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http header

Date header

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The HTTP Date request and response header contains the date and time at which the message originated.

Header type [Request header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Request%20header), [Response header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Response%20header)
[Forbidden request header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Forbidden%20request%20header) Yes

Syntax

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/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 Forbidden request header, so this code cannot set the message Date field:

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

Specifications

SpecificationsStandards references are available on the canonical MDN page.

Browser compatibility

Browser compatibilityCompatibility data is available on the canonical MDN page.

See also