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Countdown Timer

Live countdown (or count-up) to any target date and time, in any timezone.

  • countdown
  • timer
  • time until
  • days until
  • launch

About Countdown Timer

A countdown timer is the simplest way to make a deadline feel real. Whether you're waiting for a holiday, a product launch, a wedding, a release date, or a flight, watching the days, hours, minutes, and seconds tick down has a way of focusing attention that a calendar entry never quite manages.

This countdown also flips into count-up mode automatically once the target passes, so you can use the same page to track how long it's been since an anniversary, a project kicked off, or anything else worth measuring backwards from. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is stored on a server — and the page generates a shareable link so you can send the same countdown to someone else.

How to use

Give your countdown a label (e.g. "Launch", "Christmas", "Wedding"), pick a target date and time, and choose the timezone the target is anchored in. The big four-tile display updates every second showing days, hours, minutes, and seconds remaining.

If the target is in the past, the same display ticks upward and the heading switches to "Time elapsed since". Use the "Copy share link" button at the bottom to get a URL that recreates the same countdown for someone else — the label, target, and timezone are all encoded in the link.

Frequently asked questions

  • What happens when the target date passes?

    The countdown flips automatically into count-up mode. The heading changes from "Time until" to "Time elapsed since", and the four tiles begin ticking upward. No reload is needed.

  • Why does timezone matter for a countdown?

    A wall-clock time like "1 January, midnight" represents a different absolute instant depending on the timezone you anchor it to — Tokyo's New Year hits 16 hours before Hawaii's. The timezone selector tells the countdown which midnight you mean, so two people viewing the same shared link see the same countdown regardless of where they are.

  • Can I share or bookmark a countdown?

    Yes. The current label, target date, and timezone are encoded in the URL, and the "Copy share link" button lifts the full URL onto your clipboard. Anyone who opens that link sees the same countdown ticking down in real time, anchored to the same target.

  • Where is my countdown stored?

    Nowhere on a server. The label and target are stored entirely in the URL, so no account, login, or backend is involved. Bookmark the link or paste it somewhere durable if you want to come back to the same countdown later.

  • Why are the seconds ticking but the days never seem to change?

    For long countdowns (more than a few days), only the seconds and minutes tiles update visibly between page refreshes — that's normal. The hours and days update once an hour or once a day respectively. Refresh the page after a long break and you'll see the full breakdown jump to its current value.

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