Unix Time Now
Seconds (Unix)
Milliseconds
Thursday, October 1, 2026 at 10:02:12 AM UTC
Unix Timestamp → Human Date
Date → Unix Timestamp
Get Current Unix Timestamp — Code Examples
Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)import time; int(time.time())time()SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP()SELECT extract(epoch FROM now())::bigintdate +%sTime.now.to_itime.Now().Unix()DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.ToUnixTimeSeconds()What Is Unix Time?
Unix time is a system for describing a point in time as a single integer — the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC on Thursday, January 1, 1970 (the Unix Epoch). This representation is language-agnostic, timezone-agnostic, and immune to daylight saving time complications, making it the universal standard for timestamps in computing, databases, APIs, and log files.
The current Unix timestamp is shown live at the top of this page. It increments by 1 every second. You can verify this against any other clock or timestamp service — the Unix timestamp at any given UTC moment is always the same globally, regardless of where you are in the world.
Seconds vs Milliseconds
The original Unix timestamp is measured in seconds. However, many modern programming environments — most notably JavaScript — measure time internally in milliseconds (thousandths of a second). A seconds-based Unix timestamp currently has 10 digits. A milliseconds timestamp has 13 digits. When you receive a timestamp, check its digit count to determine which unit is being used.
The converter above automatically detects whether a number is in seconds or milliseconds based on its magnitude, so you can paste either format and get an accurate result.
The Year 2038 Problem
Legacy 32-bit systems that store Unix timestamps as a signed 32-bit integer can represent times up to 2,147,483,647 seconds past the Epoch — which corresponds to 03:14:07 UTC on January 19, 2038. After that second, the counter overflows to a negative number, causing systems to interpret the date as December 13, 1901. This is the Year 2038 problem (Y2K38). Modern 64-bit operating systems and programming languages are not affected, as 64-bit integers can represent dates billions of years into the future.
Unix Time — Frequently Asked Questions
Unix time (also called Epoch time, POSIX time, or Unix timestamp) is the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC on Thursday, January 1, 1970 (the Unix Epoch). It is widely used in computing to represent dates and times as a single integer, making date calculations and storage simpler.
The Unix Epoch is the reference point for Unix time: 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970. All Unix timestamps are measured in seconds (or milliseconds in some systems) from this moment. The date was chosen arbitrarily when Unix was being developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Enter any Unix timestamp in the converter above and it instantly shows the corresponding date and time in UTC, your local time, and any other time zone. In code: JavaScript uses new Date(timestamp * 1000) (multiply by 1000 since JS uses milliseconds), Python uses datetime.fromtimestamp(timestamp), and SQL uses FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp).
Standard Unix time counts seconds since the Epoch. JavaScript and many APIs use milliseconds (multiply seconds by 1,000). A Unix timestamp of 1,700,000,000 seconds equals 1,700,000,000,000 milliseconds. When you see a very large number (13+ digits), it's likely in milliseconds. Numbers with 10 digits are seconds.
The Year 2038 problem (also called Y2K38) affects 32-bit systems that store Unix timestamps as a signed 32-bit integer. The maximum value (2,147,483,647) represents January 19, 2038 at 03:14:07 UTC. After that moment, the counter overflows to a negative number representing December 13, 1901. Modern 64-bit systems are not affected.
In JavaScript: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) or Date.now() for milliseconds. In Python: import time; int(time.time()). In PHP: time(). In MySQL: UNIX_TIMESTAMP(). In bash/Linux: date +%s. The current Unix timestamp is displayed live at the top of this page.
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the time standard at 0° longitude, with no daylight saving adjustments. Unix time is always measured in UTC seconds from the Epoch. When converting to local time, you apply the UTC offset for your time zone. A Unix timestamp always refers to the same absolute moment in time globally, regardless of where you are.