What Is Today's Date? Today's Date in Every Format

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Uses your device's date, time and time zone.

Today's date in every format

Today's date across the U.S.

The date changes at midnight local time, so late in the evening on the West Coast it is already tomorrow in the East, and in UTC. Rows that differ from your own date are highlighted.

How to write today's date

Which order you use depends on who will read it. In the U.S. the month comes first: October 27, 2026, or 10/27/2026. Much of the rest of the world writes the day first: 27 October 2026, or 27/10/2026. That is where mistakes happen:

“When dates are represented with numbers they can be interpreted in different ways. For example, 01/05/22 could mean January 5, 2022, or May 1, 2022.” “ISO 8601 tackles this uncertainty by setting out an internationally agreed way to represent dates: YYYY-MM-DD”— ISO, ISO 8601 — Date and time format

When a date goes to people in other countries, into a spreadsheet or into a file name, use YYYY-MM-DD: it cannot be misread, and it sorts in date order. When writing for people, writing the month as a word (Oct 27, 2026) works in any country.

Writing the date on a check

“Start by putting today's date on the date line, including the month, the day, and the year.”— FDIC Money Smart, Make Deposits and Write Checks (PDF)

Either October 27, 2026 or 10/27/2026 works on a U.S. check. Dating a check for a later day (postdating) does not reliably delay it:

“Banks and credit unions generally don't have to wait until the date you put on a check to cash it.”— Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The CFPB adds that state law may require a bank to wait if you notify it, so ask your bank or credit union before relying on a later date.

More about today

For today's day number, week number and Julian date, see what day of the year is it. To check whether today is a holiday, or what is open, see is today a holiday?, are banks open today? and is the post office open today?. To count days between dates, use the time between dates calculator.

Questions, answered

Today's date: common questions.

The box at the top of this page shows it, using your device's date and time zone, in every common format: written out, U.S. numeric (MM/DD/YYYY), ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) and day-first. Each format has a copy button.

In the United States the month comes first: MM/DD/YYYY, for example 10/27/2026 for October 27, 2026. Many other countries put the day first (27/10/2026). The ISO 8601 international standard puts the year first (2026-10-27), which is the one format that cannot be misread.

YYYY-MM-DD: four-digit year, two-digit month, two-digit day, separated by hyphens. ISO explains why it exists: “When dates are represented with numbers they can be interpreted in different ways. For example, 01/05/22 could mean January 5, 2022, or May 1, 2022.”

The date changes at midnight local time, so for part of every day two places have different dates. When it is 11 p.m. Monday in Los Angeles it is already 2 a.m. Tuesday in New York. The box shows the current date in every U.S. time zone and in UTC.

Write the full date on the date line. The FDIC's Money Smart lesson says: “Start by putting today's date on the date line, including the month, the day, and the year.” In the U.S. either October 27, 2026 or 10/27/2026 is fine; writing the month as a word avoids any mix-up.

You can write a later date, but it may not stop the check from being cashed. The CFPB says: “Banks and credit unions generally don't have to wait until the date you put on a check to cash it.” State law may require the bank to wait if you notify it, so contact your bank or credit union first.

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