Countdown to a Date
How long until it? A live countdown in days, hours, minutes and seconds to any date and time you pick.
- Days
- –
- Hours
- –
- Minutes
- –
- Seconds
- –
Once you set a target, the page link carries it: share the link and the same countdown opens for whoever taps it. The target is also remembered on this device, and nowhere else.
Free forever, no sign-up and no limits, and this tool installs on its own so you can keep it on your home screen.
Pick a date and time and watch the countdown run live, days, hours, minutes and seconds, ticking. Past dates count up instead, telling you how long it has been. The countdown survives a reload, travels in the page link so you can share it, and has a full-screen mode for projecting.
How to use it
- Pick the momentDate and time, in your local time. New Year is preloaded as a starting point.
- Watch it runThe countdown updates every second, with days, hours, minutes and seconds broken out.
- Share it or step awayThe page link now carries your countdown, so you can send it to anyone. The remaining time shows in the tab title, and reloading resumes right where the clock says.
Anticipation, quantified
A countdown does something a calendar entry cannot: it makes distance to a moment concrete, and watching seconds tick is oddly clarifying. Exam students use countdowns for urgency, teams point one at a launch, travellers at a departure gate time, and half the internet at New Year. This is that instrument, without an app install or an account.
The four figures answer at different scales: far away, only days matter; the last morning is hours; the final stretch is a wall clock. All four run together so the countdown reads correctly at whatever distance you are from the moment.
Exact by the clock
Under the counter, the target is spelled out in full, weekday, date, time, explicitly in your local time, because the commonest countdown error is counting to the right day at the wrong hour. Midnight-tonight versus midnight-tomorrow has ruined more launch countdowns than arithmetic ever has. Print the assumption and the error becomes visible before it matters.
Share it, project it, come back to it
Setting a target writes it into the page link, so sharing a countdown is just sharing the URL: everyone who opens it counts down to the same moment. The target rides inside the link, so there is no account at either end and nothing for the recipient to set up. While the countdown runs, the remaining time also shows in the tab title, and the full-screen button turns the page into a wall clock with digits sized for the back row.
Questions people ask
How many days until New Year?
It is the preloaded target, open the page and the answer is already ticking. Change the date for anything else: a wedding, a deadline, a departure.
Is the countdown in my time zone?
Yes. The time you pick is read as your local time, and the note under the countdown spells out exactly which moment it is counting to, weekday included. For an event in another time zone, convert first or enter the moment as it occurs in your local time.
What happens when the moment passes?
The counter flips to counting up ('since that moment') rather than freezing or going negative. Anniversary tracking is the same tool pointed backwards.
Why does the days figure not match the date difference tool?
This counter measures exact elapsed time including the clock, so at 9pm tonight, 'tomorrow 8am' is 0 days and 11 hours. The date difference tool counts calendar days and would say 1 day. Both are right; they answer different questions.
Does it keep counting if I close the tab?
Yes, in the way that matters. The target is remembered on this device, so reopening the page resumes the countdown exactly where it truly is. A countdown to a fixed moment needs nothing ticking in the background; the clock does the remembering.
Can I share a countdown with someone?
Yes. Once you set a target, the page link carries it, so anyone who opens your link sees the same countdown. The target rides inside the link itself, so there is no account to make at either end and nothing for the person you send it to to set up.
Is there a full-screen mode?
Yes, the button under the timer fills the screen with the remaining time in large digits, made for projecting at an event, a classroom exam clock or a screen by the stage. The same button, or the Esc key, brings the page back.
Can I count down to a time today?
Yes, pick today's date and the hour, and it runs in hours, minutes and seconds. A pocket meeting-countdown.