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For Python 2 code, use datetime.utcnow():

from datetime import datetime datetime.utcnow() 

For Python 3, use datetime.now(timezone.utc) (the 2.x solution will technically work, but has a giant warning in the 3.x docs):

from datetime import datetime, timezone datetime.now(timezone.utc) 

For your purposes when you need to calculate an amount of time spent between two dates all that you need is to subtract end and start dates. The results of such subtraction is a timedelta object.

From the python docs:

class datetime.timedelta([days[, seconds[, microseconds[, milliseconds[, minutes[, hours[, weeks]]]]]]]) 

And this means that by default you can get any of the fields mentioned in it's definition - days, seconds, microseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours, weeks. Also timedelta instance has total_seconds() method that:

Return the total number of seconds contained in the duration. Equivalent to (td.microseconds + (td.seconds + td.days * 24 * 3600) * 106) / 106 computed with true division enabled.

For Python 3, use datetime.now(timezone.utc) to get a timezone-aware datetime, and use .timestamp() to convert it to a timestamp.

from datetime import datetime, timezone datetime.now(timezone.utc) datetime.now(timezone.utc).timestamp() * 1000 # POSIX timestamp in milliseconds 

For your purposes when you need to calculate an amount of time spent between two dates all that you need is to subtract end and start dates. The results of such subtraction is a timedelta object.

From the python docs:

class datetime.timedelta([days[, seconds[, microseconds[, milliseconds[, minutes[, hours[, weeks]]]]]]]) 

And this means that by default you can get any of the fields mentioned in it's definition - days, seconds, microseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours, weeks. Also timedelta instance has total_seconds() method that:

Return the total number of seconds contained in the duration. Equivalent to (td.microseconds + (td.seconds + td.days * 24 * 3600) * 106) / 106 computed with true division enabled.

For Python 2 (the 2.x solution will technically work, but has a giant warning in the 3.x docs), you would have used datetime.utcnow():

from datetime import datetime datetime.utcnow() 

Use datetime.utcnow():

from datetime import datetime datetime.utcnow() 

For your purposes when you need to calculate an amount of time spent between two dates all that you need is to subtract end and start dates. The results of such subtraction is a timedelta object.

From the python docs:

class datetime.timedelta([days[, seconds[, microseconds[, milliseconds[, minutes[, hours[, weeks]]]]]]]) 

And this means that by default you can get any of the fields mentioned in it's definition - days, seconds, microseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours, weeks. Also timedelta instance has total_seconds() method that:

Return the total number of seconds contained in the duration. Equivalent to (td.microseconds + (td.seconds + td.days * 24 * 3600) * 106) / 106 computed with true division enabled.

For Python 2 code, use datetime.utcnow():

from datetime import datetime datetime.utcnow() 

For Python 3, use datetime.now(timezone.utc) (the 2.x solution will technically work, but has a giant warning in the 3.x docs):

from datetime import datetime, timezone datetime.now(timezone.utc) 

For your purposes when you need to calculate an amount of time spent between two dates all that you need is to subtract end and start dates. The results of such subtraction is a timedelta object.

From the python docs:

class datetime.timedelta([days[, seconds[, microseconds[, milliseconds[, minutes[, hours[, weeks]]]]]]]) 

And this means that by default you can get any of the fields mentioned in it's definition - days, seconds, microseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours, weeks. Also timedelta instance has total_seconds() method that:

Return the total number of seconds contained in the duration. Equivalent to (td.microseconds + (td.seconds + td.days * 24 * 3600) * 106) / 106 computed with true division enabled.

Try this code that uses datetime.utcnow():

from datetime import datetime datetime.utcnow() 

For your purposes when you need to calculate an amount of time spent between two dates all that you need is to substract end and start dates. The results of such substraction is a timedelta object.

From the python docs:

class datetime.timedelta([days[, seconds[, microseconds[, milliseconds[, minutes[, hours[, weeks]]]]]]]) 

And this means that by default you can get any of the fields mentioned in it's definition - days, seconds, microseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours, weeks. Also timedelta instance has total_seconds() method that:

Return the total number of seconds contained in the duration. Equivalent to (td.microseconds + (td.seconds + td.days * 24 * 3600) * 106) / 106 computed with true division enabled.

Use datetime.utcnow():

from datetime import datetime datetime.utcnow() 

For your purposes when you need to calculate an amount of time spent between two dates all that you need is to subtract end and start dates. The results of such subtraction is a timedelta object.

From the python docs:

class datetime.timedelta([days[, seconds[, microseconds[, milliseconds[, minutes[, hours[, weeks]]]]]]]) 

And this means that by default you can get any of the fields mentioned in it's definition - days, seconds, microseconds, milliseconds, minutes, hours, weeks. Also timedelta instance has total_seconds() method that:

Return the total number of seconds contained in the duration. Equivalent to (td.microseconds + (td.seconds + td.days * 24 * 3600) * 106) / 106 computed with true division enabled.