What is Epoch Time?
Epoch time (also called Unix time or POSIX time) counts the seconds since the Unix epoch — January 1, 1970 at 00:00:00 UTC. It is the standard time representation in most programming languages, databases, and operating systems. This converter translates between epoch timestamps and human-readable dates across all timezones.
Common use cases
- Converting epoch values from log files to readable dates
- Debugging time-related API issues
- Translating database timestamp columns to local time
- Comparing event times across distributed systems
- Converting date strings to epoch for scripting
How to use
- 1Pick a direction: Timestamp → Date, or Date → Timestamp.
- 2Paste an epoch value (seconds or milliseconds) or a date — it converts as you type, or press Now.
- 3Pick an extra timezone and output formats, then copy a value or the full result.
Frequently asked questions
Why do developers use epoch time?
Epoch time is a single number with no timezone ambiguity, making it ideal for storage, comparison, and arithmetic. Subtracting two epoch values gives the exact duration in seconds, regardless of daylight saving changes or timezone differences.
How do I get the current epoch time?
In JavaScript: Date.now() (milliseconds) or Math.floor(Date.now()/1000) (seconds). In Python: import time; time.time(). In Bash: date +%s. This tool also shows a live clock with the current epoch value.