---
title: "Unix timestamp converter: epoch time to a date"
description: "Free Unix timestamp converter. Turn epoch seconds or milliseconds into a date in your time zone and UTC, or a date and time back into a timestamp."
canonical: "https://www.meadowdesk.com/tools/unix-timestamp-converter"
last_modified: "2026-10-27"
---

# Unix timestamp converter

Source: https://www.meadowdesk.com/tools/unix-timestamp-converter

Free Unix timestamp converter. Turn epoch seconds or milliseconds into a date in your time zone and UTC, or a date and time back into a timestamp.

Turn a Unix timestamp into a readable date in your own time zone and in UTC, or turn a date and time back into a timestamp.

## How to use it

1. Paste a timestamp in seconds (10 digits) or milliseconds (13 digits). Seconds with a fraction, like 1729584000.123, work too.
2. Read it as your local time and as UTC in ISO 8601 format.
3. To go the other way, pick a date and time in your own time zone and copy the seconds.
4. Press Use the current time to fill both fields with this moment.

## Unix timestamp converter FAQ

**What is a Unix timestamp?**
A count of the seconds since midnight UTC on Jan 1, 1970. Databases, APIs, log files and file systems use it because it is one plain number, the same in every time zone, and easy to sort and compare.

**Is my timestamp in seconds or milliseconds?**
Count the digits. Today a timestamp in seconds has 10 digits and one in milliseconds has 13. JavaScript and many APIs use milliseconds; most databases and command-line tools use seconds. The converter reads anything over 10 digits as milliseconds, counting only the digits before a decimal point, so Python’s 1729584000.123 is read as seconds.

**How do I read the expiry time in a token?**
A JSON Web Token stores its expiry as exp, a Unix timestamp in seconds. Decode the middle part of the token with the [Base64 decoder](https://www.meadowdesk.com/tools/base64-encode-decode), then paste the exp number here.

**Why do webhooks include a timestamp?**
So the receiver can refuse old requests. The sender signs the timestamp together with the body in a [hash-based signature](https://www.meadowdesk.com/tools/hash-generator), and you reject anything more than a few minutes old, so a captured request cannot be replayed later.

**What is the year 2038 problem?**
Systems that store the timestamp as a signed 32-bit number run out at 2147483647, which is 03:14:07 UTC on Jan 19, 2038. The next second wraps around to 1901. Most modern systems use 64 bits and are fine, but old devices and file formats may not be.