How can I get the current date and time in UTC or GMT in Java

Question

When I create a new Date object  it is initialized to the current time but in the local timezone  How can I get the current date and time in GMT

User · Answer

If you want to avoid parsing the date and just want a timestamp in GMT  you could use   final Date gmt   new Timestamp System currentTimeMillis               - Calendar getInstance   getTimeZone                        getOffset System currentTimeMillis

User · Answer

Here is what seems to be incorrect in Jon Skeet s answer  He said      java util Date is always in UTC  What makes you think it s in local   time  I suspect the problem is that you re displaying it via an   instance of Calendar which uses the local timezone  or possibly using   Date toString   which also uses the local timezone    However  the code   System out println new java util Date   getHours       hours      gives the local hours  not GMT  UTC hours   using no Calendar and no SimpleDateFormat at all   That is why is seems something is incorrect   Putting together the responses  the code    System out println Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT                                get Calendar HOUR OF DAY      Hours      shows the GMT hours instead of the local hours -- note that getTime getHours   is missing because that would create a Date   object  which theoretically stores the date in GMT  but gives back the hours in the local time zone

User · Answer

Calendar aGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT       Then all operations performed using the aGMTCalendar object will be done with the GMT time zone and will not have the daylight savings time or fixed offsets applied   Wrong   Calendar aGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     aGMTCalendar getTime      or getTimeInMillis     and   Calendar aNotGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT-2    aNotGMTCalendar getTime      will return the same time  Idem for   new Date      it s not GMT

User · Answer

This worked for me  returns the timestamp in GMT       Date currDate      SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss        dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT         SimpleDateFormat dateFormatLocal   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss         long currTime   0      try            currDate   dateFormatLocal parse  dateFormatGmt format new Date               currTime   currDate getTime          catch  ParseException e               TODO Auto-generated catch block         e printStackTrace

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SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss    dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT        Local time zone    SimpleDateFormat dateFormatLocal   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss       Time in GMT return dateFormatLocal parse  dateFormatGmt format new Date

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Sample code to render system time in a specific time zone and a specific format   import java text SimpleDateFormat  import java util Calendar  import java util Date  import java util TimeZone   public class TimZoneTest       public static void main  String   args              lt GMT gt  lt   - gt  lt hour gt   lt minutes gt             Any screw up in this format  timezone defaults to GMT QUIETLY  So test your format a few times           System out println my time in  GMT-5 00    MM dd yyyy HH mm ss              System out println my time in  GMT 5 30     at  HH mm a z  on  MM dd yyyy              System out println  ---------------------------------------------               Alternate format          System out println my time in  America Los Angeles     at  HH mm a z  on  MM dd yyyy              System out println my time in  America Buenos Aires     at  HH mm a z  on  MM dd yyyy                   public static String my time in String target time zone  String format           TimeZone tz   TimeZone getTimeZone target time zone           Date date   Calendar getInstance   getTime            SimpleDateFormat date format gmt   new SimpleDateFormat format           date format gmt setTimeZone tz           return date format gmt format date              Output  10 08 2011 21 07 21 at 07 37 AM GMT 05 30 on 10 09 2011 at 19 07 PM PDT on 10 08 2011 at 23 07 PM ART on 10 08 2011

User · Answer

If you want a Date object with fields adjusted for UTC you can do it like this with Joda Time   import org joda time DateTimeZone  import java util Date        Date local   new Date    System out println  Local      local   DateTimeZone zone   DateTimeZone getDefault    long utc   zone convertLocalToUTC local getTime    false   System out println  UTC      new Date utc

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SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss    dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT        Local time zone    SimpleDateFormat dateFormatLocal   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss       Time in GMT return dateFormatLocal parse  dateFormatGmt format new Date

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SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd    dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     System out println dateFormatGmt format date

