Current local date and time: now

The now template function returns the current date and time in your local time zone. It gives you a full date and time object that you can use to make decisions, format for display, or calculate time differences.

Many automationsAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more] and templatesA template is an automation definition that can include variables for the action or data from the trigger values. This allows automations to generate dynamic actions. [Learn more] need to know what time it is right now. You might want to send a different greeting in the morning versus the evening, only turn on lights after sunset, check if it’s a weekday before triggering your work routine, or display how long ago something happened. now() is your starting point for all of these. From the result, you can pull out the current hour, minute, day, month, day of the week, and more. Using now() in a template also causes it to be re-evaluated at the start of every new minute, so time-dependent values stay up to date automatically.

Usage

Here’s how to use this template function. Copy any example and adjust it to your setup.

{{ now() }}

2024-03-15 14:30:00.123456+01:00

Function signature

The signature is a technical summary of this template function. It shows the name of the function, the values (called parameters) it accepts, and what type of data each parameter expects (for example, a piece of text or a number).

Function parameters that have a = with a value after them are optional. If you leave them out, the default value shown is used automatically. Function parameters without a default are required.

now() -> datetime

Working with the result

now() returns a datetimeA value representing a specific moment in time, including the date, time, and time zone. For example, 2026-04-05 14:30:00+00:00. Used for timestamps, scheduling, and time-based calculations. object. You can access individual components and format the output:

The time is {{ now().hour }}:{{ now().minute }}
Today is day {{ now().day }} of month {{ now().month }}

The time is 14:30
Today is day 15 of month 3

Formatting with strftime

You can format the date and time in any way you like using Python’s strftime method.

{{ now().strftime("%H:%M") }}

14:30

{{ now().strftime("%A, %B %d") }}

Friday, March 15

Good to know

• Templates using now() re-evaluate once per minute, not continuously. Second-level precision in conditions won’t react immediately.
• The returned datetime is timezone-aware and uses the Home Assistant configured time zone. Use utcnow() when you need UTC.
• weekday() returns 0 for Monday through 6 for Sunday, not starting at 1.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Developer tools > Template, paste the example into the Template editor, and watch the result update on the right. Edit the values to see how the function adapts to your own entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more].

More examples

Real scenarios where this function comes up in automations and templates. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Check if it’s a weekday

Use this in a conditionConditions are an optional part of an automation that will prevent an action from firing if they are not met. [Learn more] to only run automationsAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more] on weekdays. The weekday() method returns 0 for Monday through 6 for Sunday.

{{ now().weekday() < 5 }}

true

Only run between certain hours

Limit an automationAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more] to only run during daytime hours.

condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: >
      {{ 8 <= now().hour < 22 }}

Calculate seconds since an event

Find out how many seconds have passed since the front door last changed stateThe state holds the information of interest of an entity, for example, if a light is on or off. Each entity has exactly one state and the state only holds one value at a time. However, entities can store attributes related to that state such as brightness, color, or a unit of measurement. [Learn more]. Useful for checking if something happened recently.

{{
  (now() - states.binary_sensor.front_door.last_changed)
  .total_seconds() | int
}}

3847

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with your template and expected result, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related template functions

These functions work well alongside this one:

• Current UTC date and time: utcnow - Returns the current date and time in UTC.

• Today at a specific time: today_at - Returns today’s date combined with a specific time.

• Convert to UNIX timestamp: as_timestamp - Converts a datetime object or string to a UNIX timestamp.

• Human-readable time elapsed: time_since - Returns a human-readable string describing how much time has passed since a datetime.