Unix Timestamps in Rust

Rust's standard library provides SystemTime and UNIX_EPOCH for basic timestamp work. For formatting and timezone support, the chrono crate is the standard choice.

Get the current Unix timestamp (std only)

No external crate needed for basic epoch seconds using std::time.

use std::time::{SystemTime, UNIX_EPOCH};

fn main() {
    let now = SystemTime::now();
    let since_epoch = now.duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH)
        .expect("Time went backwards");

    // Seconds
    println!("{}", since_epoch.as_secs());

    // Milliseconds
    println!("{}", since_epoch.as_millis());
}

Convert a timestamp to a readable date with chrono

Add chrono = "0.4" to your Cargo.toml, then use DateTime::from_timestamp().

use chrono::{DateTime, Utc, TimeZone};

fn main() {
    let ts: i64 = 1700000000;

    // Convert to UTC DateTime
    let dt: DateTime<Utc> = Utc.timestamp_opt(ts, 0).unwrap();
    println!("{}", dt.to_rfc3339());
    // Output: 2023-11-14T22:13:20+00:00
}

Convert a date back to a Unix timestamp

use chrono::{TimeZone, Utc};

fn main() {
    let dt = Utc.with_ymd_and_hms(2026, 1, 15, 12, 0, 0).unwrap();

    // Seconds since epoch
    println!("{}", dt.timestamp());

    // Milliseconds since epoch
    println!("{}", dt.timestamp_millis());
}