X link decoder

When was this post really published?

Every post ID on X contains the moment it was created, down to the millisecond. Paste a link to decode it.

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The answer is already in the link.

Paste one above and watch it get decoded.
How it works
1The post ID, from the link

The long number at the end of every post link. It looks random, but it isn’t.

2Divide by 4,194,304, drop the decimals

That’s 2²². It removes the last 22 bits, a machine number and a counter. What’s left is time.

3Add 1,288,834,974,657

X’s starting point, November 4, 2010, in milliseconds. Now it’s a standard Unix timestamp: the date below.

Good to know

  1. The username in a link is never checked. Only the number matters, so x.com/anyone/status/2116094502163132687 opens the same post.
  2. Account IDs work the same way: accounts created after November 2010 carry their signup moment in their ID.
  3. X does this math itself. (id >> 22) + 1288834974657 is a line from vm-ranker/ranking_config.rs in X's open-source ranking code.
  4. Nothing is sent anywhere. The link is decoded entirely in your browser.