How to get current date in JavaScript

There are 2 ways you can get current date in JavaScript. You can just create a new Date object without any arguments, or you can use the function Date.now.

So both new Date() and Date.now() can be used to get current date in JS.

Let’s log the results to the console.

console.log(new Date());
console.log(Date.now());

If the first case, we’ll see a date + time in UTC timezone, and with Date.now we’ll get the number of milliseconds passed after Jan 1, 1970.

2022-01-13T15:19:32.557Z
1642087172563

Both results represent current date in JavaScript and can be easily compared.

A date object can be converted to milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970 by using a getTime method.

console.log(new Date().getTime()); // 1642087361849

And you can convert milliseconds returned by Date.now() to a Date object, although it’s pretty redundant. If you just need current date, it’s better to call new Date() without arguments.

console.log(new Date(Date.now())); // 2022-01-13T15:24:55.969Z