Online timer

How it works

A countdown is wanted for cooking, laundry, exercise intervals, focus sessions and anything with a deadline measured in minutes. The requirement is simple and easily got wrong: it must stay accurate, and it must actually tell you when it finishes.

It counts from the clock, not from ticks

Browsers deliberately slow down timers in background tabs to save battery. A timer that counts ticks loses time when you switch away — sometimes minutes of it. This one records the moment it should finish and compares against your device's clock, so the remaining time is always right no matter what the tab was doing.

The alarm, and its one limitation

At zero it beeps three times and the display flashes, and the tab title changes so you can see it from another tab. The honest caveat: if the tab is in the background, the browser may run the check a little late, so the beep can arrive a few seconds after the moment. The elapsed time shown is still exact.

Presets and custom times

The preset buttons cover the common intervals. For anything else, set hours, minutes and seconds directly. Pause keeps your place; reset returns to the time you set.

Sound has to be allowed

Browsers block audio until you have interacted with the page. Because you start the timer by pressing a button, that condition is met — but if your device is on silent, the visual flash is the alert you will get.