Countdown Timer

About this tool

Pick a future date and time and watch a live countdown in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Useful for a product launch, a submission deadline, an exam, a trip, or anything you want a running clock on.

How the time is handled. The date and time you pick are in your device's local time zone. The countdown is the difference between that target and your device's current clock, recalculated once a second. Because it always reads the real system time rather than counting ticks, it stays accurate even if the tab is backgrounded, the laptop sleeps, or the timer drifts — when you come back, it jumps straight to the correct remaining time.

Sharing a countdown. The "Share link" button encodes the target time in the URL, so anyone who opens that link sees a countdown to the same moment. The displayed breakdown adjusts to each viewer's local time zone, but the instant being counted to is the same for everyone.

Time zones and events. If you're counting down to something that happens in another time zone — a launch at "9am Pacific," a match kicking off in another country — convert that moment to your own local time first with the time zone converter, then enter the result here.

Daylight saving. If the countdown spans a daylight-saving change in your zone, the wall-clock time you entered still refers to a fixed instant, so the number of seconds remaining is correct; only the local-time labelling shifts by an hour across the transition.

When it reaches zero the display switches to a completion message rather than showing negative time. Refreshing or reopening the page resumes against the current time.

For counting up from now instead, use the stopwatch. For fixed timed work intervals rather than a countdown to a clock time, use the Pomodoro timer.

Frequently asked questions

What time zone does this use?

The target you pick is in your device's local time zone, and the countdown runs against your device's current local time.

Does the countdown keep running if I switch tabs or my computer sleeps?

Yes. It reads the real system clock each second, so when you return it shows the correct remaining time rather than a value that fell behind.

What happens when it reaches zero?

The display switches to a completion message instead of counting into negative numbers.

Can I share a countdown with someone else?

Yes. "Share link" puts the target time in the URL. Everyone who opens it counts down to the same instant, shown in their own local time.

How do I count down to an event in another country?

Convert the event's start time to your local time first (the time zone converter does this), then set that as the target.

Is it accurate to the second?

It updates every second against the system clock. The system clock itself is usually synced to network time and accurate to well under a second.