strtotime ignores timezone for "now"

[kkmuffme]

Description

https://3v4l.org/doBhT
The following code:

<?php
echo date_default_timezone_get() . PHP_EOL;
echo time() . PHP_EOL;
echo strtotime('now') . PHP_EOL;
date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');
echo date_default_timezone_get() . PHP_EOL;
echo time() . PHP_EOL;
echo strtotime('now') . PHP_EOL;

Resulted in this output:

Europe/Amsterdam
1760299473
1760299473
America/Los_Angeles
1760299473
1760299473

But I expected this output instead:
strtotime timestamps should not be in UTC time zone because

https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php

Each parameter of this function uses the default time zone

When using e.g. '2025-10-12' instead of 'now' it suddenly does not ignore the timezone anymore

PHP Version

PHP 5.x-8.4

Operating System

No response

[kkmuffme]

This timezone ignore behavior for unix timestamps and formats with timezones (but not for 'now') is at least documented for https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetimeimmutable.construct.php#refsect1-datetimeimmutable.construct-parameters

[ivan-u7n]

@kkmuffme, just FYI

raw timestamps are always in UTC and do not have any timezone associated, from Unix time:

It measures time by the number of non-leap seconds that have elapsed since 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970

[kkmuffme]

raw timestamps are always in UTC and do not have any timezone associated

This is what you commonly read, but it's technically wrong. They do have a timezone associated - UTC.
Because the number of seconds since 1970 is different whether you are in Ireland or in Australia.

---

Anyway, the the issue I guess is more about it being documented, bc the behavior differs from DateTime (where "now" is not treated as timestamp, but only @12345... and +- or Z are treated as timestamp, ignoring the timezone)

[MorganLOCode]

This is what you commonly read, but it's technically wrong. They do have a timezone associated - UTC.
Because the number of seconds since 1970 is different whether you are in Ireland or in Australia.

Now in Ireland is the same moment as now in Australia (whichever timezone you are in), and both are the same number of seconds from 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC, which is what Unix timestamps count (modulo leap seconds).

Anyway, the the issue I guess is more about it being documented, bc the behavior differs from DateTime (where "now" is not treated as timestamp, but only @12345... and +- or Z are treated as timestamp, ignoring the timezone)

No it doesn't.

https://3v4l.org/f5YSE

echo date_default_timezone_get() . PHP_EOL;
echo time() . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL;

$now = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
echo $now->format('e') . PHP_EOL;
echo $now->format('U') . PHP_EOL;
echo PHP_EOL;

$now = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('Europe/Amsterdam'));
echo $now->format('e') . PHP_EOL;
echo $now->format('U') . PHP_EOL;
echo PHP_EOL;

$now = new DateTime("now", new DateTimeZone('America/Los_Angeles'));
echo $now->format('e') . PHP_EOL;
echo $now->format('U') . PHP_EOL;

[ivan-u7n]

@kkmuffme,

Because the number of seconds since 1970 is different whether you are in Ireland or in Australia.

No, it's the same, timezones take effect only when formatting these timestamps

[heiglandreas]

This is what you commonly read, but it's technically wrong. They do have a timezone associated - UTC.
Because the number of seconds since 1970 is different whether you are in Ireland or in Australia.

This is wrong. A timestamp does not have a timezone associated with. A timestamp is just a counter of seconds from a certain point in time.

That point in time happens to be the first of January 1970 at 00:00:00H in UTC. Or the first of January 1970 at 01:00:00H in Berlin. Or the first of January 1970 at 11:00:00H in Canberra.

The definition of a timestamp uses the UTC reference for the point in time. But any other reference is equally valid as long as it references the same point in time shown here as UTC time = Thursday, 1. Januar 1970, 00:00:00.