Timestamp Converter
Unix epoch to human date, in any timezone, both directions.
Timestamp → date
Seconds, milliseconds and microseconds are detected automatically.
| Enter a timestamp |
Date → timestamp
Interpreted in the timezone selected above.
| Pick a date and time |
What a Unix timestamp is
A Unix timestamp counts the seconds elapsed since 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UTC, known as the Unix epoch. Because it is a single integer in a single timezone, it is the format almost every database, log file and API uses internally — 1774521600 means the same instant whether it is read in Shanghai, Berlin or São Paulo.
Leap seconds are deliberately ignored, so a day is always exactly 86,400 seconds. Note that a timestamp identifies an instant, not a calendar date: converting it to a readable date always requires choosing a timezone, which is why the selector above changes the output.
Seconds, milliseconds or microseconds?
Different systems use different units, and mixing them up produces dates in 1970 or in the year 56000. The digit count is a reliable giveaway for any modern date:
- 10 digits — seconds. PostgreSQL, MySQL
UNIX_TIMESTAMP(), Go, Pythontime.time(), most REST APIs. - 13 digits — milliseconds. JavaScript
Date.now(), Java, Kotlin, Elasticsearch. - 16 digits — microseconds. Postgres internal timestamps, Chrome traces, some Python libraries.
- 19 digits — nanoseconds. Go
UnixNano(), Prometheus, InfluxDB.
This converter detects the unit from the magnitude of the number and tells you which one it picked.
How to use it
- Paste a timestamp on the left to see it as ISO 8601, local time, UTC and a relative description like “in 3 days”.
- Or pick a calendar date and time on the right to get the timestamp in seconds and milliseconds.
- Change the timezone at the top; both panels update immediately.
- Click any value in the tables to copy it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the year 2038 problem?
Systems that store timestamps in a signed 32-bit integer overflow on 19 January 2038, at 2,147,483,647 seconds, and wrap around to 1901. Modern platforms use 64-bit integers, which push the limit roughly 292 billion years out, but legacy embedded systems and old database columns can still be affected.
Why does the same timestamp show two different dates?
Because a timestamp is an instant, not a date. At the moment 1774521600 occurs it is already the next calendar day in Tokyo while it is still the previous evening in New York. Changing the timezone selector shows exactly that.
Can it handle dates before 1970?
Yes. Timestamps before the epoch are negative — -86400 is 31 December 1969. Type a negative number and it converts normally.
Does it account for daylight saving time?
Yes. Conversions use your browser's IANA timezone database, so a wall-clock time such as 02:30 on a spring-forward night is resolved the same way the operating system would resolve it, and offsets shift automatically across DST boundaries.
What is ISO 8601 and when should I use it?
2026-03-14T09:26:53Z is ISO 8601. It is the right choice for anything a human might read — logs, config files, JSON APIs — because it is unambiguous and sorts correctly as plain text. Raw integers are better for storage and arithmetic.