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tl dr  Instant now        Capture the current moment in UTC     Generate a String to represent that value   Instant now   toString          2016-09-13T23 30 52 123Z   Details  As the correct answer by Jon Skeet stated  a java util Date object has no time zone     But its toString implementation applies the JVM   s default time zone when generating the String representation of that date-time value  Confusingly to the na  ve programmer  a Date seems to have a time zone but does not   The java util Date  j u Calendar  and java text SimpleDateFormat classes bundled with Java are notoriously troublesome  Avoid them  Instead  use either of these competent date-time libraries     java time   package in Java 8 Joda-Time   java time  Java 8   Java 8 brings an excellent new java time   package to supplant the old java util Date Calendar classes    Getting current time in UTC GMT is a simple one-liner     Instant instant   Instant now      That Instant class is the basic building block in java time  representing a moment on the timeline in UTC with a resolution of nanoseconds    In Java 8  the current moment is captured with only up to milliseconds resolution  Java 9 brings a fresh implementation of Clock captures the current moment in up to the full nanosecond capability of this class  depending on the ability of your host computer   s clock hardware   It   s toString method generates a String representation of its value using one specific ISO 8601 format  That format outputs zero  three  six or nine digits digits  milliseconds  microseconds  or nanoseconds  as necessary to represent the fraction-of-second   If you want more flexible formatting  or other additional features  then apply an offset-from-UTC of zero  for UTC itself  ZoneOffset UTC constant  to get a OffsetDateTime    OffsetDateTime now   OffsetDateTime now  ZoneOffset UTC      Dump to console     System out println   now toString        now      When run     now toString    2014-01-21T23 42 03 522Z       About java time  The java time framework is built into Java 8 and later  These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java util Date  Calendar   amp  SimpleDateFormat   To learn more  see the Oracle Tutorial  And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations  Specification is JSR 310   The Joda-Time project  now in maintenance mode  advises migration to the java time classes   You may exchange java time objects directly with your database  Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4 2 or later  No need for strings  no need for java sql   classes   Where to obtain the java time classes     Java SE 8  Java SE 9  Java SE 10  Java SE 11  and later  - Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation    Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes   Java SE 6 and Java SE 7   Most of the java time functionality is back-ported to Java 6  amp  7 in ThreeTen-Backport   Android   Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java time classes  For earlier Android   lt 26   the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport  mentioned above   See How to use ThreeTenABP          The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java time with additional classes  This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java time  You may find some useful classes here such as Interval  YearWeek  YearQuarter  and more     Joda-Time  UPDATE  The Joda-Time project  now in maintenance mode  advises migration to the java time classes   Using the Joda-Time 3rd-party open-source free-of-cost library  you can get the current date-time in just one line of code   Joda-Time inspired the new java time   classes in Java 8  but has a different architecture  You may use Joda-Time in older versions of Java  Joda-Time continues to work in Java 8 and continues to be actively maintained  as of 2014   However  the Joda-Time team does advise migration to java time   System out println   UTC GMT date-time in ISO 8601 format      new org joda time DateTime  org joda time DateTimeZone UTC        More detailed example code  Joda-Time 2 3      org joda time DateTime now   new org joda time DateTime       Default time zone  org joda time DateTime zulu   now toDateTime  org joda time DateTimeZone UTC      Dump to console     System out println   Local time in ISO 8601 format      now    System out println   Same moment in UTC  Zulu       zulu      When run     Local time in ISO 8601 format  2014-01-21T15 34 29 933-08 00 Same moment in UTC  Zulu   2014-01-21T23 34 29 933Z   For more example code doing time zone work  see my answer to a similar question   Time Zone  I recommend you always specify a time zone rather than relying implicitly on the JVM   s current default time zone  which can change at any moment    Such reliance seems to be a common cause of confusion and bugs in date-time work   When calling now   pass the desired expected time zone to be assigned  Use the DateTimeZone class   DateTimeZone zoneMontr  al   DateTimeZone forID   America Montreal     DateTime now   DateTime now  zoneMontr  al      That class holds a constant for UTC time zone   DateTime now   DateTime now  DateTimeZone UTC      If you truly want to use the JVM   s current default time zone  make an explicit call so your code is self-documenting   DateTimeZone zoneDefault   DateTimeZone getDefault      ISO 8601  Read about ISO 8601 formats  Both java time and Joda-Time use that standard   s sensible formats as their defaults for both parsing and generating strings         Actually  java util Date does have a time zone  buried deep under layers of source code  For most practical purposes  that time zone is ignored  So  as shorthand  we say java util Date has no time zone  Furthermore  that buried time zone is not the one used by Date   s toString method  that method uses the JVM   s current default time zone  All the more reason to avoid this confusing class and stick with Joda-Time and java time

User · Answer

java util Date has no specific time zone  although its value is most commonly thought of in relation to UTC  What makes you think it s in local time   To be precise  the value within a java util Date is the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch  which occurred at midnight January 1st 1970  UTC  The same epoch could also be described in other time zones  but the traditional description is in terms of UTC  As it s a number of milliseconds since a fixed epoch  the value within java util Date is the same around the world at any particular instant  regardless of local time zone   I suspect the problem is that you re displaying it via an instance of Calendar which uses the local timezone  or possibly using Date toString   which also uses the local timezone  or a SimpleDateFormat instance  which  by default  also uses local timezone   If this isn t the problem  please post some sample code   I would  however  recommend that you use Joda-Time anyway  which offers a much clearer API

User · Answer

Just to make this simpler  to create a Date in UTC you can use Calendar    Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC       Which will construct a new instance for Calendar using the  UTC  TimeZone   If you need a Date object from that calendar you could just use getTime

