1
Paste a timestamp
An integer is detected as seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, or nanoseconds by its length, then shown in local, UTC, ISO, and a selected zone.
DEVELOP.05 UNIX TIMESTAMP
Unix Timestamp Converter
Current time, two-way conversion, and precision detection share the first screen. Seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds, and several time zones need no separate page.
Current Unix time
Browser local time—Every conversion uses the browser-native Date and Intl APIs
Until the Y2038 boundary—
Timestamp to date
Waiting for input
- Browser local time
- —
- UTC time
- —
- Selected time zone
- —
- ISO 8601
- —
Date to timestamp
Interpret the input as
seconds
—milliseconds
—microseconds
—nanoseconds
——
§ 01
How to convert a Unix timestamp
2
Convert a date back
Choose a date and time and state whether it should be interpreted as local time or UTC to get four timestamp precisions.
3
Copy the precision you need
Every current and converted value is directly copyable without selecting one global output format.
§ 02
Timestamps and time zones are different things
A Unix timestamp is a location-independent timeline whose zero point is January 1, 1970 UTC. The same number represents the same instant in Shanghai, London, or New York; the time zone only controls the clock display.
Seconds and milliseconds dominate logs and web APIs. Microseconds and nanoseconds appear in high-precision databases and system traces, but JavaScript Date stores milliseconds, so finer precision is truncated for calendar display.
§ 03
Four common precision levels
Precision
Typical digits
Common sources
Seconds10Unix commands, PHP, Python
Milliseconds13JavaScript, browsers, Java
Microseconds16Databases, distributed logs
Nanoseconds19High-resolution clocks, tracing data
§ 04
Get the current timestamp in code
§ 05
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1What is the difference between 10- and 13-digit timestamps?
A common 10-digit timestamp counts seconds, while 13 digits counts milliseconds. Microseconds and nanoseconds commonly reach 16 and 19 digits.
Q2Does a Unix timestamp contain a time zone?
No. It measures elapsed time from the UTC Unix epoch and represents the same instant worldwide. A time zone only changes its human-readable display.
Q3Why choose local or UTC for a date input?
A date string may have no zone. Stating how to interpret it prevents the same fields from becoming different timestamps on computers in different zones.
Q4Are negative timestamps valid?
Yes. They represent dates before January 1, 1970 UTC, although very distant dates may be outside the JavaScript Date range.
Q5What is the Y2038 problem?
Older systems storing epoch seconds in a signed 32-bit integer overflow on January 19, 2038. Modern 64-bit timestamp implementations do not share that limit.