Timestamp Generator

What the timestamp generator does

This builds a Unix timestamp from scratch. You pick a year, month, day, and a time from the fields, and it generates the epoch value, the seconds-since-1970 number, for that exact moment. It is for when you need a specific timestamp to drop into code, a test, or an API call, and you would rather set each part than convert a date you already have written down.

How to use it

1. Year. Type the year.
2. Month, Day, Hours, Minutes, Seconds. Choose each from its dropdown.

Press Calculate and the generated timestamp appears.

How it works

A Unix timestamp is a count of seconds from one fixed point, midnight UTC on the 1st of January 1970, the epoch. The tool takes the date and time you assembled from the fields, works out how many seconds it is from that starting point, and gives you the single integer. That number then stands in for your chosen moment anywhere a system expects epoch time.

This generator treats the date and time you enter as your browser's local time. If you need a UTC/GMT timestamp, use the Unix timestamp converter and choose GMT.

Generating versus converting

The maths here is the same as a date-to-timestamp converter, the difference is the way in. A converter usually takes a date you already have and turns it into a number. This is built around choosing each field yourself, which fits making a timestamp from nothing: a round value for a test, a deadline you are deciding on, a future moment you want to schedule. If you instead have a specific date written down and just want its number, a date-to-timestamp converter does the same job with a single date picker. Pick whichever way of entering the moment suits what you are doing.

What people generate timestamps for

A few common reasons. Seeding test data, where you want records stamped with a known, fixed time so your tests are repeatable. Setting an expiry or a scheduled moment, like when a token should lapse or a job should run, stored as a timestamp. And producing a value for an API parameter or a config entry that asks for epoch time. In each, you are deciding on a moment and need its number, which is what this generates.

It produces seconds

The timestamp it gives you is in seconds, the standard Unix scale. Some environments, JavaScript and many browser APIs especially, use milliseconds, which is the same value times a thousand. If the place you are putting this expects milliseconds, multiply by 1000 first. If it wants plain Unix seconds, use the number as it is.

Questions people ask

What does it produce?

A Unix timestamp, the number of seconds since midnight UTC on 1 January 1970, for the date and time you set in the fields.

How is this different from a converter?

The calculation is the same. This is built around picking each field to generate a timestamp from scratch, while a converter is geared to turning a date you already have into a number.

Is it in seconds or milliseconds?

Seconds, the standard Unix scale. Multiply by 1000 if the system you are feeding it to uses milliseconds, as much of JavaScript does.

Why generate a fixed timestamp for testing?

So results are repeatable. Stamping test data with a known, unchanging time means your tests behave the same way every run, rather than shifting with the current date.