Raspberry Pi and MicroPython: get the correct time from the internet with an API

Short answer: most Raspberry Pi boards have no battery-backed clock, and a Pico W has no idea what time zone it is in. One HTTPS request to a time API returns the correct Unix time and the local time with DST applied; use it to set the clock or the RTC.

Fix a Raspberry Pi's clock from the shell

# what time does the API say? (key in the query string, so no header is needed)
curl -s "https://api.timelogicapi.com/api/timezone/Etc/UTC.txt?api_key=$TIMELOGIC_API_KEY"

# set the system clock from it (needs sudo)
sudo date -s "@$(curl -s "https://api.timelogicapi.com/api/timezone/Etc/UTC.txt?api_key=$TIMELOGIC_API_KEY" | sed -n 's/^unixtime: //p')"

date -s @<seconds> takes Unix seconds; the .txt response's unixtime: line is exactly that. This is a fallback for networks that block NTP or for a first boot without network time; for continuous sync, keep the system's NTP service (systemd-timesyncd or chrony) running. The NTP vs time API guide explains the trade-offs.

Raspberry Pi with Python

import os, requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.timelogicapi.com/v1/time/current",
    params={"tz": "Europe/London"},
    headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["TIMELOGIC_API_KEY"]},
    timeout=5,
)
data = r.json()
print(data["iso_local"], data["day_full"])

More Python patterns, including correcting for a wrong clock without changing it: Get the current time from the internet in Python.

Raspberry Pi Pico W (MicroPython)

import network, time, machine
import urequests as requests  # newer MicroPython builds also ship "requests"

wlan = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)
wlan.active(True)
wlan.connect("your-ssid", "your-password")
while not wlan.isconnected():
    time.sleep(0.2)

r = requests.get("https://api.timelogicapi.com/api/timezone/Europe/London?api_key=YOUR_KEY")
data = r.json()
r.close()

dt = data["datetime"]  # e.g. "2025-11-30T20:23:23.016000+00:00", local time
year, month, day = int(dt[0:4]), int(dt[5:7]), int(dt[8:10])
hour, minute, second = int(dt[11:13]), int(dt[14:16]), int(dt[17:19])
weekday = (data["day_of_week"] + 6) % 7  # API: 0 = Sunday; RTC: 0 = Monday
machine.RTC().datetime((year, month, day, weekday, hour, minute, second, 0))
print("RTC set to local time:", dt, data["abbreviation"])

The RTC now holds local time for that zone. Re-sync after a DST change (dst_until in the response says when the current DST period ends) or once a day.

Let the board find its own time zone

Request /api/ip instead of a fixed zone and the API resolves the zone from the public IP address the request comes from. On the /v1 API, GET /v1/time/current?auto_tz=true does the same. Details: Get the timezone from an IP address.

Related guides

• ESP32, ESP8266 and Arduino
• Migrating code from worldtimeapi.org
• World Time API guide (pillar)