Timestamp Converter

What is a Unix timestamp?

A Unix timestamp (also called epoch time) is the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970, the "Unix epoch". It is a simple, timezone-independent way to represent a moment in time as a single integer, which is why it is used throughout programming, databases, and APIs. This tool converts a timestamp to readable formats and back.

Seconds vs. milliseconds

There are two common scales. Classic Unix timestamps count seconds (a 10-digit number around now), while JavaScript and many APIs use milliseconds (a 13-digit number). Mixing them up is a frequent bug that puts a date thousands of years off. This converter auto-detects which scale you pasted based on its length, so you do not have to guess.

Why a timestamp can show the wrong time

A timestamp represents an absolute instant in UTC; the local time it displays depends on the timezone used to format it. If a date looks off by several hours, the usual cause is a timezone mismatch between where the timestamp was created and where it is being displayed. The tool shows local time, UTC, ISO 8601, and RFC 2822 side by side so the difference is clear.

Getting the current timestamp in code

• JavaScript: Date.now() (milliseconds) or Math.floor(Date.now()/1000) (seconds)
• Python: int(time.time())
• PHP: time()
• SQL: UNIX_TIMESTAMP() (MySQL)