diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/jinja-now.yml b/changelogs/fragments/jinja-now.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4a0353d5ae6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/jinja-now.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+minor_changes:
+- jinja2 - Add ``now()`` function for getting the current time
diff --git a/docs/docsite/rst/user_guide/playbooks_templating.rst b/docs/docsite/rst/user_guide/playbooks_templating.rst
index 79cce0b41e3..766aefec707 100644
--- a/docs/docsite/rst/user_guide/playbooks_templating.rst
+++ b/docs/docsite/rst/user_guide/playbooks_templating.rst
@@ -18,6 +18,24 @@ Please note that all templating happens on the Ansible controller before the tas
    playbooks_lookups
    playbooks_python_version
 
+.. _templating_now:
+
+Get the current time
+````````````````````
+
+.. versionadded:: 2.8
+
+The ``now()`` Jinja2 function, allows you to retrieve python datetime object or a string representation for the current time.
+
+The ``now()`` function supports 2 arguments:
+
+utc
+  Specify ``True`` to get the current time in UTC. Defaults to ``False``
+
+fmt
+  Accepts a `strftime <https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior>`_ string that will be used
+  to return a formatted date time string
+
 
 .. seealso::
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py
index e336860b4e1..2183b97f4c8 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/template/__init__.py
@@ -559,6 +559,18 @@ class Templar:
     def _fail_lookup(self, name, *args, **kwargs):
         raise AnsibleError("The lookup `%s` was found, however lookups were disabled from templating" % name)
 
+    def _now_datetime(self, utc=False, fmt=None):
+        '''jinja2 global function to return current datetime, potentially formatted via strftime'''
+        if utc:
+            now = datetime.datetime.utcnow()
+        else:
+            now = datetime.datetime.now()
+
+        if fmt:
+            return now.strftime(fmt)
+
+        return now
+
     def _query_lookup(self, name, *args, **kwargs):
         ''' wrapper for lookup, force wantlist true'''
         kwargs['wantlist'] = True
@@ -669,6 +681,8 @@ class Templar:
                 t.globals['lookup'] = self._lookup
                 t.globals['query'] = t.globals['q'] = self._query_lookup
 
+            t.globals['now'] = self._now_datetime
+
             t.globals['finalize'] = self._finalize
 
             jvars = AnsibleJ2Vars(self, t.globals)