Transforming Unix/Epoch Timstamps to Unreadable Time in Grafana

unix-to-human-time-grafana.md

Display Unix Timestamp as Human-Readable Date in Grafana

Last updated: 2025-05-08
Applies to: Grafana 9+

If you've exported a time value in Prometheus and brought it into Grafana you've probably seen something like this and wondered whether you'd accidentally stepped into a time machine:

This will appear after you've chosen the value as date/time, ISO:

In order to fix this you want to multiply your value by 1000 to convert it from epoch or unix time into human readable:

Choose multiply by scalar > 1,000:

Now, it should look like this:

Formatting The Timestamp

If you don't like the way in which the timestamp is presented and want to clean it up a little on your dashboard, you can set a custom unit type and choose your own value.

If you want to use words in the timestamp like I did below then put it in square brackets

time:DD/MM/YY [at] HH:mm

Paste the custom unit type into the unit value and the ability to create it will come up in the UI:

Now your custom time value has displayed, you're no longer stuck in 1970 and it looks pretty good!

Fixed Timestamp

Thank you!