Unix Timestamp Converter
Convert Unix timestamps into readable dates and convert local date/time values back into Unix time.
Convert between Unix time and a readable date when you are debugging logs, APIs, databases, scheduled jobs, or time-based application data. The most common mistake is confusing seconds with milliseconds, which can produce dates far outside the expected range. Also remember that a Unix timestamp represents an instant in time; the readable clock time changes depending on the time zone used to display it.
Convert Unix time to a readable date and back again
A Unix timestamp represents a point in time as a number measured from the Unix epoch: January 1, 1970 at 00:00:00 UTC. It is widely used in APIs, logs, databases, tokens, and programming languages.
Seconds vs milliseconds
Classic Unix timestamps are measured in seconds, but JavaScript and many APIs use milliseconds. A 10-digit value is often seconds while a 13-digit value is often milliseconds. Confusing the two can produce dates thousands of years away from what you expected.
Unix time is not a time zone
The timestamp identifies an instant. A browser or application can display that instant in UTC, Saskatchewan time, Eastern time, or another local zone. The underlying moment is unchanged.
Why developers like timestamps
Numbers are convenient for sorting and comparing events, calculating durations, and exchanging time values between systems without embedding a human-formatted date such as “September 22, 2026.”
Be careful with date-only values
A birthday, billing date, or calendar day may be better represented as a date rather than a timestamp. Converting a date at midnight through different time zones can make it appear to move to the previous or next day.
Frequently asked questions
Do Unix timestamps include leap seconds?
Typical Unix time handling does not represent leap seconds as distinct numbered seconds in the simple way people often expect; system implementations can vary in how they handle them.