{timeago}

How long ago a moment was, in words, inside a time element that keeps the exact moment as its datetime and title.

Text and formatting Single tags

Syntax 

{timeago $moment}
{timeago $moment, now='2026-10-08 12:00', format='j M Y'}

Parameters

moment
A Unix timestamp, a date in text or a date object. An empty moment writes nothing.

Options

now
Count from this moment instead of now.
format
The PHP date format of the full moment in the title, default l j F Y, H:i.

Description

{timeago $created} writes how long ago the moment was - just now, 5 minutes ago, yesterday, 3 weeks ago, and for a moment still to come, in 2 days - inside a <time class="pad-timeago">. The element's datetime is the moment in ISO 8601, for machines, and its title the moment in full, which a browser shows on hover. The words are those of the ago pipe, with the semantic element around them.

Now is padNow (), so padNowFreeze () in PHP holds a page still for a test. now= counts from a given moment instead - which is how the examples here stay the same on every request. format= is the PHP date format of the title.

An empty moment writes nothing, so a row without a date leaves no empty element behind. A moment, or a now=, that cannot be read as a date is a strict error. For the time left until a moment, use {countdown}.

Examples

A comment thread

Each comment says how long before the fixed now it was posted; hover a time for the full moment.

Templateexamples/timeago/1-thread.pad 
<ul>
  {comments}
    <li><strong>{$name}</strong> - {timeago $posted, now='2026-10-08 12:00'}: {$text}</li>
  {/comments}
</ul>
PHPexamples/timeago/1-thread.php 
<?php

  $comments = [
    [ 'name' => 'Maya',  'posted' => '2026-06-02 09:00', 'text' => 'Can the report be a spreadsheet?' ],
    [ 'name' => 'Jonas', 'posted' => '2026-09-17 15:30', 'text' => 'The CSV answer of the page does it.' ],
    [ 'name' => 'Priya', 'posted' => '2026-10-07 10:00', 'text' => 'One line in the page and it works.' ],
    [ 'name' => 'Tomás', 'posted' => '2026-10-08 09:45', 'text' => 'Can the columns be chosen?' ],
    [ 'name' => 'Ken',   'posted' => '2026-10-08 11:55', 'text' => 'Yes - list them in the page.' ] ];

?>
Resultopen alone
  • Maya - : Can the report be a spreadsheet?
  • Jonas - : The CSV answer of the page does it.
  • Priya - : One line in the page and it works.
  • Tomás - : Can the columns be chosen?
  • Ken - : Yes - list them in the page.

Past and future, another title

A moment still to come reads as in ...; format= changes the full date in the title.

Templateexamples/timeago/2-format.pad 
<p>Released {timeago '2026-09-01', now='2026-10-08 12:00', format='j M Y'}.</p>
<p>Next release {timeago '2026-10-22', now='2026-10-08 12:00', format='j M Y'}.</p>
<p>Not dated: [{timeago ''}]</p>
Resultopen alone

Released .

Next release .

Not dated: []

See also

  • {countdown} The time left until a moment, in words inside a time element - ticking every second in the browser when asked.
  • {calendar} Writes a month as a calendar table with its events, or hands over its weeks and days as rows for markup of your own.
  • {echo} Evaluates an expression and prints the result - the general output tag, and the one to put in front of a pipe.