Free online countdown timer • Simple, clear, no signup
Ready
A big, easy-to-read countdown timer that works on any classroom screen, whiteboard, tablet, or phone. Set it with one tap using the presets, or type any custom time up to 99 minutes – then start, pause, and reset as often as you like. There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
Teachers use it for quizzes, silent reading, turn-taking games, and tidy-up countdowns. Beyond the classroom it works as a workout or stretch timer, a Pomodoro focus timer, a cooking reminder, or a speaking-practice clock for rehearsals and language practice. The huge monospace digits stay readable from the back of any room.
Each setInterval(tick, 1000) callback subtracts one second from a counter and redraws the digits. The script never reads a clock, so elapsed time is counted in callbacks, not measured against Date.now() or performance.now(). That matters when the tab is not in front, because Chrome and Edge wake a hidden tab's timers about once a minute after a few background minutes, and a sleeping laptop stops them outright. A five minute countdown started before you switch away can still be showing most of its time left when you come back: those ticks were never delivered. Keep the tab visible and it matches the wall clock.
A stopwatch is read once at the end, so a drifting second goes unnoticed. A countdown is watched by the whole room, where the same drift shows as an activity ending early.
Presets cover 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes. The 25 minute Pomodoro block is not one of them: type it, press Set, then use 5 for the short break and 15 or 30 for the long one.
A shared number ends a transition without a spoken reminder. Set up a turn with the name picker, divide the room with the group generator, choose who starts with a coin flip, and time it here. More on the tools index.
The interval stays registered, but a hidden tab is woken far less often, so the count falls behind real time. Pausing and resuming does not close that gap.
Whether the tab was hidden or the machine slept, whether Pause was pressed, and whether a length was set, since Start counts down from whatever is on screen. A clock change is not the cause.
No. No audio file is loaded and no Web Audio tones are created; the status line and the red pulsing last ten seconds are the only signals.
The custom fields take 0 to 99 minutes and 0 to 59 seconds, and they work while a countdown is paused. Nothing is saved, so a refresh returns the display to 05:00 and Ready.
A screen timer is enough until the room is large, the laptops are shut, or the class has to read the count from the back wall. A big-digit display timer or a sand timer does that job without a network, a login or a battery in every bag. The links below open an Amazon search in a new tab; prices and stock change hourly, and nothing here is a tested review.
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