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Calendar c   Calendar getInstance        System out println  current    c getTime          TimeZone z   c getTimeZone        int offset   z getRawOffset        if z inDaylightTime new Date              offset   offset   z getDSTSavings              int offsetHrs   offset   1000   60   60      int offsetMins   offset   1000   60   60       System out println  offset      offsetHrs       System out println  offset      offsetMins        c add Calendar HOUR OF DAY   -offsetHrs        c add Calendar MINUTE   -offsetMins         System out println  GMT Time    c getTime

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Current date in the UTC  Instant now   toString   replaceAll  T

User · Answer

java util Date has no specific time zone  although its value is most commonly thought of in relation to UTC  What makes you think it s in local time   To be precise  the value within a java util Date is the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch  which occurred at midnight January 1st 1970  UTC  The same epoch could also be described in other time zones  but the traditional description is in terms of UTC  As it s a number of milliseconds since a fixed epoch  the value within java util Date is the same around the world at any particular instant  regardless of local time zone   I suspect the problem is that you re displaying it via an instance of Calendar which uses the local timezone  or possibly using Date toString   which also uses the local timezone  or a SimpleDateFormat instance  which  by default  also uses local timezone   If this isn t the problem  please post some sample code   I would  however  recommend that you use Joda-Time anyway  which offers a much clearer API

User · Answer

this is my implementation   public static String GetCurrentTimeStamp         Calendar cal Calendar getInstance        long offset   cal getTimeZone   getOffset System currentTimeMillis      if you want in UTC else remove it       return new java sql Timestamp System currentTimeMillis   offset  toString

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Use java time package and include below code-  ZonedDateTime now   ZonedDateTime now  ZoneOffset UTC     or  LocalDateTime now2   LocalDateTime now  ZoneOffset UTC     depending on your application need

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You can directly use this  SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  dd MM yyyy HH mm ss    dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     System out println dateFormatGmt format new Date

User · Answer

java util Date has no specific time zone  although its value is most commonly thought of in relation to UTC  What makes you think it s in local time   To be precise  the value within a java util Date is the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch  which occurred at midnight January 1st 1970  UTC  The same epoch could also be described in other time zones  but the traditional description is in terms of UTC  As it s a number of milliseconds since a fixed epoch  the value within java util Date is the same around the world at any particular instant  regardless of local time zone   I suspect the problem is that you re displaying it via an instance of Calendar which uses the local timezone  or possibly using Date toString   which also uses the local timezone  or a SimpleDateFormat instance  which  by default  also uses local timezone   If this isn t the problem  please post some sample code   I would  however  recommend that you use Joda-Time anyway  which offers a much clearer API

