What is a Unix timestamp?

It is the number of seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970, known as the Unix epoch. It is a timezone-independent way to represent a moment in time as a single number.

How are milliseconds, microseconds, and nanoseconds derived?

Browsers expose time at millisecond precision. Seconds are the millisecond value divided by 1000 and floored, while microseconds and nanoseconds are the millisecond value scaled up by 1,000 and 1,000,000.

Are the microsecond and nanosecond digits real precision?

No. Because the browser clock only resolves to milliseconds, the extra digits are zero-filled. They are convenient when a system expects those units but should not be read as sub-millisecond accuracy.

Is the timestamp in my local timezone?

No. Unix time is always counted from the UTC epoch, so it is the same instant everywhere. The ISO line at the bottom shows that instant formatted in UTC for reference.

How often does it update?

The display refreshes roughly twenty times a second, so the milliseconds and finer values tick visibly while the page is open.

Current Unix Timestamp

The live current Unix timestamp, in four units

This tool shows the current Unix timestamp right now and keeps it ticking, presenting the same instant in seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, and nanoseconds. It is built for developers who need a quick epoch value to paste into an API call, a database record, a test fixture, or a log query.

How it works

Unix time counts the number of seconds since the epoch — 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970. JavaScript’s clock reports milliseconds since that epoch, so the tool reads that millisecond value and derives the other units from it. Seconds are floor(ms / 1000). Microseconds are ms * 1000 and nanoseconds are ms * 1000000.

Because the browser clock resolves only to the millisecond, the sub-millisecond digits in the microsecond and nanosecond figures are effectively zero-padded — they give you the right unit and magnitude for a system that expects them, not genuine sub-millisecond precision. The display refreshes about twenty times per second so the lower units visibly count up. A UTC ISO timestamp is shown underneath so you can confirm the human-readable moment the number represents.

Tips and notes

Use the seconds value for most Unix APIs and cron-style systems, and the milliseconds value for JavaScript Date, many logging systems, and JSON payloads. The one-click copy buttons put exactly the unit you need on the clipboard. If you need to add or subtract from a specific moment rather than read the current one, pair this with the date duration calculator.