Python Snippets

Python Unix Timestamp Snippets

Python examples for current Unix time, timestamp-to-datetime conversion, UTC handling, milliseconds, and formatted date output using the standard library.

JavaScript Python PHP Go Java C#Ruby Rust SQL C Perl

Current Unix timestamp (seconds)

import time
int(time.time())

Current Unix timestamp (milliseconds)

import time
int(time.time() * 1000)

datetime from timestamp (local)

import datetime
datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(1700000000)

datetime from timestamp (UTC)

import datetime
datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(1700000000)
# Python 3.2+:
datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(1700000000, tz=datetime.timezone.utc)

Formatted string

import datetime
dt = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(1700000000)
dt.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")

Timestamp from datetime

import datetime
dt = datetime.datetime(2023, 11, 15, 6, 13, 20, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)
int(dt.timestamp())

These Python examples use Unix seconds for the portable baseline and show milliseconds only where the runtime exposes them naturally. The question to answer before copying a snippet is simple: what unit does the next API expect?

Get the current Unix time

import time

seconds = int(time.time())
milliseconds = time.time_ns() // 1_000_000

Convert a timestamp to UTC

from datetime import datetime, timezone

instant = datetime.fromtimestamp(1700000000, tz=timezone.utc)
print(instant.isoformat())

Production note

Use timezone-aware datetime values for conversion and display. datetime.fromtimestamp without tz uses the machine local timezone.

Keep the unit in the field name when a value crosses a boundary: createdAtSeconds and createdAtMs are longer than createdAt, but much less mysterious during an incident.

Epoch to Date Date to Epoch Timezone Converter All Code Snippets

Frequent questions:

Q: Does time.time() return an integer?: A: No. It returns seconds as a floating-point value. Wrap it with int() for whole Unix seconds, or multiply before rounding when you need milliseconds.
Q: Should datetime values be naive or timezone-aware?: A: Use timezone-aware UTC datetime values for APIs, databases, and logs. Naive datetime values are best avoided at system boundaries because their timezone meaning is implicit.

Python Unix Timestamp Snippets

#Get the current Unix time

#Convert a timestamp to UTC

#Production note

Frequent questions:

Get the current Unix time

Convert a timestamp to UTC

Production note