How to Format Dates in PowerShell (Get-Date -Format Examples)

To format a date in PowerShell, pass a format string to Get-Date -Format. MM is the month, dd the day, yyyy the year, HH the hour on a 24-hour clock and mm the minutes:

$date = Get-Date '2026-09-28 14:05:09'

Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'MM/dd/yyyy'
Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm'
Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'dddd, MMMM d, yyyy'

Output:

09/28/2026
2026-09-28 14:05
Monday, September 28, 2026

Every example here uses the same fixed date, September 28, 2026 at 2:05:09 PM, so your output will match mine. Replace -Date $date with nothing to format the current time.

I ran everything on Windows 11 with US English (en-US) regional settings, in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1. The two versions agree, except for a few details I point out below.

Common custom date formats

Custom formats let you build any layout. Here are the ones I use most, with the format string on the left:

'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'MM/dd/yyyy',          (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'MM/dd/yyyy')
'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'M/d/yy',              (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'M/d/yy')
'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'yyyy-MM-dd',          (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd')
'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'MMM d, yyyy',         (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'MMM d, yyyy')
'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'dddd, MMMM d, yyyy',  (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'dddd, MMMM d, yyyy')
'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'h:mm tt',             (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'h:mm tt')
'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'HH:mm:ss',            (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'HH:mm:ss')
'{0,-22} {1}' -f 'yyyyMMdd_HHmmss',     (Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'yyyyMMdd_HHmmss')

Output:

MM/dd/yyyy             09/28/2026
M/d/yy                 9/28/26
yyyy-MM-dd             2026-09-28
MMM d, yyyy            Sep 28, 2026
dddd, MMMM d, yyyy     Monday, September 28, 2026
h:mm tt                2:05 PM
HH:mm:ss               14:05:09
yyyyMMdd_HHmmss        20260928_140509

yyyyMMdd_HHmmss is my go-to for file names, because it sorts correctly and has no characters Windows won’t allow.

Standard format specifiers (d, D, t, g, s, o)

Single letters are shortcuts for full patterns. They follow the regional settings of the PC, which makes them a good fit for output people will read:

foreach ($f in 'd', 'D', 't', 'T', 'g', 'G', 'M', 'Y', 's', 'o') {
    '{0}  {1}' -f $f, (Get-Date -Date $date -Format $f)
}

Output:

d  9/28/2026
D  Monday, September 28, 2026
t  2:05 PM
T  2:05:09 PM
g  9/28/2026 2:05 PM
G  9/28/2026 2:05:09 PM
M  September 28
Y  September 2026
s  2026-09-28T14:05:09
o  2026-09-28T14:05:09.0000000

s and o are the exceptions. They always use the sortable ISO 8601 layout, whatever the region. Use them in logs and in data you exchange with other systems.

How do I show the time in 24-hour format?

Use uppercase HH for the 24-hour clock and lowercase hh plus tt for 12-hour time with AM/PM:

Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'HH:mm'          # 24-hour clock
Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'hh:mm tt'       # 12-hour clock with AM/PM
Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss'

Output:

14:05
02:05 PM
09/28/2026 14:05:09

Get the date without the time

There are three ways, and the difference is the type you get back:

$date.Date                         # midnight, still a DateTime
$date.ToShortDateString()          # text in your regional format
Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'd'   # same, via -Format

Output:

Monday, September 28, 2026 12:00:00 AM
9/28/2026
9/28/2026

.Date keeps a real DateTime set to midnight, which is what you want before comparing dates. The other two return text.

Get the day of week, day of month and month name

A DateTime already has these as properties, so you often don’t need a format string at all:

"Day of month : $($date.Day)"
"Day of week  : $($date.DayOfWeek)"
"Day number   : $([int]$date.DayOfWeek)   (Sunday = 0)"
"Day of year  : $($date.DayOfYear)"
"Month number : $($date.Month)"
"Month name   : $(Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'MMMM')"
"Short month  : $(Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'MMM')"

Output:

Day of month : 28
Day of week  : Monday
Day number   : 1   (Sunday = 0)
Day of year  : 271
Month number : 9
Month name   : September
Short month  : Sep

DayOfWeek counts from Sunday as 0, so Monday is 1. For month names in another language, ask that culture:

