Date.prototype.setMilliseconds()

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

The setMilliseconds() method of Date instances changes the milliseconds for this date according to local time.

Try it

const event = new Date("August 19, 1975 23:15:30");

console.log(event.getMilliseconds());
// Expected output: 0

event.setMilliseconds(456);

console.log(event.getMilliseconds());
// Expected output: 456

Syntax

js
setMilliseconds(millisecondsValue)

Parameters

millisecondsValue

An integer between 0 and 999 representing the milliseconds.

Return value

Changes the Date object in place, and returns its new timestamp. If millisecondsValue is NaN (or other values that get coerced to NaN, such as undefined), the date is set to Invalid Date and NaN is returned.

Description

If you specify a number outside the expected range, the date information in the Date object is updated accordingly. For example, if you specify 1005, the number of seconds is incremented by 1, and 5 is used for the milliseconds.

Because setMilliseconds() operates on the local time, crossing a Daylight Saving Time (DST) boundary may result in a different elapsed time than expected. For example, if setting the milliseconds crosses a spring-forward transition (losing an hour), the difference in timestamps between the new and old date is one hour less than the nominal time difference. Conversely, crossing a fall-back transition (gaining an hour) result in an extra hour. If you need to adjust the date by a fixed amount of time, consider using setUTCMilliseconds() or setTime().

If the new local time falls within an offset transition, the exact time is derived using the same behavior as Temporal's disambiguation: "compatible" option. That is, if the local time corresponds to two instants, the earlier one is chosen; if the local time does not exist (there is a gap), we go forward by the gap duration.

Examples

Using setMilliseconds()

js
const theBigDay = new Date();
theBigDay.setMilliseconds(100);

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification
# sec-date.prototype.setmilliseconds

Browser compatibility

See also