It is recommended to use the gmdate() function to obtain GMT time in PHP. 1. Use gmdate("Ymd H:i:s") to directly output the current GMT time; 2. You can also call date_default_timezone_set('UTC') first and then use date(), but there are more steps; 3. You can generate a specific GMT time stamp with gmmktime(); 4. When formatting the output, you must follow the PHP time format specification and pay attention to escape characters.
To obtain the current GMT (GMT) date and time, it is not actually complicated in PHP, but there are several key points to pay attention to. PHP's date()
function uses the time zone set by the server by default. If you want to force output GMT time, it needs to be handled specifically.

Use dategm and gmdate
PHP provides two common ways to obtain GMT time:

-
gmdate()
: This function directly returns the GMT time in the specified format, which is the recommended method. -
date()
combined withdate_default_timezone_set('UTC')
: Similar effects can be achieved, but the time zone needs to be set to UTC first.
It is recommended to use gmdate()
first , because it is simpler and does not require additional settings. By default, the time is output in the GMT/UTC time zone.
The sample code is as follows:

echo gmdate("Ymd H:i:s"); // The output is similar: 2025-04-05 12:34:56
This will directly obtain the current GMT time.
Frequently Asked Questions and Precautions
1. Why can't you use date()
directly?
Because date()
outputs time based on the time zone where the current script is running, unless you confirm that the server default time zone is UTC/GMT, the result may not be the GMT time you want.
For example:
echo date("Ymd H:i:s"); // It may output local server time, not necessarily GMT
If you want to use date()
to output GMT time, you can set the time zone first:
date_default_timezone_set('UTC'); echo date("Ymd H:i:s");
But compared to gmdate()
, this method has one more step to set it, which is a bit cumbersome.
2. How to generate a GMT timestamp for a specific time?
Sometimes you need to convert a specific time into a GMT timestamp, and you can use the gmmktime()
function:
$timestamp = gmmktime(0, 0, 0, 4, 5, 2025); // Generate timestamp of 2025-04-05 00:00:00 GMT echo $timestamp;
This function behaves similarly to mktime()
, but it accepts GMT time parameters and is not affected by the local time zone.
3. What should you pay attention to when formatting the output?
When using gmdate()
or gmmktime()
, the time format string must comply with the PHP specifications. Common formats include:
-
Ymd H:i:s
: full date and time, as2025-04-05 12:34:56
-
D, d MYH:i:s \G\M\T
: used in scenarios such as HTTP headers, such asSat, 05 Apr 2025 12:34:56 GMT
Note that this part of \G\M\T
is to make the output contain three letters "GMT", and it needs to be escaped with a backslash.
Basically that's it. By mastering these functions and precautions, you can steadily obtain and operate GMT time in PHP.
The above is the detailed content of php get GMT date. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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