Pockez
Countdown Timer
Free countdown timer with alarm sound and desktop notifications. Set hours, minutes and seconds or tap a preset; accurate in background tabs. No sign-up.
- Alarm when time is up
- Accurate in background
- One-tap presets
- Pause and add a minute
00:05:00
The timer runs entirely in your browser and nothing is uploaded. It stays accurate even if you switch tabs and come back.
🔒 Everything is calculated in your browser. No data is sent to any server.
When to use it
- Exams and presentations: Set the time for a test or talk, get an alarm when it’s up, and project it for the whole room.
- Cooking and tea: Noodles in 3 minutes, tea in 5: set it in one tap without reaching for your phone.
- Workouts and intervals: Time planks and rest between sets, with big digits you can read from across the room.
- Meetings and classes: Keep each agenda item or break on time, and press “+1 min” when you need a little longer.
How to use
- Enter hours, minutes and seconds, or tap a preset such as 5 min or 10 min. The big display shows the time you are about to count down.
- Press Start. The progress bar fills as time passes. You can Pause and Resume at any point, and tap +1 min if you need a little longer.
- When time is up you get three beeps, a flashing screen and a vibration on supported phones. Tick Desktop notification and allow it to get an alert even in another window. Press Reset to go back to the setup.
Worked example
Type 90 in the minutes field and leave the rest at 0: the display converts it to 01:30:00. Type only 75 in the seconds field and it shows 00:01:15.
Start a 5-minute countdown at 2:00:00 PM and switch to another tab. Even if the browser only wakes background timers once a minute, the moment you come back at 2:07:12 the timer is marked as finished, shows 00:00:00 and alerts you. It does not carry on from where the display was when you left.
Pause a 10-minute countdown after 2 minutes 30 seconds: the display stops at 00:07:30 and the bar is at 25%. Tap +1 min and the remaining time becomes 00:08:30, the total becomes 11 minutes and the bar drops back to about 22.7%.
Reading the results
- Seconds are rounded up: with 0.2 s left the display still reads 00:00:01 and only shows 00:00:00 when time is really up. That is also why you see the full time, not one second less, the instant you press Start.
- The progress bar is elapsed time divided by the total. Adding a minute also extends the total, so the bar moves back slightly.
- While the timer runs or is paused, the browser tab title shows ⏳ or ⏸ with the time left, so you can check it from the tab bar. When time is up the title changes to ⏰ Time's up!
How it works
- Pressing Start records end time = now + duration. Every 0.25 s the remaining time is recalculated as end time − now instead of subtracting one second per tick, so timer delays never add up to drift.
- Pausing saves the remaining time; resuming sets a new end time of now + remaining. No time is used up while paused.
- Browsers slow down ordinary timers in background tabs, so the heartbeat that refreshes the display runs in a Web Worker. The timer is also recalculated as soon as the tab becomes visible again.
- The alarm is three 880 Hz beeps generated live with the Web Audio API, so no sound file is downloaded and it works offline. Desktop notifications use the browser's Notification API, and permission is only requested when you tick the box.
Limitations
- Time is based on your device clock. If the system time is changed or synced during a countdown, the remaining time jumps accordingly.
- When a phone is locked, in battery saver mode or the browser is suspended, a web page cannot play sound in the background, so the alert may appear only when you return. Use your phone's built-in alarm when you must be woken on time.
- Closing or reloading the page stops the countdown; nothing is saved.
- The maximum is 99:59:59 and the smallest unit is one second.
FAQ
Does the timer stop if I switch tabs or lock my phone?
No. The timer stores the exact end time and compares it with the current time, so the remaining time is correct the moment you come back. If your phone is locked or the browser is suspended, though, the alarm may only sound once you return to the page. For anything critical, keep the screen on or use your phone's built-in alarm.
Why didn't I hear the alarm?
Browsers only let a page play sound after you interact with it, so the alarm is enabled when you press Start. Make sure Sound is ticked and your volume is up. On iPhone, the physical silent switch also mutes web pages.
How do I turn on desktop notifications?
Tick Desktop notification and choose Allow when the browser asks. If you blocked it before, open the site settings from the icon next to the address bar and allow notifications again. Safari on iPhone doesn't support web notifications in a normal tab; try adding this site to your Home Screen first.
What is the longest countdown?
99 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. You can enter more than 59 in the minutes or seconds field; for example, 90 minutes is converted to 1 hour 30 minutes.
Can I run several countdown timers at once?
Open one in each browser tab. Each tab counts down on its own and rings when its time is up.
Can I project it as a classroom or exam timer?
Yes. The remaining time is shown in big digits with a progress bar, so everyone can see it on a projector or shared screen; when time is up it beeps and flashes.
How do I quickly set a 1-minute or 3-minute timer?
Tap one of the “Presets” buttons (1–60 minutes) to set it in one tap, or enter hours, minutes and seconds and press “Start”.
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