Countdown Timer — Count Down to a Date, or Set a Simple Timer
Days, hours, minutes and seconds to any moment, with a shareable link — plus a plain minutes timer that beeps.
🔒 Runs in your browser — files never uploaded ⚡ No signup 💯 Free
Two timers in one page. Countdown to a date shows the days, hours, minutes and seconds until any moment you pick — New Year, a launch, a wedding, the end of an exam — and gives you a link that opens the same countdown for anyone. Timer is the kitchen-timer classic: set minutes and seconds, press start, get a sound when it ends, with the remaining time shown in the browser tab.
Both keep exact time even if the tab sleeps, because they count from the clock rather than by ticking.
How to use Countdown Timer
- Countdown: choose a date and time (or a preset), name the event, and copy the shareable link. Full screen turns it into a display for a wall or a stage.
- Timer: enter minutes and seconds or tap a preset, then Start. Start again to pause, Reset to go back.
- Leave the tab open — the time remaining shows in the tab title, so you can switch away.
Why the countdown stays accurate
A naive timer subtracts one second every second; browsers throttle background tabs and laptops sleep, so such timers drift by minutes. This one stores the target instant and recomputes the difference on every tick, so it is right the moment the tab wakes up. The date countdown uses your device's clock and time zone: 00:00 on New Year means midnight where you are.
Sharing a countdown
The target and title are encoded in the page address after the #. Copy the link and anyone who opens it sees the same countdown — no account, nothing stored anywhere. Because it is interpreted in the viewer's own time zone, a shared "midnight" is midnight for each of them; for a single global instant, share a UTC time and say so. To convert between zones first, use the time zone converter.
The timer, honestly
Browsers only allow sound after you have interacted with the page, which pressing Start counts as — so the end-of-timer beep works, but only if the page stays open in a tab. Closing the tab stops the timer; there is no background service, by design. If you need something that survives a closed browser, use your phone's clock app.
Pomodoro and study timers
The 25-minute preset is the Pomodoro interval: work for one, break for five, and take a longer break after four. It works less because 25 is magic than because a running timer makes the decision to stop-and-rest for you. Any interval you will actually keep beats the optimal one you won't.
For counting working days rather than seconds, see the working days calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Will the countdown keep running if I close the tab?
The date countdown, yes — it is computed from the target date, so reopening the link shows the correct remaining time. The minutes timer, no: it lives in the page, and closing it stops it. Switching tabs is fine for both; the remaining time is shown in the tab title.
How does the shareable link work?
The target date and event name are written into the address after the #. Anyone opening that link gets the same countdown; nothing is stored on a server. Times are interpreted in each viewer's own time zone.
Why didn't the timer make a sound?
Browsers block audio until you have interacted with the page — pressing Start counts, so it normally works. Check the "Sound when done" box is ticked and the tab isn't muted (right-click the tab). Some mobile browsers silence background tabs entirely.
Can I put this on a big screen?
Yes — the Full screen button enlarges the countdown to fill the display, for events, classrooms and streams. Press Esc to leave.
Is the countdown accurate to the second?
To your device's clock, yes. It recalculates from the current time on every tick instead of counting down, so sleeping laptops and throttled background tabs cannot make it drift.