How to Display Only the Current Date in Laravel (Carbon Examples)

I ran into a small but annoying issue while building a Laravel page that shows “today’s date” at the top of a report. I used Carbon like I always do:

Carbon::now();

But Carbon returns a full datetime value (date + time). That’s great for logs, but not what I wanted on the UI. I only needed the date, something like 2024-10-11—no hours, minutes, or seconds.

Here are the best ways to display only the current date in Laravel using Carbon, plus the approach I now use depending on where the date is shown (Blade, controller, API, etc.).

Method 1 (best/simple): toDateString()

If you want YYYY-MM-DD exactly, this is the cleanest option:

use Carbon\Carbon;

$date = Carbon::now()->toDateString(); // 2024-10-11

I like this because it’s readable and instantly tells you what it returns: just the date portion.

Method 2: format(‘Y-m-d’) (best when you need a custom format)

When I need a different format (like 11-10-2024 or Oct 11, 2024), I use format():

use Carbon\Carbon;

$date = Carbon::now()->format('Y-m-d');   // 2024-10-11
$date2 = Carbon::now()->format('d-m-Y');  // 11-10-2024
$date3 = Carbon::now()->format('M d, Y'); // Oct 11, 2024

If you’re copying a strict format requirement from a client or API docs, format() is usually the right choice.

Method 3: today() (nice when you truly mean “today”)

Sometimes I don’t even want “now” — I want “today” as a date value. Laravel/Carbon gives you that too:

$today = today()->toDateString(); // 2024-10-11

This reads nicely in code and matches the intent: it’s the current date (not a timestamp).

Showing the date in a Blade view

If you just want to display it on the page, Blade can do it directly:

{{ \Carbon\Carbon::now()->toDateString() }}

But on real projects, I prefer passing the value from the controller so the view stays clean.

Controller example (recommended style)

use Carbon\Carbon;

public function index()
{
    $date = Carbon::now()->toDateString();

    return view('reports.index', compact('date'));
}

Then in Blade:

{{ $date }}

Timezone tip (this is where people get confused)

If your server timezone is different than your users, “today” may look wrong near midnight. In that case, set the timezone explicitly:

use Carbon\Carbon;

$date = Carbon::now('Asia/Dhaka')->toDateString();

If this is a full app, it’s usually better to set the correct timezone globally in config/app.php so you don’t have to repeat it everywhere.

Quick FAQ

Why not just use Carbon::now() and split the string?

You can, but it’s fragile and unnecessary. Carbon already provides proper methods that are readable and reliable.

Which one should I use most of the time?

• Use toDateString() if you want YYYY-MM-DD.
• Use format() if you need a custom format.
• Use today() when the intent is “today as a date”.

Final thoughts

Once I switched from Carbon::now() to Carbon::now()->toDateString(), the problem was solved instantly and the code became more readable. If you’re showing dates in a UI, reports, or APIs, picking the right Carbon method saves time and prevents formatting bugs later.