Cocoa timestamp to date
Seconds since 2001-01-01T00:00:00 UTC, the NSDate / Core Data / Mac Absolute Time reference date.
Apple's frameworks count seconds from January 1, 2001. NSDate's timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate, Core Data's date attributes, and the “Mac Absolute Time” values in iOS backups and databases like iMessage's chat.db all use it. A current value is about 9 digits, which makes it easy to mistake for a Unix timestamp and get a date 31 years wrong. Paste one below to decode it correctly.
Detected: Cocoa / Core Data timestamp
Your timezone
UTC · GMT+00:00 · UTC
Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 11:20:00 PM
Common formats
UTC
Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 11:20:00 PM
ISO 8601
2025-02-19T23:20:00.000Z
Unix (seconds)
1740007200
Unix (millis)
1740007200000
Relative
…
World clock
Los Angeles PST
Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 03:20:00 PM
GMT-08:00
Chicago CST
Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 05:20:00 PM
GMT-06:00
New York EST
Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 06:20:00 PM
GMT-05:00
London GMT
Wed, Feb 19, 2025, 11:20:00 PM
GMT+00:00
Paris CET
Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 12:20:00 AM
GMT+01:00
Kolkata IST
Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 04:50:00 AM
GMT+05:30
Shanghai CST
Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 07:20:00 AM
GMT+08:00
Tokyo JST
Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 08:20:00 AM
GMT+09:00
Sydney AEDT
Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 10:20:00 AM
GMT+11:00
Do it with the API
curl https://parsetime.dev/api/t/761700000?format=cocoaThe same conversion as JSON: no key, no signup, permissive CORS. Try this call or read the API docs.
Common questions
- Why does my iMessage database show dates in the wrong decade?
- You read a Cocoa timestamp as Unix time. The two differ by exactly 978307200 seconds (31 years). Newer iOS versions store chat.db dates in nanoseconds since 2001, so divide by 1,000,000,000 first, then convert here.
- How do I convert Cocoa time to a Unix timestamp?
- Add 978307200, the Unix timestamp of January 1, 2001. Going the other way, subtract it. The converter above does this for you and shows both forms.
- What are negative Cocoa timestamps?
- Dates before 2001. NSDate is a signed offset from the reference date, so −978307200 is exactly the Unix epoch, January 1, 1970.