__time

Also documented in context in the full Functions and Variables reference.

TL;DR: __time returns the current date/time, formatted however you specify (or epoch milliseconds by default) — the standard way to stamp requests with a live timestamp for signing, cache-busting, or unique identifiers.

The time function returns the current time in various formats.

Name	Required	Description
Format	No	The format to be passed to DateTimeFormatter. The function supports various shorthand aliases, see below. If omitted, the function returns the current time in milliseconds since the epoch.
Name of variable	No	The name of the variable to set.

If the format string is omitted, then the function returns the current time in milliseconds since the epoch. If the format matches “/ddd” (where ddd are decimal digits), then the function returns the current time in milliseconds divided by the value of ddd. For example, “/1000” returns the current time in seconds since the epoch. Otherwise, the current time is passed to DateTimeFormatter. The following shorthand aliases are provided:

• YMD = yyyyMMdd
• HMS = HHmmss
• YMDHMS = yyyyMMdd-HHmmss
• USER1 = whatever is in the JMeter property time.USER1
• USER2 = whatever is in the JMeter property time.USER2

The defaults can be changed by setting the appropriate JMeter property, e.g. time.YMD=yyMMdd

\${__time(dd/MM/yyyy,)}

will return 21/01/2018 if ran on 21 january 2018

\${__time(YMD,)}

will return 20180121 if ran on 21 january 2018

\${__time()}

will return time in millis 1516540541624

Note

The format to be passed to used to be SimpleDateFormat, but that changed with JMeter 5.5 to DateTimeFormatter. While they use mostly the same codes, they differ slightly. Most notable is probably the code u, that meant day number of week and is now interpreted as year.

Example

${__time(dd/MM/yyyy,)}   → 21/01/2026
${__time(/1000,)}        → epoch seconds
${__time(YMD,)}          → 20260121 (shorthand alias)
${__time(,epochMs)}      → epoch millis, stored in var "epochMs"

Frequently paired with HMAC signing in a JSR223 PreProcessor for APIs that require a timestamp in the request signature.

Related

• Functions and Variables Guide
• Regex Extractor Builder
• Timers, Think Time & Pacing
• Full Functions Reference
• Component Reference