Discord Timestamp Generator

How does a Discord timestamp work?

A Discord timestamp is a short code like <t:1618953630:R> that Discord replaces with a readable date. The number is Unix time: the seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970 at midnight UTC. The letter at the end picks the format. The big advantage: the code points to an exact moment, not a time “where you are”. So every reader sees that moment converted to their own time zone and in their app's language. An event set for 8 PM in New York shows as 5 PM for a friend in Los Angeles and 1 AM the next day in London, without anyone doing the math. Relative time (“in 3 hours”) even updates on its own. It's perfect for announcing a game night, a server event, a release or the end of a giveaway.

The 7 Discord timestamp formats

The last letter of the code decides how it's displayed. For a reader in New York using a 12-hour clock, the number 1618953630 gives: t, short time (5:20 PM); T, long time (5:20:30 PM); d, short date (04/20/2021); D, long date (April 20, 2021); f, long date with time (April 20, 2021 5:20 PM), the default format when you don't add a letter; F, day of the week with date and time (Tuesday, April 20, 2021 5:20 PM); and R, relative time, like “in 2 hours” or “5 years ago”. The exact wording changes a little depending on each reader's app language and clock settings. For an announcement, combine F and R: the full date followed by the countdown. Discord also documents two newer formats, s and S (short date with time, without or with seconds), which you can type by hand.

My Discord timestamp shows up wrong or gives the wrong date

Four causes come up almost every time. First, the number is in milliseconds: a 13-digit number, like the one JavaScript's Date.now() returns, gives an invalid date, because Discord expects seconds (10 digits); divide by 1,000. Second, the code is wrapped in backticks or placed in a code block: Discord doesn't format anything and shows the raw text. Third trap, a typo in the syntax: it must be exactly <t:1618953630:R>, with the angle brackets, the colons and no spaces. Finally, some places don't support formatting, like a nickname or a channel name. Paste your code into the “Read a timestamp” tab: the tool decodes it and points out the error.

A time in another time zone, and Discord bots

To set an event at a time that isn't your device's, for example 8 PM in London, choose the time zone first (Europe/London) and then enter the time. The tool calculates the right Unix time, including around daylight saving time changes: it warns you when the time you picked doesn't exist or happens twice. To find the date hidden in a code, use the “Read a timestamp” mode. Bot developers will recognize the same syntax: discord.js has the time() function and discord.py has discord.utils.format_dt, which produce these codes from a date. To style the message around your timestamp, try the “Discord Colored Text Generator” too; to compare the time in several cities, there's the “Time Zone Converter”.