How to format timestamp display in Discord bot embed messages

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1

I’m working on a moderation bot for my Discord server and need help with date formatting. When someone gets banned from the server, my bot sends a log message to our staff channel. Everything works fine except the timestamp looks really messy and hard to read.

const logEmbed = new discord.MessageEmbed()
    .setTitle("Member Banned")
    .setDescription(`**${bannedUser}** has been removed from the server.`)
    .setColor("#ff6b35")
    .addField("Action Time", message.createdAt, true)
    .addField("Moderator", `<@${message.author.id}>`, true)
    .addField("Ban Reason", banReason, false);

bot.channels.cache.get("123456789012345678").send({embeds: [logEmbed]});

The problem is that the timestamp shows up as a long confusing string with lots of extra info. I want it to display as DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM AM/PM format using Australian Eastern Time. What’s the best way to convert the timestamp into this cleaner format before adding it to the embed field?

2

Use toLocaleString() with the right locale and timezone options. For Australian Eastern Time in DD/MM/YYYY format:

const formattedTime = message.createdAt.toLocaleString('en-AU', {
    timeZone: 'Australia/Sydney',
    day: '2-digit',
    month: '2-digit', 
    year: 'numeric',
    hour: 'numeric',
    minute: '2-digit',
    hour12: true
});

Then swap your addField line with .addField("Action Time", formattedTime, true). Australia/Sydney automatically handles daylight saving between AEDT and AEST - no extra logic needed. The en-AU locale gives you DD/MM/YYYY instead of the American MM/DD/YYYY format.

3

Discord has native timestamp formatting that’s way cleaner than handling dates manually. Just use <t:UNIX_TIMESTAMP:F> - it automatically adjusts to each user’s timezone and preferences.

const unixTimestamp = Math.floor(message.createdAt.getTime() / 1000);
const discordTimestamp = `<t:${unixTimestamp}:F>`;

Then use discordTimestamp in your addField. The :F flag gives you full date and time. Want something shorter? Try :f for compact datetime or :R for relative time like “2 hours ago”. Australian users see AEST/AEDT automatically while American staff see their local time - way more user-friendly than forcing everyone into one timezone.

4

moment.js works great if you’re already using it - moment(message.createdAt).tz('Australia/Sydney').format('DD/MM/YYYY hh:mm A') does exactly what you want. But honestly, the Discord timestamp formatting benmoore mentioned is way better since users automatically get their own timezone.