# Time Formats

> Time Formats is a paid API for AI agents from x402-echo-service.onrender.com, paid per call via x402, $0.001/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Returns the current UTC time in four formats simultaneously: ISO-8601, Unix seconds, Unix milliseconds, and RFC-2822.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://x402-echo-service.onrender.com/time
- Price: $0.001/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/time-formats-c4418d0e
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_bNagMql85DKXcGFiSbf9e

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability time-formats-c4418d0e -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Give me the current server time right now in all standard formats — ISO-8601, Unix seconds, Unix milliseconds, and RFC-2822 — from an authoritative external clock.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when an agent needs an authoritative external clock reading it did not compute itself, especially when multiple timestamp formats are needed simultaneously. It is ideal for audit logging, cross-system synchronization, or any scenario where trusting the local system clock is undesirable. Prefer it over parsing time from other API responses or computing timestamps locally when format consistency across ISO-8601, Unix, and RFC-2822 is important.

## Known failure modes

- Service temporarily unavailable on Render cold-start (HTTP 503, retry after a few seconds)
- Payment not processed or insufficient USDC balance (HTTP 402, check wallet balance)
- Network timeout if Render instance is spinning up from idle
- Malformed JSON body (though an empty object {} is valid and expected)

## How this service works

Server time in several formats at once. POST {} and receive the current UTC instant as ISO-8601, unix seconds, unix milliseconds and RFC-2822. Useful for agents that need an authoritative clock they did not compute themselves.

## Output

A JSON object containing the current UTC time expressed in four formats: `iso8601` (string, e.g. '2024-01-15T12:34:56Z'), `unix` (integer seconds since epoch), `unix_ms` (integer milliseconds since epoch), and `rfc2822` (string, e.g. 'Mon, 15 Jan 2024 12:34:56 +0000').

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input",
  "output"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "bodyType",
    "body",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "body": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {},
     "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "type": {
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "POST"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "bodyType": {
     "enum": [
      "json"
     ]
    }
   }
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "example"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "const": "json"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "iso8601",
      "unix",
      "unix_ms",
      "rfc2822"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "unix": {
       "type": "integer"
      },
      "iso8601": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "rfc2822": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "unix_ms": {
       "type": "integer"
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/time-formats-c4418d0e/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from x402-echo-service.onrender.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/x402-echo-service.onrender.com/llms.txt)