Online timer

A countdown with an alarm. Accurate in a background tab, and it needs no permissions.

0:00

Set the time

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

The alarm is generated in the page, so there is no sound file to load and nothing to allow. It is prepared when you press Start, which is what lets it play at zero without the page ever asking for notification permission. If your device is muted the timer still finishes and says so here.

Accurate even when you look away

Browsers throttle timers in background tabs, so a countdown built by subtracting on each tick runs slow — sometimes by minutes over a long timer. This one calculates the remaining time from the clock every time it draws, so switching tabs, opening another window or leaving it alone changes nothing. When you come back, the number is correct.

The alarm needs no permission

The sound is generated in the page with an oscillator: there is no audio file to download and nothing to allow. Browsers refuse to play audio a user never asked for, quite rightly, so the audio is prepared when you press start — which means it can sound at zero without the page ever demanding notification permission for anything.

If your device is muted the timer still reaches zero and says so on screen.

Presets

One-click presets for the common cases: a few minutes for tea or eggs, twenty-five minutes for a Pomodoro, and longer ones for exercise intervals. Any time up to ninety-nine hours can be set by hand.

Keyboard and motion

All controls are reachable by tab and operable by space or enter. Where a system preference asks for reduced motion, the countdown animation is dropped and only the number changes.