How it works
A Unix timestamp is the number of seconds that have passed since 00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970 (the Unix epoch), not counting leap seconds. It is how most databases, APIs and programming languages store moments in time.
Paste a timestamp to see the date in UTC and your local time zone, or enter a date and time to get its timestamp. JavaScript and many web APIs use milliseconds instead of seconds; a 13-digit number is almost always milliseconds.
Formula
Timestamp = (date − 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z) in seconds
Questions people ask
What is the year 2038 problem?
Systems that store Unix time as a signed 32-bit integer overflow at 2,147,483,647 seconds, which is 03:14:07 UTC on January 19, 2038. Modern systems use 64-bit values and are unaffected.
Does Unix time include leap seconds?
No. Every Unix day is exactly 86,400 seconds, so a leap second is not counted separately.
How do I get the current timestamp in code?
JavaScript: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000). Python: int(time.time()). Linux shell: date +%s.