Difference between now() and today() in Appian ?

The two functions differ in whether they include a time, what data type they return, and how they relate to the time zone.

now():

now() returns the current date and time as a DateTime. It is time zone aware, using the system or user time zone.

Use it when you need an exact timestamp, such as logging, audit trails, or comparing against other DateTime values.

today() :

today() returns only the current date, as a Date. It depends on the time zone indirectly: the date comes from the system time zone, but no time is stored.

Use it when only the date matters, like filtering records by date or building daily reports.

A common mistake

Comparing the two directly fails, because now() carries a time and today() doesn’t:

Compare the date parts instead:

Tip: To get a date a number of days from now, add that number to today(). It works the same way with now().