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What Is the Date to Unix Timestamp Converter?
The Date to Unix Timestamp Converter at TechConverter.me transforms human-readable dates and times into Unix timestamps — the integer representation used internally by programming languages, databases, and APIs. A Unix timestamp is the number of seconds (or milliseconds) elapsed since January 1, 1970 at 00:00:00 UTC, known as the Unix epoch. This tool handles time zone offsets, leap years, DST transitions, and both seconds and milliseconds output.
Supported Input Formats
- ISO 8601:
2025-03-15T14:30:00Z - ISO 8601 with offset:
2025-03-15T14:30:00+05:30 - US format:
03/15/2025 2:30 PM - European format:
15/03/2025 14:30 - Natural language:
March 15, 2025 at 2:30 PM - Date only:
2025-03-15(assumes midnight UTC)
The Date to Unix Timestamp Converter handles the full complexity of time zone offsets, DST transitions, leap years, and format variations so you get the correct timestamp every time.
Examples
Example 1: Converting a Date for Database Storage
A developer needs to store a scheduled event in a database as a Unix timestamp. The event is on March 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time (UTC-5):
Input: 2025-03-15 15:00:00 EST (UTC-5)
Output: 1742065200 (seconds)
1742065200000 (milliseconds)The developer uses the seconds value for a standard Unix timestamp column, or the milliseconds value if the database stores millisecond-precision timestamps. Storing time as an integer is more efficient than storing a datetime string and enables fast range queries.
Example 2: JavaScript Date Conversion
JavaScript's Date object works in milliseconds, not seconds. A developer converting a date for use in JavaScript needs the milliseconds value:
// Input date: January 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC
// Unix timestamp (seconds): 1736942400
// Unix timestamp (milliseconds): 1736942400000
// Use in JavaScript:
const date = new Date(1736942400000);
console.log(date.toISOString()); // "2025-01-15T12:00:00.000Z"
// Common mistake — using seconds instead of milliseconds:
const wrongDate = new Date(1736942400); // Year 1970 — wrong!
The converter clearly labels both the seconds and milliseconds values to prevent this common bug. The difference between seconds and milliseconds is a factor of 1000, and mixing them up produces dates in 1970 or dates far in the future.
Example 3: Setting an API Token Expiration
A developer building an authentication system needs to set a token expiration timestamp 24 hours from now. They convert tomorrow's date to a Unix timestamp:
Input: 2025-04-10 09:00:00 UTC (24 hours from now)
Output: 1744275600
// Use in JWT payload:
{
"sub": "user123",
"iat": 1744189200,
"exp": 1744275600
}The exp (expiration) claim in a JWT is a Unix timestamp in seconds. The converter makes it easy to calculate and verify expiration values without writing code.