User · Answer

tl dr  Instant now        Capture the current moment in UTC     Generate a String to represent that value   Instant now   toString          2016-09-13T23 30 52 123Z   Details  As the correct answer by Jon Skeet stated  a java util Date object has no time zone     But its toString implementation applies the JVM   s default time zone when generating the String representation of that date-time value  Confusingly to the na  ve programmer  a Date seems to have a time zone but does not   The java util Date  j u Calendar  and java text SimpleDateFormat classes bundled with Java are notoriously troublesome  Avoid them  Instead  use either of these competent date-time libraries     java time   package in Java 8 Joda-Time   java time  Java 8   Java 8 brings an excellent new java time   package to supplant the old java util Date Calendar classes    Getting current time in UTC GMT is a simple one-liner     Instant instant   Instant now      That Instant class is the basic building block in java time  representing a moment on the timeline in UTC with a resolution of nanoseconds    In Java 8  the current moment is captured with only up to milliseconds resolution  Java 9 brings a fresh implementation of Clock captures the current moment in up to the full nanosecond capability of this class  depending on the ability of your host computer   s clock hardware   It   s toString method generates a String representation of its value using one specific ISO 8601 format  That format outputs zero  three  six or nine digits digits  milliseconds  microseconds  or nanoseconds  as necessary to represent the fraction-of-second   If you want more flexible formatting  or other additional features  then apply an offset-from-UTC of zero  for UTC itself  ZoneOffset UTC constant  to get a OffsetDateTime    OffsetDateTime now   OffsetDateTime now  ZoneOffset UTC      Dump to console     System out println   now toString        now      When run     now toString    2014-01-21T23 42 03 522Z       About java time  The java time framework is built into Java 8 and later  These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java util Date  Calendar   amp  SimpleDateFormat   To learn more  see the Oracle Tutorial  And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations  Specification is JSR 310   The Joda-Time project  now in maintenance mode  advises migration to the java time classes   You may exchange java time objects directly with your database  Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4 2 or later  No need for strings  no need for java sql   classes   Where to obtain the java time classes     Java SE 8  Java SE 9  Java SE 10  Java SE 11  and later  - Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation    Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes   Java SE 6 and Java SE 7   Most of the java time functionality is back-ported to Java 6  amp  7 in ThreeTen-Backport   Android   Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java time classes  For earlier Android   lt 26   the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport  mentioned above   See How to use ThreeTenABP          The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java time with additional classes  This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java time  You may find some useful classes here such as Interval  YearWeek  YearQuarter  and more     Joda-Time  UPDATE  The Joda-Time project  now in maintenance mode  advises migration to the java time classes   Using the Joda-Time 3rd-party open-source free-of-cost library  you can get the current date-time in just one line of code   Joda-Time inspired the new java time   classes in Java 8  but has a different architecture  You may use Joda-Time in older versions of Java  Joda-Time continues to work in Java 8 and continues to be actively maintained  as of 2014   However  the Joda-Time team does advise migration to java time   System out println   UTC GMT date-time in ISO 8601 format      new org joda time DateTime  org joda time DateTimeZone UTC        More detailed example code  Joda-Time 2 3      org joda time DateTime now   new org joda time DateTime       Default time zone  org joda time DateTime zulu   now toDateTime  org joda time DateTimeZone UTC      Dump to console     System out println   Local time in ISO 8601 format      now    System out println   Same moment in UTC  Zulu       zulu      When run     Local time in ISO 8601 format  2014-01-21T15 34 29 933-08 00 Same moment in UTC  Zulu   2014-01-21T23 34 29 933Z   For more example code doing time zone work  see my answer to a similar question   Time Zone  I recommend you always specify a time zone rather than relying implicitly on the JVM   s current default time zone  which can change at any moment    Such reliance seems to be a common cause of confusion and bugs in date-time work   When calling now   pass the desired expected time zone to be assigned  Use the DateTimeZone class   DateTimeZone zoneMontr  al   DateTimeZone forID   America Montreal     DateTime now   DateTime now  zoneMontr  al      That class holds a constant for UTC time zone   DateTime now   DateTime now  DateTimeZone UTC      If you truly want to use the JVM   s current default time zone  make an explicit call so your code is self-documenting   DateTimeZone zoneDefault   DateTimeZone getDefault      ISO 8601  Read about ISO 8601 formats  Both java time and Joda-Time use that standard   s sensible formats as their defaults for both parsing and generating strings         Actually  java util Date does have a time zone  buried deep under layers of source code  For most practical purposes  that time zone is ignored  So  as shorthand  we say java util Date has no time zone  Furthermore  that buried time zone is not the one used by Date   s toString method  that method uses the JVM   s current default time zone  All the more reason to avoid this confusing class and stick with Joda-Time and java time

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This code prints the current time UTC   import java text ParseException  import java text SimpleDateFormat  import java util Date  import java util TimeZone    public class Test       public static void main final String   args  throws ParseException               final SimpleDateFormat f   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss z            f setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC             System out println f format new Date                Result  2013-10-26 14 37 48 UTC

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You can use   Calendar aGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT       Then all operations performed using the aGMTCalendar object will be done with the GMT time zone and will not have the daylight savings time or fixed offsets applied  I think the previous poster is correct that the Date   object always returns a GMT it s not until you go to do something with the date object that it gets converted to the local time zone

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This works for getting UTC milliseconds in Android   Calendar c   Calendar getInstance    int utcOffset   c get Calendar ZONE OFFSET    c get Calendar DST OFFSET     Long utcMilliseconds   c getTimeInMillis     utcOffset

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If you want to avoid parsing the date and just want a timestamp in GMT  you could use   final Date gmt   new Timestamp System currentTimeMillis               - Calendar getInstance   getTimeZone                        getOffset System currentTimeMillis

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With   Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance      Then cal have the current date and time  You also could get the current Date and Time for timezone with   Calendar cal2   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT-2       You could ask cal get Calendar DATE   or other Calendar constant about others details  Date and Timestamp are deprecated in Java  Calendar class it isn t

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Current date in the UTC  Instant now   toString   replaceAll  T

User · Answer

Use java time package and include below code-  ZonedDateTime now   ZonedDateTime now  ZoneOffset UTC     or  LocalDateTime now2   LocalDateTime now  ZoneOffset UTC     depending on your application need

User · Answer

SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd    dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     System out println dateFormatGmt format date

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Here is my implementation of toUTC       public static Date toUTC Date date       long datems   date getTime        long timezoneoffset   TimeZone getDefault   getOffset datems       datems -  timezoneoffset      return new Date datems       There s probably several ways to improve it  but it works for me

