, and operating system uses them internally. This tool lets you quickly decode a timestamp from an API response or log entry into a date you can understand, or convert a specific date into its Unix representation for use in code.
How It Works
For timestamp-to-date conversion: enter a number and the tool auto-detects whether it's seconds (10 digits, like 1700000000) or milliseconds (13 digits). It creates a Date object and formats it in multiple representations — ISO 8601, UTC, local time, and relative time. For date-to-timestamp conversion: select a date and time using the picker, and the tool calculates the corresponding Unix timestamp in both seconds and milliseconds. The current Unix time is displayed live, updating every second.
Examples
1700000000
2023-11-14T22:13:20Z Local: 14 Nov 2023, 22:13:20 UTC
1700000000000
2023-11-14T22:13:20Z (interpreted as milliseconds)
Quick Reference
| Digits | Unit | Example | Used by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Seconds | 1700000000 | Unix tools, Python time.time(), Go, PHP |
| 13 | Milliseconds | 1700000000000 | JavaScript Date.now(), Java, Kotlin |
| 16 | Microseconds | 1700000000000000 | PostgreSQL internals, some tracing systems |
| 19 | Nanoseconds | 1700000000000000000 | Go time.UnixNano(), Prometheus |
Common Use Cases
- •Decoding Unix timestamps in API responses or database records to understand when events occurred
- •Converting specific dates to Unix timestamps for use in database queries and API filters
- •Debugging time-related issues by comparing timestamps across different systems and timezones
- •Converting log file timestamps to readable dates for incident investigation
- •Setting expiration times for tokens, cache entries, or scheduled events in code
- •Verifying that timestamp-based logic (rate limiting, token expiry) works correctly
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between seconds and milliseconds?▼
Unix timestamps in seconds are 10 digits, milliseconds are 13 digits. This tool auto-detects both.
Is my timestamp in seconds or milliseconds?▼
Count the digits. A seconds timestamp for the current era has 10 digits; milliseconds has 13 and microseconds 16. Unix tools, Python's `time.time()` and Go use seconds, while JavaScript's `Date.now()` and Java use milliseconds — mixing them puts your date either in 1970 or tens of thousands of years into the future.
What is the year 2038 problem?▼
A signed 32-bit integer counting seconds overflows on 19 January 2038 at 03:14:07 UTC, wrapping round to 1901. Any system still storing time in a 32-bit `time_t` is affected. Use 64-bit timestamps, which push the limit hundreds of billions of years out.
Do Unix timestamps account for leap seconds?▼
No, and this is a deliberate simplification. Unix time treats every day as exactly 86,400 seconds, so it does not count the leap seconds that have actually occurred. It is therefore not a true count of elapsed SI seconds since the epoch, though it does keep clocks aligned with civil time.
What timezone is a Unix timestamp in?▼
None — it is an absolute count of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC, identical everywhere on Earth. A timezone only enters when you format it for display. This is exactly why timestamps are the right thing to store and timezones are a presentation concern.
Why does my timestamp show as 1 January 1970?▼
The value is zero, null, or an empty string coerced to zero, which is the epoch itself. It normally means the field was never populated rather than that something genuinely happened in 1970. A date in 1970 is almost always a missing-value bug.
Related Tools
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