HTML <time> Tag

The HTML <time> tag is used for declaring the date and/or time within an HTML document.

Syntax

The <time> tag is written as <time></time> with the time inserted between the start and end tags.

Like this:

Examples

Basic tag usage

The datetime Attribute

In this example, we use the datetime attribute in order to provide a machine-readable version of the <time> element's contents.

More Specificity

Here, we provide an even more specific date and time than the previous example.

Attributes

Attributes can be added to an HTML element to provide more information about how the element should appear or behave.

The <time> element accepts the following attributes.

AttributeDescription
datetimeSpecifies the date or time being specified. Must be a representation of the element's contents in a machine-readable format. Must be a valid date or time string.

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML elements. Therefore, you can use these attributes with the <time> tag , as well as with all other HTML tags.

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handlers

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

Most event handler content attributes can be used on all HTML elements, but some event handlers have specific rules around when they can be used and which elements they are applicable to.

For more detail, see HTML event handler content attributes.