---
title: unit
description: This setting must be one of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years. The values seconds and minutes are not allowed with the period filtertype...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/fe_unit
products:
  - Elasticsearch
  - Elasticsearch Curator
---

# unit
<note>
  This setting is used with the [age](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/filtertype_age) filtertype, with the [period](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/filtertype_period) filtertype, or with the [space](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/filtertype_space) filtertype if [use_age](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/fe_use_age) is set to `True`.
</note>

```yaml
 - filtertype: age
   source: creation_date
   direction: older
   unit: days
   unit_count: 3
```

This setting must be one of `seconds`, `minutes`, `hours`, `days`, `weeks`, `months`, or `years`. The values `seconds` and `minutes` are not allowed with the [period](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/filtertype_period) filtertype and will result in an error condition if used there.
For the [age](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/filtertype_age) filtertype, or when [use_age](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/fe_use_age) is set to `True`, unit, [unit_count](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/fe_unit_count), and optionally, [epoch](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/fe_epoch), are used by Curator to establish the moment in time point of reference with this formula:
```sh
point_of_reference = epoch - ((number of seconds in unit) * unit_count)
```

`units` are calculated as follows:

| Unit      | Seconds   | Note                                 |                                      |     |
|-----------|-----------|--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|-----|
| `seconds` | `1`       | One second                           |                                      |     |
| `minutes` | `60`      | Calculated as 60 seconds             |                                      |     |
| `hours`   | `3600`    | Calculated as 60 minutes (60*60)*    |                                      |     |
|           | `days`    | `86400`                              | Calculated as 24 hours (2460*60)*    |     |
|           | `weeks`   | `604800`                             | Calculated as 7 days (724*60*60)     |     |
| `months`  | `2592000` | Calculated as 30 days (30*24*60*60)* |                                      |     |
|           | `years`   | `31536000`                           | Calculated as 365 days (36524*60*60) |     |

If [epoch](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/fe_epoch) is unset, the current time is used. It is possible to set a point of reference in the future by using a negative value for [unit_count](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/fe_unit_count).
This setting must be set by the user or an exception will be raised, and execution will halt.
<tip>
  See the [age filter documentation](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/curator/filtertype_age) for more information about time calculation.
</tip>