Timestamp → Date
Supports seconds and milliseconds (auto-detected if > 10 digits)
Enter a timestamp to see the converted date
Date → Timestamp
Select a date to see the Unix timestamp
Current Unix Timestamp:
Supports seconds and milliseconds (auto-detected if > 10 digits)
Enter a timestamp to see the converted date
Select a date to see the Unix timestamp
The Unix Epoch — midnight (00:00:00 UTC) on January 1, 1970 — has its roots in the early days of computing. In the 1960s, the Multics operating system (a joint MIT/Bell Labs/GE project) used January 1, 1900 as its epoch. When Bell Labs withdrew from Multics in 1969 and Ken Thompson began work on Unix, the epoch was reset. According to Unix lore, the date was chosen somewhat arbitrarily — it was a convenient round number. Early Unix systems stored time as a 32-bit signed integer counting in 1/60ths of a second (not seconds!), allowing ~2.5 years of range before overflowing. The switch to 1-second resolution came with Unix V4 in 1973, extending the range to ~68 years in either direction.
The Year 2038 Problem: A signed 32-bit integer maxes out at 2,147,483,647 — which corresponds to 03:14:07 UTC on January 19, 2038. After this moment, 32-bit timestamps overflow to negative values, potentially crashing systems that depend on them. This is analogous to the Y2K bug but potentially more dangerous because Unix timestamps are deeply embedded in databases, file systems, and embedded devices. The solution is 64-bit timestamps, which can represent dates 292 billion years into the future — but legacy systems (especially in industrial, aviation, and IoT contexts) remain at risk.
For reference, timestamps in 2026 are in the 1.78 billion range (approximately 1,781,000,000), leaving about 366 million seconds (~11.6 years) before the 32-bit overflow.
| Format | Example | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Unix Timestamp | 1781000000 | POSIX / IEEE 1003.1 |
| ISO 8601 | 2026-06-23T12:00:00Z | ISO 8601 |
| RFC 3339 | 2026-06-23T12:00:00+00:00 | RFC 3339 (subset of ISO 8601) |
| RFC 2822 | Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 | RFC 2822 (email date format) |
| UTC String | Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT | HTTP Date / JavaScript |
| Locale String | 6/23/2026, 12:00:00 PM | JavaScript toLocaleString() |
A Unix timestamp (also called Epoch time or POSIX time) is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC — the Unix Epoch. It doesn't count leap seconds, so each day is exactly 86,400 seconds. Unix timestamps are widely used in programming, databases, APIs, and cron job scheduling.
The current timestamp is displayed live at the top of this page. In most programming languages: JavaScript: Math.floor(Date.now()/1000), Python: int(time.time()), PHP: time(), SQL: EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM NOW()), Linux CLI: date +%s.
Unix timestamps are traditionally in seconds. JavaScript's Date.now() returns milliseconds (1000x larger). This converter auto-detects which you've entered: if the number has more than 10 digits, it's treated as milliseconds. 1,780,000,000 seconds = 1,780,000,000,000 milliseconds.
On January 19, 2038 at 03:14:07 UTC, 32-bit signed Unix timestamps will overflow to negative numbers. This affects legacy 32-bit systems, embedded devices, and older databases. Modern 64-bit systems (the vast majority today) are immune, supporting timestamps 292 billion years into the future.
Yes. Use the Batch Converter section. Paste one timestamp per line (in seconds) and click "Convert All". Each line is converted to a human-readable date. Timestamps can be in seconds or milliseconds — the converter detects format automatically.