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Discord timestamps and Snowflake IDs are fully documented: a timestamp is a Unix time in seconds wrapped in <t:...> markup that each viewer sees in their own timezone and locale, and a Snowflake ID carries its creation time in its upper 42 bits. Colored text in code blocks is the exception. Discord documents fenced code blocks, but the official pages checked for this article do not publish a current ANSI color specification, so color behavior should be treated as unverified.
How Discord dynamic timestamps work
Discord’s API reference defines two forms of timestamp markup. The plain form is <t:TIMESTAMP>, and the styled form is <t:TIMESTAMP:STYLE>. The value is a Unix timestamp expressed in seconds, not milliseconds. Discord states that the rendered result uses the timezone and locale of the user viewing the message, which is why one piece of markup can show different clock times to people in different countries. The reference is the authoritative source for this syntax: Discord’s developer API reference, in its Message Formatting section.
The documentation’s own examples are <t:1618953630> and <t:1618953630:d>. The first is the default timestamp display, and the second requests a style.
Style letters and their display formats
The style letter comes after the second colon. The reference lists nine letters. The example output below is Discord’s own, and the reference notes that the visible date order and wording can change with the viewer’s locale, so treat these samples as illustrations rather than fixed strings.
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| Style code | Example output in Discord’s reference | Meaning in the reference |
|---|---|---|
t |
16:20 | Short Time |
T |
16:20:30 | Medium Time |
d |
20/04/2021 | Short Date |
D |
April 20, 2021 | Long Date |
f |
April 20, 2021 at 16:20 | Long Date, Short Time |
F |
Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 16:20 | Full Date, Short Time |
s |
20/04/2021, 16:20 | Short Date, Short Time |
S |
20/04/2021, 16:20:30 | Short Date, Medium Time |
R |
4 years ago | Relative Time |
Choosing a style is a question of what the reader needs. Clock-only styles (t, T) suit same-day schedules. Date-only styles (d, D) suit deadlines and birthdays. Combined styles (f, F, s, S) suit event announcements where both matter. The relative style R is the one to use when the reader cares how far away a moment is rather than when it falls on the calendar, and because it is relative it changes as time passes.
Converting a real moment into a timestamp
The number you place inside the markup must be whole seconds since the Unix epoch. To produce one from a known UTC moment:
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- Start with the moment in UTC, for example 2021-04-20 16:20:30.
- Convert it to Unix seconds, which counts from 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. Most languages and shells provide this directly.
- Place the integer inside the markup, with no decimal point, for example
<t:1618953630>. - Append a style letter after a colon only if you want something other than the default display.
If you are generating these values from a millisecond source such as a JavaScript Date.now() call, divide by 1000 and round down first. Passing milliseconds produces a value roughly a thousand times too large, which Discord will render as a date far in the future. That is the most common reason a timestamp looks wrong, and it follows directly from the documented seconds unit.
How Snowflake IDs encode time
Discord says it uses a Snowflake format derived from Twitter’s design for its unique identifiers. A Snowflake is up to 64 bits, and the bits are split into fixed fields. The top 42 bits hold a millisecond timestamp measured from Discord’s own epoch. The remaining 22 bits identify where and how the ID was generated, and a counter separates IDs created within the same millisecond on the same process.
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Field layout
| Bits | Size | Field | Extraction documented by Discord |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63–22 | 42 | Timestamp, in milliseconds since the Discord epoch | (snowflake >> 22) + 1420070400000 |
| 21–17 | 5 | Internal worker ID | (snowflake & 0x3E0000) >> 17 |
| 16–12 | 5 | Internal process ID | (snowflake & 0x1F000) >> 12 |
| 11–0 | 12 | Increment, which rises for each ID generated on that process | snowflake & 0xFFF |
The Discord epoch is 1420070400000 milliseconds, which Discord describes as the first second of 2015. Adding it to the decoded timestamp converts the value back to standard Unix milliseconds.
Getting the creation time from an ID
- Copy the ID as text. Do not retype it through a floating-point number, because precision is lost above 253.
- Parse it as an unsigned 64-bit integer. In languages with arbitrary-precision integers, such as Python, this is automatic. In JavaScript, use
BigInt. - Shift right by 22 bits to discard the lower fields.
- Add 1420070400000 to get a Unix time in milliseconds.
- Divide by 1000 and round down if you want a seconds value for a
<t:...>timestamp.
The result is the millisecond at which Discord’s generator produced the ID. For most objects that carry Snowflakes, this is their creation time, but the reference describes the field as the generation time of the ID, so treat it as the ID’s origin rather than a guaranteed event time for every resource type.
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Building a Snowflake from a timestamp
The reverse operation is documented too. Given a moment in Unix milliseconds, the lower bound Snowflake for that moment is (timestamp_ms - 1420070400000) << 22. This is useful for building range comparisons, such as finding messages posted after a certain time, because Snowflakes sort in creation order. The worker, process, and increment bits are zero in that construction, so it is a boundary value rather than a real ID.
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Discord returns Snowflakes as strings in its HTTP API. The reference explains that this avoids integer overflow in languages that cannot represent 64-bit values exactly, and it advises clients to expect IDs as strings. It also notes that serialization can convert big integers to strings. Store and pass IDs as text, and convert to a 64-bit integer only when you need to decode the timestamp.
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Two practical consequences follow. First, equality checks and dictionary keys should compare the string form. Second, a JSON parser that reads a bare numeric ID into a double will silently change the last digits, so the ID will no longer match the one Discord issued.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.ANSI colors in code blocks: what is and is not documented
What the official Markdown documentation covers
Discord’s Markdown help article describes multiline code blocks, which are made by wrapping text in three backticks on the line before and the line after. This gives a monospaced, boxed block. It is the only part of code-block formatting that the official sources checked here describe.
What is not established
The official pages do not describe an ansi language tag, the escape sequences a client accepts, the color ranges it renders, or how each platform displays them. Searching for those details turns up community posts and guides, but those are not official specifications. The most specific source reviewed is an archived community feature request dated 2023-03-14. It states that Discord’s ANSI formatting at that time supported seven foreground and seven background colors and asked for full RGB escape sequences. That post is user-authored, and it is three years old, so it does not establish what current Discord clients render.
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A practical approach
- Use a fenced code block for any output that needs monospace alignment. This part is documented.
- Do not rely on color for meaning in an announcement or support message. Readers on some clients may see plain text.
- Before publishing a color-dependent snippet, paste it into the client you are targeting, on each platform your audience uses, and check the rendered result.
- If the color behavior matters to a bot or integration, check the current Discord developer documentation and the behavior of the specific client rather than a third-party tutorial.
Troubleshooting timestamps and IDs
- A timestamp shows a date decades or centuries away. The value is probably in milliseconds. Divide by 1000 and retry.
- A timestamp shows 1970. The value is probably zero, a null that was converted to 0, or an ID that was used where a time was expected.
- The decoded date is wrong by a few hours. Check whether you converted from local time instead of UTC before calling the Unix conversion. The Discord formatting itself shifts to the viewer’s timezone, but the stored value is absolute.
- An ID decodes to a different time after a round trip through JSON. The ID was parsed as a floating-point number. Keep it as a string.
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