How do you find the exact date of a LinkedIn post?
Copy the post's link and decode the 19-digit number in it: that number holds the time the post was published, in milliseconds. On the post itself, LinkedIn shows only an age label. When we checked on 4 November 2026, the public page for LinkedIn's own post of 26 October 2026 showed just 1w, for a post that was nine days old.
To copy the link, LinkedIn's Find the URL for shared content page (shown as updated 8 months ago) gives these steps:
- Desktop: click the More icon in the top right corner of the post, then click Copy link to post.
- iOS: tap the More icon in the top right corner of the post, tap Share via, then tap Copy.
- Android: tap the More icon in the top right corner of the post, tap Share via, then tap Copy to clipboard.
A copied link looks like linkedin.com/posts/linkedin_take-five-minutes-to-look-at-your-linkedin-activity-7520500866093633536-l4d6. The number after activity- is the one to decode. Paste the whole link into a free decoder such as Ollie Boyd's LinkedIn post date extractor, which shows the result in UTC and in your local time, or use the spreadsheet formula below. Ollie Boyd, a developer, published the method on GitHub in November 2021 and writes that it came from trial and error, so it is reverse engineering, not a LinkedIn feature.
How does a LinkedIn post date extractor work? A worked example
The decoder turns the post number into binary and reads its first 41 binary digits as a Unix timestamp: milliseconds since 1 January 1970, UTC. Here is the arithmetic for LinkedIn's 26 October post, number 7520500866093633536.
Write the number in binary
7,520,500,866,093,633,536 is 63 binary digits long: 11010000101111000101111101100010100000010 followed by 0001110101000000000000.
Keep the first 41 digits
11010000101111000101111101100010100000010 is 1,793,027,130,626. Dropping the last 22 binary digits is the same as dividing by 2 to the power 22: 7,520,500,866,093,633,536 ÷ 4,194,304 = 1,793,027,130,626.11, so you can skip the binary and divide.
Turn milliseconds into a date
1,793,027,130,626 ÷ 1,000 = 1,793,027,130.626 seconds, and ÷ 86,400 = 20,752.6288 days after 1 January 1970. Day 20,752 is 26 October 2026, and 0.6288 of a day is 15 hours, 5 minutes and 30.6 seconds.
Check it
Result: 26 October 2026, 15:05:30.626 UTC. The datePublished value in that post's public page reads 2026-10-26T15:05:30.625Z, one millisecond away.
We ran the same check on a second LinkedIn post, its 22 October 2026 question about first jobs: the number decodes to 13:00:00.925 UTC, and the page's datePublished reads 13:00:00.923. You can repeat the check on any public post: open its page, view the page source and search for datePublished.
Can you decode LinkedIn post dates in Google Sheets?
Yes, with one formula. Paste post links into column A from A2 down and put this in B2:
Then select column B and choose Format, Number and a date and time format (Google's number format help). REGEXEXTRACT returns the first match as text, and Google's REGEXEXTRACT help page suggests wrapping it in VALUE when you need a number, which is why the formula does. The \d{19} part picks the first 19-digit number in the link, so it works on links in the /posts/...-activity-... format shown above. If your sheet rounds the long number, the date doesn't move: an error of 9,999 in the ID shifts the result by 9,999 ÷ 4,194,304 = 0.0024 milliseconds.
Which way of finding a post date should you use?
Decode the number for anyone's post; use LinkedIn's data download for your own posts in bulk. The table covers the other cases.
| You want | Use | What you get | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dates of all your own posts | Download your data, Shares file | For every post you shared or re-shared: the date, URL, shared comments and visibility | Not available on mobile; LinkedIn lists Shares among data available within 48 hours, and the download link lasts 72 hours |
| The date of one post by anyone | Decode the number in its link | UTC time, in milliseconds | Decode the activity number (see the next section) |
| Dates for a list of posts | The Sheets formula above | A sortable column of UTC dates | Same as above |
| A second check on a public post | The page source, datePublished | Date and time in UTC | We read it from public post pages opened without signing in |
| Recent posts on a topic | Search, Posts tab, All filters, Date posted (Search for member posts) | Posts narrowed by when they went up | The help page doesn't list the date options |
| When a comment was written | Decode the comment's own number | UTC time | On the page we checked, the comment's number was the second one in its URN |
For the download on a computer: click the Me icon, select Settings & Privacy, click Data Privacy, then under How LinkedIn uses your data click Download your data, select the data you want and click Request archive.
Why would a decoded LinkedIn date be wrong?
Check these four things first. We saw the first two on LinkedIn's own 26 October post when we checked on 4 November 2026.
- Two numbers, one post. The page for the 26 October post, a video, also carries a ugcPost number, 7519448959191379968. Decoded, it gives 23 October 2026, 17:25 UTC, nearly three days before the activity number and the page's datePublished. If a link contains urn:li:ugcPost instead of activity, the date may come out early.
