Countdown Timer
Free online countdown timer — 1, 3, 5, 10, 25 minute presets, custom duration, alarm sound, keyboard shortcuts. Runs in your browser.
About Countdown Timer
A no-frills countdown timer. Pick a preset (1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 minutes, or 1 hour) or type a custom HH:MM:SS duration. Start, pause, reset. An alarm plays when time’s up.
Three small details that make it actually useful:
- The countdown is anchored to wall-clock time, so it stays accurate even if the browser throttles background tabs.
- The tab title updates every second so you can see the countdown without switching tabs.
- Space toggles start/pause. R resets.
For focused work sessions specifically, the Pomodoro Timer handles the 25/5 cycle and tracks completed pomodoros.
Free, no signup, runs entirely in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Yes — the countdown is based on the wall clock (Date.now()) rather than setInterval, so even if your browser throttles background tabs the timer stays accurate. The alarm plays when you return to the tab even if it fired in the background.
Probably not reliably. Browsers throttle audio in inactive tabs to save battery, and operating system sleep settings can pause everything. For wake-up alarms, use a dedicated phone alarm app. For 'I'm at my desk, beep at me when this is done' the browser alarm works fine.
**Space** — start/pause toggle. **R** — reset. Shortcuts work whenever no input field is focused.
Not in v1. Open the tool in a second browser tab to run a second timer. For a multi-timer workflow (cooking, intervals, training), a dedicated multi-timer app is the right tool.