Date.prototype.getMonth()

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The getMonth() method of Date instances returns the month for this date according to local time, as a zero-based value (where zero indicates the first month of the year).

Try it

const moonLanding = new Date("July 20, 69 00:20:18");

console.log(moonLanding.getMonth()); // (January gives 0)
// Expected output: 6

Syntax

getMonth()

Parameters

None.

Return value

An integer, between 0 and 11, representing the month for the given date according to local time: 0 for January, 1 for February, and so on. Returns NaN if the date is invalid.

Description

The return value of getMonth() is zero-based, which is useful for indexing into arrays of months, for example:

js
const valentines = new Date("1995-02-14");
const month = valentines.getMonth();
const monthNames = ["January", "February", "March" /* , … */];

console.log(monthNames[month]); // "February"

However, for the purpose of internationalization, you should prefer using Intl.DateTimeFormat with the options parameter instead.

js
const options = { month: "long" };
console.log(new Intl.DateTimeFormat("en-US", options).format(valentines));
// "February"
console.log(new Intl.DateTimeFormat("de-DE", options).format(valentines));
// "Februar"

Examples

Using getMonth()

The month variable has value 11, based on the value of the Date object xmas95.

js
const xmas95 = new Date("1995-12-25T23:15:30");
const month = xmas95.getMonth();

console.log(month); // 11

Specifications

Specification

ECMAScript® 2027 Language Specification
# sec-date.prototype.getmonth

Browser compatibility

Enable JavaScript to view this browser compatibility table.

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This page was last modified on Jul 10, 2025 by MDN contributors.

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Standard built-in objects
Date
Constructor
1. Date()
Static methods
Instance methods
Inheritance
Object/Function
Static methods
Static properties
Instance methods
Instance properties
1. __proto__
2. constructor