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With   Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance      Then cal have the current date and time  You also could get the current Date and Time for timezone with   Calendar cal2   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT-2       You could ask cal get Calendar DATE   or other Calendar constant about others details  Date and Timestamp are deprecated in Java  Calendar class it isn t

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If you want a Date object with fields adjusted for UTC you can do it like this with Joda Time   import org joda time DateTimeZone  import java util Date        Date local   new Date    System out println  Local      local   DateTimeZone zone   DateTimeZone getDefault    long utc   zone convertLocalToUTC local getTime    false   System out println  UTC      new Date utc

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Use this Class to get ever the right UTC Time from a Online NTP Server    import java net DatagramPacket  import java net DatagramSocket  import java net InetAddress    class NTP UTC Time   private static final String TAG    SntpClient    private static final int RECEIVE TIME OFFSET   32  private static final int TRANSMIT TIME OFFSET   40  private static final int NTP PACKET SIZE   48   private static final int NTP PORT   123  private static final int NTP MODE CLIENT   3  private static final int NTP VERSION   3      Number of seconds between Jan 1  1900 and Jan 1  1970    70 years plus 17 leap days private static final long OFFSET 1900 TO 1970     365L   70L    17L    24L   60L   60L   private long mNtpTime   public boolean requestTime String host  int timeout        try           DatagramSocket socket   new DatagramSocket            socket setSoTimeout timeout           InetAddress address   InetAddress getByName host           byte   buffer   new byte NTP PACKET SIZE           DatagramPacket request   new DatagramPacket buffer  buffer length  address  NTP PORT            buffer 0    NTP MODE CLIENT    NTP VERSION  lt  lt  3            writeTimeStamp buffer  TRANSMIT TIME OFFSET            socket send request               read the response         DatagramPacket response   new DatagramPacket buffer  buffer length           socket receive response                     socket close             mNtpTime   readTimeStamp buffer  RECEIVE TIME OFFSET                     catch  Exception e              if  Config LOGD  Log d TAG   request time failed      e           return false             return true      public long getNtpTime         return mNtpTime             Reads an unsigned 32 bit big endian number from the given offset in the buffer      private long read32 byte   buffer  int offset        byte b0   buffer offset       byte b1   buffer offset 1       byte b2   buffer offset 2       byte b3   buffer offset 3           convert signed bytes to unsigned values     int i0     b0  amp  0x80     0x80    b0  amp  0x7F    0x80   b0       int i1     b1  amp  0x80     0x80    b1  amp  0x7F    0x80   b1       int i2     b2  amp  0x80     0x80    b2  amp  0x7F    0x80   b2       int i3     b3  amp  0x80     0x80    b3  amp  0x7F    0x80   b3        return   long i0  lt  lt  24      long i1  lt  lt  16      long i2  lt  lt  8     long i3            Reads the NTP time stamp at the given offset in the buffer and returns     it as a system time  milliseconds since January 1  1970           private long readTimeStamp byte   buffer  int offset        long seconds   read32 buffer  offset       long fraction   read32 buffer  offset   4       return   seconds - OFFSET 1900 TO 1970    1000      fraction   1000L    0x100000000L                     Writes 0 as NTP starttime stamp in the buffer  -- gt  Then NTP returns Time OFFSET since 1900         private void writeTimeStamp byte   buffer  int offset                int ofs    offset         for  int i ofs i lt  ofs 8  i          buffer i     byte  0                       And use it with           long now   0           NTP UTC Time client   new NTP UTC Time             if  client requestTime  pool ntp org   2000                             now   client getNtpTime                If you need UTC Time  now  as DateTimeString use function   private String get UTC Datetime from timestamp long timeStamp        try           Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance            TimeZone tz   cal getTimeZone             int tzt   tz getOffset System currentTimeMillis              timeStamp -  tzt              DateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss  Locale getDefault             DateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat            Date netDate    new Date timeStamp            return sdf format netDate             catch Exception ex           return                     and use it with   String UTC DateTime   get UTC Datetime from timestamp now

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Sample code to render system time in a specific time zone and a specific format   import java text SimpleDateFormat  import java util Calendar  import java util Date  import java util TimeZone   public class TimZoneTest       public static void main  String   args              lt GMT gt  lt   - gt  lt hour gt   lt minutes gt             Any screw up in this format  timezone defaults to GMT QUIETLY  So test your format a few times           System out println my time in  GMT-5 00    MM dd yyyy HH mm ss              System out println my time in  GMT 5 30     at  HH mm a z  on  MM dd yyyy              System out println  ---------------------------------------------               Alternate format          System out println my time in  America Los Angeles     at  HH mm a z  on  MM dd yyyy              System out println my time in  America Buenos Aires     at  HH mm a z  on  MM dd yyyy                   public static String my time in String target time zone  String format           TimeZone tz   TimeZone getTimeZone target time zone           Date date   Calendar getInstance   getTime            SimpleDateFormat date format gmt   new SimpleDateFormat format           date format gmt setTimeZone tz           return date format gmt format date              Output  10 08 2011 21 07 21 at 07 37 AM GMT 05 30 on 10 09 2011 at 19 07 PM PDT on 10 08 2011 at 23 07 PM ART on 10 08 2011

