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Interval timer

Rounds, rests and a countdown you can hear

Set up work and rest intervals, then run them hands free. Each phase change has its own tone and the last three seconds tick, so you never have to look at the screen mid-round.

Ready

ready
NOT STARTED
00:20

16 phases queued

00:00 of 04:00

Total
04:00
Working
02:40
Rounds
8

Presets

Intervals

seconds

Set rest to 0 for an EMOM, where every round starts on the minute. Changes are saved in this browser and apply the next time you press Start.

This workout

16 phases

04:00 in total, of which 02:40 is work.

  1. warmup00:10
  2. work 100:20
  3. rest 100:10
  4. work 200:20
  5. rest 200:10
  6. work 300:20
  7. rest 300:10
  8. work 400:20
  9. rest 400:10
  10. work 500:20
  11. rest 500:10
  12. work 600:20
  13. rest 600:10
  14. work 700:20
  15. rest 700:10
  16. work 800:20

How to use it

Pick a preset or type your own numbers, check the total at the bottom of the display, then press Start. The timer runs warm-up, then every work and rest pair in order, then the cooldown. Sound carries further than a screen does, so the phase you are in has its own tone: a rising two-note cue into work, a lower single note into rest, and three beeps when the whole session ends. The last three seconds of every phase tick, which is your cue to get into position.

The countdown is anchored to the system clock rather than to a ticking counter. It reads the real time on every frame and works out which phase you should be in, so locking the phone or switching apps does not make the workout drift. Pausing stores how far you had got and rebuilds the schedule from the moment you resume. While a workout is running the page asks the browser to keep the screen awake, which most mobile browsers honour if the tab stays in the foreground.

The presets are the common formats rather than prescriptions. Tabata is 20 seconds hard and 10 seconds easy for 8 rounds, from Izumi Tabata's 1996 study on speed skaters, and the protocol only produced those results because the work intervals were run at roughly 170 percent of VO2max. Anything gentler is a 20/10 interval workout, which is fine, just not the same thing. EMOM means every minute on the minute: set rest to 0 so each round starts one minute after the last, and whatever time your reps leave over is your rest.

Interval work is demanding on the heart and joints. If you are new to it, coming back from injury, or have a heart condition, start with longer rests and fewer rounds, and get medical advice before doing maximal intervals. This page times the work, it does not judge whether the work suits you.

Frequently asked questions

Does the timer keep running if I lock the screen?

The schedule stays correct because it is built from absolute clock times, so when you come back the display shows the phase you should be in. Audio is a different matter: browsers suspend sound in a backgrounded tab, so cues can be missed while the screen is off. Keep the tab in the foreground, ideally in full screen, and let the wake lock hold the display on.

Why is there no rest after the final round?

A rest at the end of the last round has nothing after it, so the schedule drops it and moves to the cooldown, or ends. If you want a fixed recovery period at the end, put the time into the cooldown field instead.

How do sets differ from rounds?

Rounds are the work and rest pairs inside one block. A set is a whole block of rounds, and the rest between sets runs after the last round of each one. Leave sets at 1 unless you are repeating a circuit with a longer break in between.

The sound does not play at all.

Browsers block audio until you have interacted with the page, so the first Start press is what unlocks it. If it is still silent, check that the tab is not muted and that the device is not on silent, which stops web audio on iOS.

Related tools

Working out at a desk job pace all day instead? The Pomodoro timer uses the same clock-anchored countdown for focus sessions.