- Comments. A comment has its own number. In the comment URNs on that page, the post's number comes first and the comment's second, as in urn:li:comment:(urn:li:ugcPost:7519448959191379968,7520505386966110208). The second number decodes to 15:23:28.486 UTC; the page dates that comment 15:23:28.487. A tool that takes the first 19-digit number it finds will decode the post's number, not the comment's. Ollie Boyd's README says the extractor also takes comment links; its code reads the comment's number from an fsd_comment part of the link when there is one.
- Time zones. The decoded time is UTC. Ollie Boyd's extractor shows UTC and your local time side by side; the formula above gives UTC only.
- Edits. LinkedIn's help says an edited post shows the word Edited (Edit a shared post), and that editing a post changes its URL while the old URL still redirects. Neither page says when the edit happened (checked 4 November 2026). On a LinkedIn post marked Edited, the number in its current link still decoded to 26 February 2026, 20:00:00.967 UTC, 19 milliseconds from the page's datePublished.
LinkedIn's help pages we read don't explain how post numbers are built, so check one decoded date against datePublished now and then. If you consider a browser add-on that reads your LinkedIn pages to add dates, note that LinkedIn's User Agreement, effective 3 November 2025, bans software such as crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons used to scrape or copy the Services. Ollie Boyd's extractor only does arithmetic on the link you paste; its code makes no request to LinkedIn. Our post on what LinkedIn has done about scraping tools covers the wider risk.
How do post dates help with LinkedIn outreach?
A post is a good reason to contact someone only while it is recent, so decode before you mention a post in a comment, connection note or message. Sort your post log by days old: a post from this week gives you something to talk about, while one from nine months ago makes your note look like a search result.
If your leads come from post search, our guide to finding leads on LinkedIn without Sales Navigator shows how to search posts for the problem you solve. LinkedIn lists Date posted among the All filters for post search, so narrow to recent posts first and decode only the ones you will act on.
Two other uses this week. Decode a competitor's last 10 Page posts to see the hours they publish; LinkedIn's own 22 October post went out at 13:00:00 UTC. Then set those hours against our guide to the best time to post on LinkedIn. If you would rather not track recency by hand, Siela's Lead Finder scores every lead hot, warm or cold with a one-line reason that covers fit, intent, how recent the signal is and how likely they are to reply.
Frequently asked questions
How do I see when a LinkedIn post was posted?
Copy the post's link, find the 19-digit number after activity, and run it through a free date extractor or a spreadsheet formula. You get the publish time in UTC; on two of LinkedIn's own posts we checked, it matched the time in the page's data to within two milliseconds. On the post itself you only see a rough age such as 1w or 1mo.
Why does LinkedIn show 1w instead of a date?
LinkedIn labels posts with their age rather than a calendar date. On 4 November 2026, a LinkedIn post published nine days earlier showed 1w on its public page, so a label can be days out. The help pages we read offer no setting to show full dates, which is why people decode the number in the post's link instead.
Is a LinkedIn post date extractor accurate?
In our check on 4 November 2026, decoding two LinkedIn posts matched the datePublished value on each post's public page to within two milliseconds. The wrong result we saw came from decoding the wrong number: a ugcPost number on one video post gave a time nearly three days early. The method is unofficial, so spot-check a decoded date against the page now and then.
Can I find out when a LinkedIn comment was posted?
Yes. Each comment has its own 19-digit number, and on LinkedIn's 26 October post page each comment URN listed the post's number first and the comment's second. Decoding those comment numbers matched the times in the page's data to within three milliseconds. Ollie Boyd's README says the extractor works on comment links as well as post links.
Do I need to sign in or install anything to find a post date?
No. The number is in the link, so the arithmetic works without signing in, and a decoder that runs in your browser never needs to contact LinkedIn. Be careful with browser add-ons that read your LinkedIn pages, because LinkedIn's User Agreement bans plugins and add-ons used to scrape or copy its services.
Can I see the dates of all my own LinkedIn posts?
Yes. Request your LinkedIn data from Settings and Privacy on a computer and choose the Shares file, which LinkedIn says holds the date, URL, shared comments and visibility of every post you shared or re-shared. LinkedIn lists Shares among data available within 48 hours, and the download link stays live for 72 hours.
Sources
- LinkedIn post: Take five minutes to look at your LinkedIn profile (26 Oct 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn post: What was your first job and how much did you make? (22 Oct 2026) (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Find the URL for shared content (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Ollie Boyd: LinkedIn post date extractor (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Ollie Boyd: Linkedin-post-timestamp-extractor on GitHub (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Google Docs Editors Help: REGEXEXTRACT (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- Google Docs Editors Help: Format numbers in a spreadsheet (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Download your data (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Search for member posts (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn Help: Edit a shared post (checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn User Agreement (effective 3 Nov 2025, checked 4 Nov 2026)
- LinkedIn post: LinkedIn Career Fair (26 Feb 2026, marked Edited) (checked 4 Nov 2026)