Unix Timestamp Converter

How it works

1. 1The page opens on the current time. Paste a timestamp over it to convert that instead.
2. 2Seconds and milliseconds are detected from the magnitude, and the tool tells you which it chose and why. Override it if the guess is wrong.
3. 3The result is shown as ISO 8601, in UTC, in a timezone of your choice, and as a relative phrase like "3 days ago".
4. 4The right-hand panel goes the other way: pick a date and get the timestamp.

Common questions

Seconds or milliseconds — how does it decide?

By magnitude. A ten-digit value is the normal shape of a seconds timestamp; a thirteen-digit one would be tens of thousands of years in the future if read as seconds, so it must be milliseconds. The reasoning is shown rather than applied silently, because guessing wrong puts the date in 1970 or in the year 56000.

What is the Unix epoch?

Midnight UTC on 1 January 1970. A Unix timestamp counts the seconds since then, which is why the number is always relative to UTC regardless of where you are.

Do timestamps account for leap seconds?

No. Unix time deliberately ignores them — a leap second repeats the same value rather than adding a new one. This is why Unix time is not strictly the number of elapsed SI seconds since 1970.

Why does my date shift by a few hours?

A timestamp has no timezone; it is an absolute instant. The same instant is a different wall-clock time in every zone. Use the timezone picker to see the one you mean.

What is the 2038 problem?

A signed 32-bit integer runs out at 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. Systems still storing timestamps that way will wrap to 1901. Anything using 64-bit integers, which is most modern software, is fine for about 292 billion years.