Discord Timestamp Generator

A Discord timestamp is written as `<t:UNIX:STYLE>`, where UNIX is the number of seconds - not milliseconds - since 1 January 1970 UTC, and STYLE is a single letter. The client replaces that markup at render time using the reader's own locale and timezone settings.

This is the entire point. If you post "the event starts at 20:00" in a server with members in eight countries, you have created eight opportunities for someone to do the arithmetic wrong. A timestamp posts one value and every reader sees it in their own local time, correctly, without converting anything.

A common mistake is pasting a millisecond value. JavaScript's Date.now() returns milliseconds, so a timestamp built from it directly lands roughly 50,000 years in the future. Divide by 1000 and floor it.

`t` gives short time (16:20) and `T` gives long time with seconds (16:20:30). `d` gives short date (20/04/2021) and `D` gives long date (20 April 2021). `f` combines short date and time, and is what you get if you omit the style letter entirely. `F` gives the full form including the weekday.

`R` is the relative style - "in 2 hours", "3 days ago" - and it is the only one that keeps updating after you post it. That makes it the right choice for deadlines and countdowns, because the message stays accurate as time passes rather than becoming a historical statement.

For scheduled events, posting both `F` and `R` together is a useful pattern: the absolute time answers "when exactly", and the relative one answers "how long do I have", which is the question most readers are actually asking.

Timestamps render in message content, embed descriptions and embed field values. They do not render in channel names, channel topics, server names, nicknames, role names, or the author or footer of an embed - in those places the raw `<t:...>` text appears verbatim.

They also do not render in message previews on some mobile notification surfaces, where the fallback text may appear instead. If a timestamp is the only content of a message, consider adding a word or two of context so the notification remains readable.

When you type a regular time in chat, readers in other time zones have to mentally convert it. Timestamp markdown eliminates that problem entirely. Every single viewer sees the time in their own local format, whether they are in Berlin, Tokyo or New York.

The most frequent error is using milliseconds instead of seconds. A value like 1700000000000 is silently rejected. Another trap is using style letters in lowercase when Discord expects uppercase, like :t vs :T, which produce different displays.

Relative timestamps can point into the future, but Discord may not render dates beyond the year 2038 on every client due to 32-bit signed integer limits.

Timestamps are not just for human messages. You can generate them server-side to embed in bot announcements, scheduled event posts, and webhook messages. A bot that posts daily event reminders uses timestamps so every reader sees the local time, even when the bot runs on a server in a different timezone.