Could aliens be older than humanity by millions of years?

Yes — it is possible that alien civilizations could be millions, or even billions, of years older than humanity.

That said, we do not currently have verified evidence that alien life exists, so this remains a scientific possibility rather than an established fact. The idea is plausible because the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, and modern humans have existed for only about 300,000 years. That leaves a very large window in which life could have arisen and evolved elsewhere before humanity appeared.

Some scientists also consider very old civilizations plausible given the age of the universe, but that is still speculative. In short: yes, they could be that much older — we just don’t know yet.