--- title: "Unix Timestamp Converter - Epoch to Date | CanDoYa" description: "Convert Unix timestamps to human-readable dates and back, free in your browser. Auto-detects seconds vs milliseconds and shows UTC, local time and ISO 8601." url: https://candoya.com/tools/unix-timestamp-converter/ locale: en type: browser-tool --- # Unix Timestamp Converter Category: Converters ## What is a Unix timestamp? A Unix timestamp (epoch time) is the number of seconds elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970, ignoring leap seconds. This converter turns any epoch value - seconds or milliseconds, detected automatically - into a readable UTC and local date, and converts a calendar date back into Unix seconds and milliseconds. Everything runs locally. The timestamp you paste is parsed on the page, formatted with your browser's own time zone data, and **never uploaded or logged**. It keeps working offline once the page has loaded, and the live counter at the top always shows the current Unix time. ## How to use it 1. **Paste a timestamp** - Type or paste an epoch value such as 1700000000. The tool detects whether it is seconds or milliseconds from its size; use the unit menu to override the guess. 2. **Read the date** - The UTC time, your local time, the ISO 8601 form and a relative reading like "2 years ago" all update instantly as you type. 3. **Convert a date back** - Pick a date and time in the lower panel, choose whether it is local or UTC wall time, and copy the resulting Unix seconds or milliseconds. ## Who it's for - **Developers** decoding epoch values found in API responses, JWT expiry claims, database rows and server logs into dates a human can read. - **Data analysts** converting timestamp columns from JSON or CSV exports before building a report or chart. - **DevOps and sysadmins** checking cron runs, certificate validity windows, cache TTLs and kernel or access-log entries. - **Community managers** grabbing the exact Unix timestamp that Discord-style embeds, bots and scheduled events expect. - **Anyone** who pasted a mysterious 10 or 13-digit number from an app or spreadsheet and wants to know which date it hides. ## Expert note Auto-detection here works by magnitude, not digit counting: values at or above 100,000,000,000 (1e11) are read as milliseconds, everything below as seconds. The two ranges barely overlap in practice - 1e11 milliseconds is March 1973, while 1e11 seconds would land in the year 5138 - so a modern 13-digit millisecond value is never mistaken for seconds. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is this Unix timestamp converter free and private? Yes - it is 100% free with no sign-up and no limits. The conversion runs entirely in your browser: the timestamps and dates you enter are never uploaded, stored or logged anywhere. ### How do I tell Unix seconds from milliseconds? By length: current epoch values have 10 digits in seconds and 13 in milliseconds. Unix tools like date +%s and Python's time.time() work in seconds, while JavaScript's Date.now() and Java's System.currentTimeMillis() return milliseconds. This converter detects the unit automatically and lets you override it. ### Does Unix time include leap seconds? No. Unix time pretends every day is exactly 86,400 seconds long, so the leap seconds added to UTC since 1972 are not counted - the Unix clock effectively repeats or smears a second instead. For everyday conversion this makes no visible difference. ### What is the Year 2038 problem? Systems that store Unix time as a signed 32-bit integer overflow at 2,147,483,647 - which is 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. Modern 64-bit systems, and this converter, are unaffected and handle dates hundreds of thousands of years in either direction. ### Can a Unix timestamp be negative? Yes. Negative values simply count seconds backwards from the epoch, so they represent dates before 1 January 1970. For example, -86400 is 31 December 1969 at 00:00 UTC. Paste one and the converter reads it like any other value. ### Why is the converted time different from my wall clock? A Unix timestamp is anchored to UTC and has no time zone of its own. The UTC row shows the universal reading, while the local row applies your device's time-zone offset - the same timestamp is simply displayed two ways, and daylight saving can shift the local reading by an hour. ### How do I get the current Unix timestamp? It is ticking live at the top of this tool - press Copy to grab it, or Use to convert it. In code, use date +%s in a shell, Date.now() in JavaScript (milliseconds), or time.time() in Python (seconds). ## Related tools - [Age Calculator](https://candoya.com/tools/age-calculator/) - [Time Between Two Times Calculator](https://candoya.com/tools/time-between-two-times/) - [Time Zone Converter](https://candoya.com/tools/timezone-converter/) - [Date Calculator](https://candoya.com/tools/date-calculator/) - [Days Between Dates Calculator](https://candoya.com/tools/days-between-dates/) --- *Markdown edition of , published for AI agents and other automated readers. Index of key pages: .*