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Date header

files/en-us/web/http/reference/headers/date/index.md

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The HTTP Date {{Glossary("request header", "request")}} and {{Glossary("response header")}} contains the date and time at which the message originated.

<table class="properties"> <tbody> <tr> <th scope="row">Header type</th> <td> {{Glossary("Request header")}}, {{Glossary("Response header")}} </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row">{{Glossary("Forbidden request header")}}</th> <td>Yes</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Syntax

http
Date: <day-name>, <day> <month> <year> <hour>:<minute>:<second> GMT

Directives

  • <day-name>
    • : One of Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, or Sun (case-sensitive).
  • <day>
    • : 2 digit day number, e.g., "04" or "23".
  • <month>
    • : One of Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec (case sensitive).
  • <year>
    • : 4 digit year number, e.g., "1990" or "2016".
  • <hour>
    • : 2 digit hour number, e.g., "09" or "23".
  • <minute>
    • : 2 digit minute number, e.g., "04" or "59".
  • <second>
    • : 2 digit second number, e.g., "04" or "59".
  • GMT
    • : Greenwich Mean Time. HTTP dates are always expressed in GMT, never in local time.

Examples

Response with a Date header

The following HTTP message is a successful 200 status, with a Date header showing the time the message originated. Other headers are omitted for brevity:

http
HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: text/html
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:56:32 GMT

<html lang="en-US" …

Attempting to set the field value in JavaScript

The Date header is a {{Glossary("Forbidden request header")}}, so this code cannot set the message Date field:

js
fetch("https://httpbin.org/get", {
  headers: {
    Date: new Date().toUTCString(),
  },
});

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

  • {{HTTPHeader("Age")}}