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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.

As a function

{{ now() }}

Result (datetime)

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 = are usually required. A few optional parameters have no default value, so the signature shows them without a = as well. To check whether a parameter is required, look at the parameter list below the signature. Each parameter is marked as Required or Optional.

The most common optional parameter without a default value is default. The default parameter sets the value a function returns when the function can’t produce a result, for example, when float gets text that isn’t a number. If you leave out default, there is no fallback value, so most functions raise an error and the template fails. The parameter list of each function says what happens. If you set default, the function returns your value instead.

How to read a signature

Here is the signature of the round filter as an example:

round(
    value: Any,
    precision: int = 0,
    method: str = "common",
    default: Any,
) -> float | int | Any

round is the name of the function.
Between the parentheses are the parameters. Each parameter has a name, followed by a colon and the type of value the parameter expects. The type only tells you what kind of value to pass. For default: Any, you pass a value of any type, such as 0 or "unknown", not the word Any.
= 0 and = "common" are default values. You can leave out precision and method, and round uses these default values.
default has no =, but the parameter list marks default as optional. If you leave out default and round gets a value that isn’t a number, round raises an error.
-> shows the type of value the function returns.
Inside a signature, | means “or”. This function returns a decimal number, a whole number, or the value you passed as default.

round is a filter, so the first parameter, value, is the value before the |. For example, {{ 3.14159 | round(2) }} returns 3.14.

The types you’ll see most often:

str: text, such as "hello"
int: a whole number, such as 5
float: a decimal number, such as 3.14
bool: true or false
list: a list of values, such as [1, 2, 3]. list[str] is a list of texts.
dict: a set of keys and values, such as {"name": "Kitchen"}
datetime and timedelta: a date and time, and a duration. For details, refer to Dates and times.
None: no value
Any: any type of value

Some signatures use special forms:

*args means you can pass any number of values, separated by commas. For example, average(1, 2, 3).
value | name(...) means the function is a filter. The value before the | is passed to the filter as its first parameter. Some filter signatures, like the round example, show this value as the first parameter between the parentheses instead.

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:

Template

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

Result (string)

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.

Template

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

Result (string)

14:30

Template

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

Result (string)

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 Settings > 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 check whether something is true at that moment, for example, whether a door is closed. You can use them in automations and scripts. If a condition is not met, the actions that come after it in the same sequence do not run. At the top level of an automation or script, this stops the automation or script. [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.

Template

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

Result (boolean)

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.

Automation

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.

Template

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

Result (integer)

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.

Tip

AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude can also explain or fix templates when you describe what you want in plain language.

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.

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