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With   Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance      Then cal have the current date and time  You also could get the current Date and Time for timezone with   Calendar cal2   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT-2       You could ask cal get Calendar DATE   or other Calendar constant about others details  Date and Timestamp are deprecated in Java  Calendar class it isn t

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This code prints the current time UTC   import java text ParseException  import java text SimpleDateFormat  import java util Date  import java util TimeZone    public class Test       public static void main final String   args  throws ParseException               final SimpleDateFormat f   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss z            f setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC             System out println f format new Date                Result  2013-10-26 14 37 48 UTC

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This worked for me  returns the timestamp in GMT       Date currDate      SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss        dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT         SimpleDateFormat dateFormatLocal   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss         long currTime   0      try            currDate   dateFormatLocal parse  dateFormatGmt format new Date               currTime   currDate getTime          catch  ParseException e               TODO Auto-generated catch block         e printStackTrace

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Converting Current DateTime in UTC   DateTimeFormatter formatter   DateTimeFormat forPattern  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss SSS Z      DateTimeZone dateTimeZone   DateTimeZone getDefault      Default Time Zone  DateTime currDateTime   new DateTime      Current DateTime  long utcTime   dateTimeZone convertLocalToUTC currDateTime  getMillis    false    String currTime   formatter print utcTime     UTC time converted to string from long in format of formatter  currDateTime   formatter parseDateTime currTime     Converted to DateTime in UTC

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public static void main String args         LocalDate date LocalDate now          System out println  Current date     date

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Here is another way to get GMT time in String format  String DATE FORMAT    EEE  dd MMM yyyy HH mm ss z    final SimpleDateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat DATE FORMAT   sdf setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     String dateTimeString    sdf format new Date

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Actually not time  but it s representation could be changed   SimpleDateFormat f   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss    f setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC     System out println f format new Date        Time is the same in any point of the Earth  but our perception of time could be different depending on location

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public class CurrentUtcDate        public static void main String   args            Date date   new Date            SimpleDateFormat dateFormat   new SimpleDateFormat  dd-MM-yyyy HH mm ss            dateFormat setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC             System out println  UTC Time is      dateFormat format date              Output   UTC Time is  22-01-2018 13 14 35   You can change the date format as needed

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If you re using joda time and want the current time in milliseconds without your local offset you can use this   long instant   DateTimeZone UTC getMillisKeepLocal DateTimeZone getDefault    System currentTimeMillis

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Calendar c   Calendar getInstance        System out println  current    c getTime          TimeZone z   c getTimeZone        int offset   z getRawOffset        if z inDaylightTime new Date              offset   offset   z getDSTSavings              int offsetHrs   offset   1000   60   60      int offsetMins   offset   1000   60   60       System out println  offset      offsetHrs       System out println  offset      offsetMins        c add Calendar HOUR OF DAY   -offsetHrs        c add Calendar MINUTE   -offsetMins         System out println  GMT Time    c getTime

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Here is another way to get GMT time in String format  String DATE FORMAT    EEE  dd MMM yyyy HH mm ss z    final SimpleDateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat DATE FORMAT   sdf setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     String dateTimeString    sdf format new Date

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If you re using joda time and want the current time in milliseconds without your local offset you can use this   long instant   DateTimeZone UTC getMillisKeepLocal DateTimeZone getDefault    System currentTimeMillis

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This works for getting UTC milliseconds in Android   Calendar c   Calendar getInstance    int utcOffset   c get Calendar ZONE OFFSET    c get Calendar DST OFFSET     Long utcMilliseconds   c getTimeInMillis     utcOffset

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Just to make this simpler  to create a Date in UTC you can use Calendar    Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC       Which will construct a new instance for Calendar using the  UTC  TimeZone   If you need a Date object from that calendar you could just use getTime

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With   Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance      Then cal have the current date and time  You also could get the current Date and Time for timezone with   Calendar cal2   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT-2       You could ask cal get Calendar DATE   or other Calendar constant about others details  Date and Timestamp are deprecated in Java  Calendar class it isn t

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To put it simple  A calendar object stores information about time zone but when you perform cal getTime   then the timezone information will be lost  So for Timezone conversions I will advice to use DateFormat classes

