Date Field - Payload

The Date Field saves a Date in the database and provides the Admin Panel with a customizable time picker interface.

To add a Date Field, set the type to date in your Field Config:

import type { Field } from 'payload'

export const MyDateField: Field = {
  // ...
  type: 'date', // highlight-line
}

Config Options

Option	Description
`name` *	To be used as the property name when stored and retrieved from the database. More details.
`label`	Text used as a field label in the Admin Panel or an object with keys for each language.
`index`	Build an index for this field to produce faster queries. Set this field to `true` if your users will perform queries on this field's data often.
`validate`	Provide a custom validation function that will be executed on both the Admin Panel and the backend. More details.
`saveToJWT`	If this field is top-level and nested in a config supporting Authentication, include its data in the user JWT.
`hooks`	Provide Field Hooks to control logic for this field. More details.
`access`	Provide Field Access Control to denote what users can see and do with this field's data. More details.
`hidden`	Restrict this field's visibility from all APIs entirely. Will still be saved to the database, but will not appear in any API or the Admin Panel.
`defaultValue`	Provide data to be used for this field's default value. More details.
`localized`	Enable localization for this field. Requires localization to be enabled in the Base config.
`required`	Require this field to have a value.
`admin`	Admin-specific configuration. More details.
`custom`	Extension point for adding custom data (e.g. for plugins)
`timezone` *	Set to `true` to enable timezone selection on this field. More details.
`typescriptSchema`	Override field type generation with providing a JSON schema
`virtual`	Provide `true` to disable field in the database, or provide a string path to link the field with a relationship. See Virtual Fields

* An asterisk denotes that a property is required.

Admin Options

To customize the appearance and behavior of the Date Field in the Admin Panel, you can use the admin option:

import type { Field } from 'payload'

export const MyDateField: Field = {
  // ...
  admin: {
    // highlight-line
    // ...
  },
}

The Date Field inherits all of the default admin options from the base Field Admin Config, plus the following additional options:

Property	Description
`placeholder`	Placeholder text for the field.
`date`	Pass options to customize date field appearance.
`date.displayFormat`	Format date to be shown in field cell.
`date.pickerAppearance` *	Determines the appearance of the datepicker: `dayAndTime` `timeOnly` `dayOnly` `monthOnly`.
`date.monthsToShow` *	Number of months to display max is 2. Defaults to 1.
`date.minDate` *	Min date value to allow.
`date.maxDate` *	Max date value to allow.
`date.minTime` *	Min time value to allow.
`date.maxTime` *	Max date value to allow.
`date.overrides` *	Pass any valid props directly to the react-datepicker
`date.timeIntervals` *	Time intervals to display. Defaults to 30 minutes.
`date.timeFormat` *	Determines time format. Defaults to `'h:mm aa'`.

* This property is passed directly to react-datepicker.

Display Format and Picker Appearance

These properties only affect how the date is displayed in the UI. The full date is always stored in the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.SSSZ (e.g. 1999-01-01T8:00:00.000+05:00).

displayFormat determines how the date is presented in the field cell, you can pass any valid unicode date format.

pickerAppearance sets the appearance of the react datepicker, the options available are dayAndTime, dayOnly, timeOnly, and monthOnly. By default, the datepicker will display dayOnly.

When only pickerAppearance is set, an equivalent format will be rendered in the date field cell. To overwrite this format, set displayFormat.

Example

import type { CollectionConfig } from 'payload'

export const ExampleCollection: CollectionConfig = {
  slug: 'example-collection',
  fields: [
    {
      name: 'dateOnly',
      type: 'date',
      admin: {
        date: {
          pickerAppearance: 'dayOnly',
          displayFormat: 'd MMM yyy',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      name: 'timeOnly',
      type: 'date',
      admin: {
        date: {
          pickerAppearance: 'timeOnly',
          displayFormat: 'h:mm:ss a',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      name: 'monthOnly',
      type: 'date',
      admin: {
        date: {
          pickerAppearance: 'monthOnly',
          displayFormat: 'MMMM yyyy',
        },
      },
    },
  ],
}

Custom Components

Field

Server Component

tsx

import type React from 'react'
import { DateTimeField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldServerComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldServer: DateFieldServerComponent = ({
  clientField,
  path,
  schemaPath,
  permissions,
}) => {
  return (
    <DateTimeField
      field={clientField}
      path={path}
      schemaPath={schemaPath}
      permissions={permissions}
    />
  )
}

Client Component

tsx

'use client'
import React from 'react'
import { DateTimeField } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldClientComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldClient: DateFieldClientComponent = (props) => {
  return <DateTimeField {...props} />
}

