Date.prototype.toTimeString()

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 toTimeString() method of Date instances returns a string representing the time portion of this date interpreted in the local timezone.

Try it

const event = new Date("August 19, 1975 23:15:30");

console.log(event.toTimeString());
// Expected output: "23:15:30 GMT+0200 (CEST)"
// Note: your timezone may vary

Syntax

toTimeString()

Return value

A string representing the time portion of the given date (see description for the format). Returns "Invalid Date" if the date is invalid.

Date instances refer to a specific point in time. toTimeString() interprets the date in the local timezone and formats the time part in English. It always uses the format of HH:mm:ss GMT±xxxx (TZ), where:

Format String Description

HH	Hour, as two digits with leading zero if required
mm	Minute, as two digits with leading zero if required
ss	Seconds, as two digits with leading zero if required
±xxxx	The local timezone's offset — two digits for hours and two digits for minutes (e.g., -0500, +0800)
TZ	The timezone's name (e.g., PDT, PST)

For example: "04:42:04 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)".

If you only want to get the date part, use toDateString().
If you want to get both the date and time, use toString().
If you want to make the date interpreted as UTC instead of local timezone, use toUTCString().
If you want to format the date in a more user-friendly format (e.g., localization), use toLocaleTimeString().

Examples

Using toTimeString()

js
const d = new Date(0);

console.log(d.toString()); // "Thu Jan 01 1970 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)"
console.log(d.toTimeString()); // "00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)"