In short: A Unix timestamp is the number of seconds (or milliseconds) since 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UTC; a converter turns it into a human-readable date and time and back.
About Unix Timestamp Converter
Unix time counts the seconds since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970, ignoring leap seconds. It is how databases, log files, APIs and JWTs usually store moments in time, because a single integer is easy to compare and has no time-zone ambiguity. The catch is that 1767225600 means nothing to a human.
Paste any timestamp and this converter shows it in UTC, in your own time zone, in ISO 8601 and as a relative time like “3 days ago”. It detects whether you pasted seconds (10 digits), milliseconds (13 digits) or microseconds (16 digits), which is the most common source of dates that land in 1970 or the year 50,000. The reverse converter turns a calendar date into seconds and milliseconds.
How to use Unix Timestamp Converter
- Paste a timestamp into the Timestamp → date box, or copy the current time shown at the top.
- Press Convert (or just press Enter). The unit is detected from the number of digits.
- To go the other way, pick a date and time, choose whether it is local time or UTC, and press Convert.
- Copy whichever format you need: seconds, milliseconds, ISO 8601 or RFC 2822.
Examples
1700000000 → Tue, 14 Nov 2023 22:13:20 UTC.
Date.now() returns milliseconds, e.g. 1700000000000. The converter recognizes the 13 digits and gives the same date as above instead of a date thousands of years in the future.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Unix timestamp in UTC?
Yes. A timestamp identifies an exact instant, independent of time zone. Only when you display it as a calendar date do you choose UTC or a local zone.
What is the year 2038 problem?
Systems that store Unix time as a signed 32-bit integer overflow at 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. Modern systems use 64-bit integers, which last for billions of years.
How do I get the current timestamp in code?
JavaScript: Math.floor(Date.now()/1000). Python: int(time.time()). Shell: date +%s. PostgreSQL: extract(epoch from now()).
Does Unix time include leap seconds?
No. Unix time treats every day as exactly 86,400 seconds, so a leap second is not counted separately.
Updated November 2026 · Free, no signup · How we build and test tools