How to get Current time with carbon now and also display in 12 hours format?

Carbon::now()->isoFormat('Do MMMM HH:MM a');

or

Carbon::now()->isoFormat('Do MMMM HH:MM A');

To convert to a AM PM string just don't call toTimeString()..

$time = Carbon::now();

$time->format('Y/m/d g:i:s A');

echo gettype($time); //Return string

Use format with a lowercase g for 12-hour time and a for am/pm

now()->format('g:i:s a')

https://www.php.net/manual/en/datetime.format.php