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You can use   Calendar aGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT       Then all operations performed using the aGMTCalendar object will be done with the GMT time zone and will not have the daylight savings time or fixed offsets applied  I think the previous poster is correct that the Date   object always returns a GMT it s not until you go to do something with the date object that it gets converted to the local time zone

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Here an other suggestion to get a GMT Timestamp object   import java sql Timestamp  import java util Calendar        private static Timestamp getGMT        Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance       return new Timestamp cal getTimeInMillis                          -cal get Calendar ZONE OFFSET                         -cal get Calendar DST OFFSET

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Converting Current DateTime in UTC   DateTimeFormatter formatter   DateTimeFormat forPattern  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss SSS Z      DateTimeZone dateTimeZone   DateTimeZone getDefault      Default Time Zone  DateTime currDateTime   new DateTime      Current DateTime  long utcTime   dateTimeZone convertLocalToUTC currDateTime  getMillis    false    String currTime   formatter print utcTime     UTC time converted to string from long in format of formatter  currDateTime   formatter parseDateTime currTime     Converted to DateTime in UTC

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public static void main String args         LocalDate date LocalDate now          System out println  Current date     date

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Here is what seems to be incorrect in Jon Skeet s answer  He said      java util Date is always in UTC  What makes you think it s in local   time  I suspect the problem is that you re displaying it via an   instance of Calendar which uses the local timezone  or possibly using   Date toString   which also uses the local timezone    However  the code   System out println new java util Date   getHours       hours      gives the local hours  not GMT  UTC hours   using no Calendar and no SimpleDateFormat at all   That is why is seems something is incorrect   Putting together the responses  the code    System out println Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT                                get Calendar HOUR OF DAY      Hours      shows the GMT hours instead of the local hours -- note that getTime getHours   is missing because that would create a Date   object  which theoretically stores the date in GMT  but gives back the hours in the local time zone

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Actually not time  but it s representation could be changed   SimpleDateFormat f   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MMM-dd HH mm ss    f setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC     System out println f format new Date        Time is the same in any point of the Earth  but our perception of time could be different depending on location

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To put it simple  A calendar object stores information about time zone but when you perform cal getTime   then the timezone information will be lost  So for Timezone conversions I will advice to use DateFormat classes

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Use this Class to get ever the right UTC Time from a Online NTP Server    import java net DatagramPacket  import java net DatagramSocket  import java net InetAddress    class NTP UTC Time   private static final String TAG    SntpClient    private static final int RECEIVE TIME OFFSET   32  private static final int TRANSMIT TIME OFFSET   40  private static final int NTP PACKET SIZE   48   private static final int NTP PORT   123  private static final int NTP MODE CLIENT   3  private static final int NTP VERSION   3      Number of seconds between Jan 1  1900 and Jan 1  1970    70 years plus 17 leap days private static final long OFFSET 1900 TO 1970     365L   70L    17L    24L   60L   60L   private long mNtpTime   public boolean requestTime String host  int timeout        try           DatagramSocket socket   new DatagramSocket            socket setSoTimeout timeout           InetAddress address   InetAddress getByName host           byte   buffer   new byte NTP PACKET SIZE           DatagramPacket request   new DatagramPacket buffer  buffer length  address  NTP PORT            buffer 0    NTP MODE CLIENT    NTP VERSION  lt  lt  3            writeTimeStamp buffer  TRANSMIT TIME OFFSET            socket send request               read the response         DatagramPacket response   new DatagramPacket buffer  buffer length           socket receive response                     socket close             mNtpTime   readTimeStamp buffer  RECEIVE TIME OFFSET                     catch  Exception e              if  Config LOGD  Log d TAG   request time failed      e           return false             return true      public long getNtpTime         return mNtpTime             Reads an unsigned 32 bit big endian number from the given offset in the buffer      private long read32 byte   buffer  int offset        byte b0   buffer offset       byte b1   buffer offset 1       byte b2   buffer offset 2       byte b3   buffer offset 3           convert signed bytes to unsigned values     int i0     b0  amp  0x80     0x80    b0  amp  0x7F    0x80   b0       int i1     b1  amp  0x80     0x80    b1  amp  0x7F    0x80   b1       int i2     b2  amp  0x80     0x80    b2  amp  0x7F    0x80   b2       int i3     b3  amp  0x80     0x80    b3  amp  0x7F    0x80   b3        return   long i0  lt  lt  24      long i1  lt  lt  16      long i2  lt  lt  8     long i3            Reads the NTP time stamp at the given offset in the buffer and returns     it as a system time  milliseconds since January 1  1970           private long readTimeStamp byte   buffer  int offset        long seconds   read32 buffer  offset       long fraction   read32 buffer  offset   4       return   seconds - OFFSET 1900 TO 1970    1000      fraction   1000L    0x100000000L                     Writes 0 as NTP starttime stamp in the buffer  -- gt  Then NTP returns Time OFFSET since 1900         private void writeTimeStamp byte   buffer  int offset                int ofs    offset         for  int i ofs i lt  ofs 8  i          buffer i     byte  0                       And use it with           long now   0           NTP UTC Time client   new NTP UTC Time             if  client requestTime  pool ntp org   2000                             now   client getNtpTime                If you need UTC Time  now  as DateTimeString use function   private String get UTC Datetime from timestamp long timeStamp        try           Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance            TimeZone tz   cal getTimeZone             int tzt   tz getOffset System currentTimeMillis              timeStamp -  tzt              DateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss  Locale getDefault             DateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat            Date netDate    new Date timeStamp            return sdf format netDate             catch Exception ex           return                     and use it with   String UTC DateTime   get UTC Datetime from timestamp now

