The fine print

License & Terms

Short version: use the API freely, reuse the writing with credit, and leave the site's code and design alone.

Site content

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

The text on this site, including the explainer, timeline, Y2K history and lessons, is free to copy, share and adapt for any purpose, including classrooms and commercial use, as long as you give credit.

Credit it like this: “From epochalypse.org, licensed CC BY 4.0,” with a link if you can.
Not covered: quotes and material from the cited sources, which belong to their owners, and the fonts, which keep their own licenses.
Forum posts belong to whoever wrote them.

Read the full license →

Countdown API

Free for any use, personal or commercial

No key or sign-up. Call it from anything: scripts, bots, apps, slides.
As is. It's provided without warranty or an uptime guarantee. Don't build anything critical on it.
Be reasonable. Fetch once and count down locally instead of polling every second. Abusive traffic may be rate-limited or blocked.
Things may change. We'll try to keep it stable, but these terms and the API itself can change.
Credit is appreciated, not required. A link to epochalypse.org is always nice.

API documentation →

Code & design

The site itself, meaning its code, design, nixie clock, graphics and overall look, isn't licensed for reuse. Please don't copy or republish it. Using the countdown API and reusing the written content are covered above.