Datetime to integer timestamp in Python

A timestamp represents the number of seconds that have passed since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC (also known as the epoch). We can convert a datetime object to a timestamp using the built-in timestamp() method, and then round or typecast it to get an integer version. In this article, we'll learn how to convert a Python datetime object into an integer timestamp-either in seconds or milliseconds. Let's take a quick look at how we can convert the current date and time into an integer timestamp:

from datetime import datetime

now = datetime.now()
ts = int(now.timestamp())

print("Current timestamp (integer):", ts)

Current timestamp (integer): 1744234690

Explanation:

• datetime.now() fetches the current local date and time.
• .timestamp() converts the datetime to the number of seconds since epoch (as a float).
• int() converts the float to an integer timestamp.

Syntax

datetime_object.timestamp()

• Returns a float value: number of seconds since the epoch.
• Wrap with int() or round() to get a clean integer timestamp.

Examples

Example 1: Current Datetime to Integer Timestamp

This example shows how to get the current local time and convert it into an integer timestamp in seconds.

from datetime import datetime

curr = datetime.now()

print("Current datetime: ", curr)
t = int(round(curr.timestamp()))

print("Integer timestamp of current datetime: ", t)

Current datetime:  2025-04-10 11:41:17.312551
Integer timestamp of current datetime:  1744285277

Explanation:

• datetime.now() gets the current date and time.
• .timestamp() converts it to seconds since epoch.
• round() makes it precise, and int() ensures it's a whole number.

Example 2: Specified Datetime to Integer & Millisecond Timestamp

Here we define a specific date and time and convert it to both seconds and milliseconds timestamps.

from datetime import datetime

dt = datetime(2018, 1, 1, 20)            

dts = dt.timestamp()               
s = int(round(dts))
print("Integer timestamp in seconds:",s)

ms = int(round(dt.timestamp() * 1000)) 
print("Integer timestamp in milliseconds:", ms)

Integer timestamp in seconds: 1514836800
Integer timestamp in milliseconds: 1514836800000

Explanation:

• We create a datetime object for a specific date and time.
• .timestamp() returns a float (e.g., 1514817000.0)
• Multiply by 1000 to get milliseconds.

Example 3: UTC Timestamp using calendar.timegm()

This example shows how to get the UTC integer timestamp using calendar.timegm() and timetuple().

import datetime
import calendar

d = datetime.datetime(1970, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0)   
t = d.timetuple()                      

its = calendar.timegm(t)       
print("UTC timestamp (integer):", its)

UTC timestamp (integer): 7260

Explanation:

• .timetuple() breaks the datetime into a tuple.
• calendar.timegm() turns that tuple into a UTC timestamp.
• This is great when you're working with timezone-naive UTC data.

Example 4: Integer Timestamp with Timezone using pytz

This example demonstrates how to create a timezone-aware datetime and convert it to an integer timestamp using pytz.

import datetime
import pytz

dt = datetime.datetime.now()                     
t = pytz.timezone("Asia/Kolkata")            

dtz = t.localize(dt)            
print("Time Zone:", dtz.tzinfo)
print("Datetime:", dtz)

tstamp = dtz.timestamp()                        
print("Integer timestamp:", int(round(tstamp)))  

Time Zone: Asia/Kolkata
Datetime: 2025-04-09 21:48:07.468073+05:30
Integer timestamp: 1744215487

Explanation:

• We use pytz to handle the timezone (Asia/Kolkata in this case).
• .localize() attaches the timezone info to the datetime object.
• Then we get the localized timestamp and convert it to an integer.