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This definitely returns UTC time  as String and Date objects    static final String DATE FORMAT    yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss    public static Date getUTCdatetimeAsDate            note  doesn t check for null     return stringDateToDate getUTCdatetimeAsString        public static String getUTCdatetimeAsString         final SimpleDateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat DATE FORMAT       sdf setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC         final String utcTime   sdf format new Date          return utcTime     public static Date stringDateToDate String StrDate        Date dateToReturn   null      SimpleDateFormat dateFormat   new SimpleDateFormat DATEFORMAT        try           dateToReturn    Date dateFormat parse StrDate             catch  ParseException e            e printStackTrace               return dateToReturn

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java util Date has no specific time zone  although its value is most commonly thought of in relation to UTC  What makes you think it s in local time   To be precise  the value within a java util Date is the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch  which occurred at midnight January 1st 1970  UTC  The same epoch could also be described in other time zones  but the traditional description is in terms of UTC  As it s a number of milliseconds since a fixed epoch  the value within java util Date is the same around the world at any particular instant  regardless of local time zone   I suspect the problem is that you re displaying it via an instance of Calendar which uses the local timezone  or possibly using Date toString   which also uses the local timezone  or a SimpleDateFormat instance  which  by default  also uses local timezone   If this isn t the problem  please post some sample code   I would  however  recommend that you use Joda-Time anyway  which offers a much clearer API

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Here is my implementation of toUTC       public static Date toUTC Date date       long datems   date getTime        long timezoneoffset   TimeZone getDefault   getOffset datems       datems -  timezoneoffset      return new Date datems       There s probably several ways to improve it  but it works for me

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This definitely returns UTC time  as String and Date objects    static final String DATE FORMAT    yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss    public static Date getUTCdatetimeAsDate            note  doesn t check for null     return stringDateToDate getUTCdatetimeAsString        public static String getUTCdatetimeAsString         final SimpleDateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat DATE FORMAT       sdf setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC         final String utcTime   sdf format new Date          return utcTime     public static Date stringDateToDate String StrDate        Date dateToReturn   null      SimpleDateFormat dateFormat   new SimpleDateFormat DATEFORMAT        try           dateToReturn    Date dateFormat parse StrDate             catch  ParseException e            e printStackTrace               return dateToReturn

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Calendar aGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT       Then all operations performed using the aGMTCalendar object will be done with the GMT time zone and will not have the daylight savings time or fixed offsets applied   Wrong   Calendar aGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     aGMTCalendar getTime      or getTimeInMillis     and   Calendar aNotGMTCalendar   Calendar getInstance TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT-2    aNotGMTCalendar getTime      will return the same time  Idem for   new Date      it s not GMT

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Here an other suggestion to get a GMT Timestamp object   import java sql Timestamp  import java util Calendar        private static Timestamp getGMT        Calendar cal   Calendar getInstance       return new Timestamp cal getTimeInMillis                          -cal get Calendar ZONE OFFSET                         -cal get Calendar DST OFFSET

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public class CurrentUtcDate        public static void main String   args            Date date   new Date            SimpleDateFormat dateFormat   new SimpleDateFormat  dd-MM-yyyy HH mm ss            dateFormat setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  UTC             System out println  UTC Time is      dateFormat format date              Output   UTC Time is  22-01-2018 13 14 35   You can change the date format as needed

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You can directly use this  SimpleDateFormat dateFormatGmt   new SimpleDateFormat  dd MM yyyy HH mm ss    dateFormatGmt setTimeZone TimeZone getTimeZone  GMT     System out println dateFormatGmt format new Date

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this is my implementation   public static String GetCurrentTimeStamp         Calendar cal Calendar getInstance        long offset   cal getTimeZone   getOffset System currentTimeMillis      if you want in UTC else remove it       return new java sql Timestamp System currentTimeMillis   offset  toString

[java] How can I get the current date and time in UTC or GMT in Java?

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