EpochLab

Everything timestamp, in one place

A number like 1721145600 is not self-describing.

Unix seconds? Milliseconds? An Excel serial, a Windows FILETIME, a Julian day? EpochLab reads all twelve epochs, tells you which is most likely and why, then explains the instant it lands on.

Paste anything

19 formats recognised. Paste or press Enter to open it.

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Live Unix seconds
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Inspect →

Your zone

Resolving your zone…

Where we are

Waiting for the clock…

The same moment at four resolutions

Memorise the digit ladder: 10, 13, 16, 19.

Seconds · 10 digits
—
POSIX, Go, JWT claims, most REST APIs.
Milliseconds · 13 digits
—
JavaScript, Java, Kafka offsets.
Microseconds · 16 digits
—
PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Chrome traces.
Nanoseconds · 19 digits
—
Go UnixNano, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry.
The 2038 problem

Signed 32-bit time runs out on 2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

Does this affect me?

At that instant a time_t holding 2,147,483,647 increments once more and wraps to −2,147,483,648, which reads as 1901-12-13T20:45:52Z. Modern 64-bit systems are fine; the exposure is embedded firmware, old filesystem formats, 32-bit database columns and any protocol that pinned the field at four bytes.

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Years
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Days
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Hours
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Minutes
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Seconds
— seconds of headroom · —% of the signed 32-bit range consumed

The rest of the lab

Questions people ask

What a timestamp is, and why the numbers look the way they do.

What is a Unix timestamp?

A Unix timestamp is a count of seconds since 1 January 1970 at 00:00:00 UTC, known as the Unix epoch. It names one instant on the timeline with no time zone attached, which is what makes it unambiguous to store and transmit.

How do I tell whether a number is in seconds, milliseconds, microseconds or nanoseconds?

Count the digits. For dates around the present, ten digits is seconds, thirteen is milliseconds, sixteen is microseconds and nineteen is nanoseconds. EpochLab ranks a pasted number across all twelve epochs it knows and explains why one reading is more likely than the others.

Why does the Unix epoch start in 1970?

1970 was simply a convenient recent round year when early Unix was being built, and the choice stuck. It carries no astronomical or calendrical meaning; other platforms picked other zero points, which is why a Windows FILETIME counts from 1601 and an Excel serial from 1900.

What is the year 2038 problem?

A timestamp stored in a signed 32-bit integer runs out at 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. One second later it wraps to a negative number that reads as December 1901. Modern 64-bit systems are unaffected; the exposure is embedded firmware, old file formats and any protocol that pinned the field at four bytes.

Does EpochLab send the timestamps I paste anywhere?

No. Every conversion, export and share card is computed in your own browser. Nothing you paste is uploaded, logged or transmitted, and no account is required.