What is a Unix Timestamp?
A Unix timestamp is a way of representing a moment in time as a single number — specifically, the number of seconds (or milliseconds) that have elapsed since January 1, 1970, at midnight UTC. This reference point is called the Unix epoch.
Computers and APIs frequently use Unix timestamps because they’re simple, compact, and timezone-independent. A timestamp is just a number, which makes it easy to store, sort, and compare. But for humans, a number like 1713484800 is meaningless without converting it to a readable date and time.
What Does This Tool Do?
This tool converts Unix timestamps to human-readable dates and times, and converts dates back to Unix timestamps — in both seconds and milliseconds. It shows the result in your local timezone as well as UTC.
How to Use This Tool
- Timestamp to date: Paste a Unix timestamp (seconds or milliseconds) into the input — the corresponding date and time is shown instantly.
- Date to timestamp: Enter a date and time to get the corresponding Unix timestamp.
- The current timestamp is shown by default when you open the tool.
Common Use Cases
- Debugging APIs: API responses often include timestamps as numbers — convert them to understand what time they represent.
- Log analysis: Server logs use Unix timestamps; convert them to read the actual dates.
- Scheduling: Calculate timestamps for future dates when working with scheduled tasks or cron jobs.
- Data inspection: Databases often store dates as timestamps — quickly decode them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between seconds and milliseconds timestamps?
Standard Unix timestamps count seconds since the epoch. Many modern systems (especially JavaScript) use milliseconds. A 10-digit number is usually in seconds; a 13-digit number is usually in milliseconds.
Does this tool account for timezones?
Yes. Results are shown in both UTC and your device’s local timezone.
Is my data private?
All conversions happen locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.