Mixpanel stores all event timestamps in UTC by default, and the project timezone setting only affects how data is displayed in the Mixpanel UI—not how it is stored or ingested. This means that, regardless of where your users are located, the event times are recorded in UTC, and the UI will convert these times to the project’s selected timezone for display purposes. There is no built-in Mixpanel feature to automatically display or store event times in each individual user’s local timezone.
Key points from the documentation:
- Mixpanel records all events in UTC at intake. Changing the project’s timezone only affects the display of results, not the underlying data storage or ingestion.
- If you want to analyze events according to each user's local time, you need to store the user's timezone as a property (e.g., $timezone) and perform your own conversion when analyzing or exporting the data.
- When exporting or importing data, always use UTC timestamps to ensure consistency.
- The $time property in exports is a Unix timestamp in UTC, and the project timezone only affects how this is shown in the UI, not the actual data value.
- There is no way to have Mixpanel automatically process or display event times according to each user's own timezone in the UI or in the data storage. You must handle this conversion yourself in your analysis or reporting layer outside of Mixpanel, using the user's stored timezone property if available.
What you can do:
1. Track User Timezone: Make sure to capture and store each user's timezone as a user property (e.g., $timezone).
2. Convert Timestamps in Analysis: When exporting data for analysis, use the user's timezone property to convert the UTC event timestamp to their local time in your reporting or data warehouse layer.
3. Custom Reporting: If you need to display or analyze data by each user's local date, you must implement this logic outside of Mixpanel, as Mixpanel’s UI and APIs do not natively support per-user timezone display or grouping.
References:
- Manage Timezones for Projects
- Default User Properties: $timezone
Summary:
Mixpanel does not support per-user timezone event display or storage. All event times are stored in UTC, and the project timezone only affects UI display. To analyze events by each user's real local time, you must store the user's timezone and perform the conversion yourself during analysis or reporting.
