> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://fossabot.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # $(countup) Returns the time that has passed since a specified date. **This variable shares the same behavior with \$(countdown)!** Both `$(countup)` and `$(countdown)` work the exact same way and only coexist for syntactic sugar. If you provide a date **in the past**, they both will return the time that **has passed** since then, but if you provide a date **in the future** instead, they will both return the time that **is left** until then. #### Parameters This variable takes **one** *required* parameter that is a **date string** to count up from. * **Supported Date Formats** * `2022-01-01` * `Jan 01 2022` * `01 Jan 2022` * `Jan 1st 2022` * `1st Jan 2022` * ... * **Supported Time Formats** * `14:00:00` * `02:00:00PM` * ... > ***A list of more supported date and time formats can be found [here](https://github.com/araddon/dateparse).*** If you would like to specify a different timezone than coordinated universal time (UTC), you can do so by providing the UTC offset to that timezone (e.g. `GMT-0400` for EDT) at the end of the date string. > ***A list of all existing timezones can be found [here](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List).*** #### Example Output * `$(countup 2022-01-01 00:00:00)` *(January 1st, 2022 UTC)* ``` 17 days, 13 hours and 15 minutes ``` * `$(countup Jan 01 2022 00:00:00 GMT-0400)` *(January 1st, 2022 EDT)* ``` 17 days, 9 hours and 15 minutes ``` #### Error Output * In case no date string is provided, returns the following: ``` [Error: No timestamp provided.] ``` * In case an invalid date string is provided, returns the following: ``` [Error: Failed to parse timestamp.] ``` ## Related topics - [$(countdown)](/docs/variables/countdown.md) - [$(count)](/docs/variables/count.md) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.