Label

Server Component

tsx

import React from 'react'
import { FieldLabel } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldLabelServerComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldLabelServer: DateFieldLabelServerComponent = ({
  clientField,
  path,
}) => {
  return (
    <FieldLabel
      label={clientField?.label || clientField?.name}
      path={path}
      required={clientField?.required}
    />
  )
}

Client Component

tsx

'use client'
import React from 'react'
import { FieldLabel } from '@payloadcms/ui'
import type { DateFieldLabelClientComponent } from 'payload'

export const CustomDateFieldLabelClient: DateFieldLabelClientComponent = ({
  field,
  path,
}) => {
  return (
    <FieldLabel
      label={field?.label || field?.name}
      path={path}
      required={field?.required}
    />
  )
}

Timezones

To enable timezone selection on a Date field, set the timezone property to true:

{
  name: 'date',
  type: 'date',
  timezone: true,
}

This will add a dropdown to the date picker that allows users to select a timezone. The selected timezone will be saved in the database along with the date in a new column named date_tz.

You can customise the available list of timezones in the global admin config or on the field config itself which accepts the following config as well:

Property	Description
`defaultTimezone`	A value for the default timezone to be set.
`supportedTimezones`	An array of supported timezones with label and value object.
`required`	If true, the timezone selection will be required even if the date is not.
`override`	A function to customize the generated timezone field. More details

{
  name: 'date',
  type: 'date',
  timezone: {
    defaultTimezone: 'America/New_York',
    supportedTimezones: [
      { label: 'New York', value: 'America/New_York' },
      { label: 'Los Angeles', value: 'America/Los_Angeles' },
      { label: 'London', value: 'Europe/London' },
    ],
  },
}

<Banner type="info"> **Good to know:** The date itself will be stored in UTC so it's up to you to handle the conversion to the user's timezone when displaying the date in your frontend.

Dates without a specific time are normalised to 12:00 in the selected timezone.

</Banner>

Timezone Override

The override function allows you to customize the auto-generated timezone select field at a granular level. This is useful when you need to modify admin options like visibility, descriptions, or other field properties.

{
  name: 'publishedAt',
  type: 'date',
  label: 'Published At',
  timezone: {
    override: ({ baseField }) => ({
      ...baseField,
      admin: {
        ...baseField.admin,
        disableListColumn: true, // Hide from list view columns
      },
    }),
  },
}

The override function receives an object with baseField (the default timezone select field) and must return a valid field configuration. The base field includes:

name: The timezone field name (e.g., publishedAt_tz)
type: Always 'select'
options: The available timezone options
defaultValue: The default timezone value
required: Whether the timezone is required
label: Auto-generated from the parent field's label (e.g., "Published At Tz")
admin.hidden: true by default

<Banner type="info"> We recommend changing the available options only via the supportedTimezones config so that the right validations are run against your timezones. </Banner>

Custom UTC Offsets

In addition to IANA timezone names (like America/New_York), you can also use fixed UTC offsets in the ±HH:mm format:

{
  name: 'eventTime',
  type: 'date',
  timezone: {
    supportedTimezones: [
      { label: 'UTC+5:30 (India)', value: '+05:30' },
      { label: 'UTC-8 (Pacific)', value: '-08:00' },
      { label: 'UTC+0', value: '+00:00' },
    ],
  },
}

You can also mix IANA timezones with custom UTC offsets:

{
  name: 'scheduledAt',
  type: 'date',
  timezone: {
    supportedTimezones: [
      { label: 'New York', value: 'America/New_York' },
      { label: 'UTC+5:30', value: '+05:30' },
      { label: 'UTC', value: 'UTC' },
    ],
  },
}

<Banner type="info"> Custom UTC offsets are fixed and do not account for daylight saving time (DST) adjustments. If you need automatic DST handling, use IANA timezone names instead (e.g., `America/New_York` rather than `-05:00`). </Banner>

GraphQL Enum Names

When using offset timezones with GraphQL, the offset values are transformed to valid GraphQL enum names using the _TZOFFSET_ prefix:

Offset Value	GraphQL Enum Name
`+05:30`	`_TZOFFSET_PLUS_05_30`
`-08:00`	`_TZOFFSET_MINUS_08_00`
`+00:00`	`_TZOFFSET_PLUS_00_00`

Similarly, IANA timezone names are also transformed (e.g., America/New_York becomes America_New_York).

graphql

# Query returns the enum name
query {
  Event {
    scheduledAt_tz # Returns "_TZOFFSET_PLUS_05_30"
  }
}

# Mutations use the enum name
mutation {
  createEvent(data: { scheduledAt_tz: _TZOFFSET_PLUS_05_30 }) {
    scheduledAt_tz
  }
}

The actual value (+05:30) is stored in the database and returned by the REST API.