(Get-Culture).DateTimeFormat.MonthNames[0..2]
[cultureinfo]::GetCultureInfo('es-US').DateTimeFormat.GetMonthName(9)

Output:

January
February
March
septiembre

Format dates with -UFormat

-UFormat uses Unix-style codes such as %Y and %m. It’s handy if you already know them from Linux or macOS:

Get-Date -Date $date -UFormat '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'
Get-Date -Date $date -UFormat '%A, %B %d'
Get-Date -Date $date -UFormat 'Day %j of the year'

Output:

2026-09-28 14:05:09
Monday, September 28
Day 271 of the year

Be careful with the week number. %V is supposed to be the ISO 8601 week, and September 28, 2026 is in ISO week 40. PowerShell 7 gets it right:

Get-Date -Date $date -UFormat 'ISO week %V'

Output in PowerShell 7:

ISO week 40

Windows PowerShell 5.1 prints ISO week 39 for the same date. In 5.1, ask the calendar for the week instead. It works in both versions:

(Get-Culture).Calendar.GetWeekOfYear($date, 'FirstFourDayWeek', 'Monday')

Output:

40

That rule (weeks start on Monday, week 1 has at least four days) matches ISO weeks except for a few days around New Year. In PowerShell 7, [System.Globalization.ISOWeek]::GetWeekOfYear($date) is exact.

%s (seconds since 1970) has a similar problem: Windows PowerShell 5.1 ignores your time zone offset, so the number is off by your UTC offset. PowerShell 7 fixed it.

Format a date for another culture

Pass a culture to ToString() to format for a different region without changing your PC settings:

$date.ToString('D')
$date.ToString('D', [cultureinfo]'en-GB')
$date.ToString('D', [cultureinfo]'de-DE')
$date.ToString('MM/dd/yyyy', [cultureinfo]::InvariantCulture)

Output:

Monday, September 28, 2026
Monday, 28 September 2026
Montag, 28. September 2026
09/28/2026

Culture data can change between .NET versions. The British long date above is “Monday, 28 September 2026” in PowerShell 7 but “28 September 2026” in Windows PowerShell 5.1.

That’s why InvariantCulture is the safe choice for files and APIs: it gives the same result on every machine and version.

Common date formatting mistakes

Using mm when you mean MM

Format strings are case-sensitive. mm is minutes, so this prints “05” (the minutes) where you expected the month:

Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'yyyy-mm-dd'    # mm = minutes
Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd'    # MM = month

Output:

2026-05-28
2026-09-28

Doing date math on a formatted string

-Format returns text, so you can’t add days to the result:

$text = Get-Date -Date $date -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd'
$text.GetType().Name
$text.AddDays(1)

Output:

String
InvalidOperation: C:\psfaqs\string_trap.ps1:5
Line |
   5 |  $text.AddDays(1)
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Method invocation failed because [System.String] does not contain a method named 'AddDays'.

Do the math first, then format at the very end:

$date.AddDays(7).ToString('yyyy-MM-dd')

Output:

2026-10-05

Assuming the u format converts to UTC

The u specifier adds a Z, but it doesn’t convert the time. Call ToUniversalTime() first when you really need UTC:

Get-Date -Format 'u'                                # adds a Z but does NOT convert
(Get-Date).ToUniversalTime().ToString('yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ')   # real UTC

Use the date in a file name

This is the pattern I use for backups and logs:

$stamp = Get-Date -Date '2026-09-28 14:05:09' -Format 'yyyy-MM-dd_HHmm'
"backup_$stamp.zip"

Output:

backup_2026-09-28_1405.zip

If you need the file created too, see how to add a date to a file name with PowerShell.

Convert a string to a date, then format it

When the date comes in as text, parse it with the exact format first. Then you can format it any way you like:

$text = '09/28/2026 14:05'
$parsed = [datetime]::ParseExact($text, 'MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm', [cultureinfo]::InvariantCulture)
$parsed.ToString('dddd, MMMM d, yyyy h:mm tt')

Output:

Monday, September 28, 2026 2:05 PM

More on parsing in convert a string to a date in PowerShell. Microsoft’s custom date and time format strings page lists every code.

Frequently Asked Questions

Keep going with these date and time guides:

• Compare dates in PowerShell
• Add days to a date in PowerShell
• Get the difference between two dates
• Get-Date in ISO 8601 format