What is the difference between python functions `datetime.now()` and `datetime.today()`?

Question

What is the difference between python functions datetime.now() and datetime.today() ?

In [1]: from datetime import datetime

Answer 1

See the documentation: now() provides an optional timezone, and can give more precision.

Answer 2

datetime.datetime.now() takes tzinfo as keyword argument but datetime.today() does not take any keyword arguments.

By default, now() executes with datetime.datetime.now(tz=None)

As quoted in the docs: https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime.now

datetime.now() return the current local date and time. If optional argument tz is None or not specified, this is like today(), but, if possible, supplies more precision than can be gotten from going through a time.time() timestamp (for example, this may be possible on platforms supplying the C gettimeofday() function).

Answer 3

See the docs for datetime.today and datetime.now, specifically this part from the latter link:

If optional argument tz is None or not specified, this is like today(), but, if possible, supplies more precision than can be gotten from going through a time.time() timestamp (for example, this may be possible on platforms supplying the C gettimeofday() function).

So in your example, both are the same, although specific platforms may provide more precision with datetime.now.