5 Minute Timer
A free 5 minute timer with one-tap start, gentle bells, and a sign showing when you'll be back.
Five-minute countdown
5 minutes
End the break now? Time is still on the clock.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Back-at sign
- Start and halfway bells
- Full screen
With a keyboard: Space to start or pause, R to reset, F for full screen, Esc to end the chime. Single-key shortcuts can be turned off under Sound and screen.
How to use the 5 minute timer
- Press Start. That's all it needs for a basic five-minute countdown.
- Stepping away? Press Show back-at sign, add a note, then Full screen.
- For a quiet sit, tick the start bell and halfway bell before you press Start.
- At zero the face turns red and the chime plays once. Stop puts it back to 5:00.
Taking a five-minute break
Five minutes is the classic short break. The Pomodoro® Technique, as Duke University's Academic Resource Center lays it out, is 25 minutes of work and then a 5-minute break, preferably not spent on a screen. That last part is why this timer chimes once and stays quiet: you can start it, walk away from the desk, and hear it from the kitchen. If you want the work sessions and breaks to switch on their own, the Focus timer runs the 25 and 5 minute cycle for you.
A break works better when you decide what it's for before you press Start. A few that fit in five minutes:
- Refill your water and look out a window.
- Walk to the end of the hallway and back, or up and down a flight of stairs.
- Clear one small surface, like the desk or the counter.
- Reply to the one message you've been putting off, then stop.
When the chime goes, Stop resets the clock to 5:00, so the next break is one tap away.
The back-at sign for stepping away
A countdown tells you how long is left. It doesn't tell the person who walks up to your desk, front counter or live stream when you'll be back, because they don't know when you left. Show back-at sign swaps the large label for a plain return time, like Back at 2:47 PM, worked out from the end of your countdown.
Type a note if it helps (On a call, Grabbing lunch, Be right back) and press Full screen. The sign, note and countdown fill the display. If the browser blocks full screen, the face takes over the page instead. Before you start, the sign shows when you'd be back if you started now, so you can check it reads right.
Back at 2:47 PM
On a call
A five-minute sit with bells
A loud, repeating alarm can break a quiet sit, breathing pause or moment of prayer, so this page gives you three soft markers instead: a bell when you press Start, an optional bell at 2:30, and a single chime at the end. Pick Bell or Chime under Sound and screen, leave Keep chiming until I press Stop unticked, and set the volume lower than you think you need. Press Hear the chime now to check it before you settle.
This page only keeps time. It doesn't guide you through anything, so it works with whatever practice you already follow.
Quick jobs that take five minutes
Setting a short limit can make a small chore easier to start. Five minutes covers a quick tidy of one room, sorting the morning's mail, a short stretch between meetings, or letting something rest or steep while you do something else. If the job runs over, Stop and Start give you another five without changing anything.
Related timers
- 10 minute timerThe work side of a break: focus blocks with warnings.
- 1 minute timerSingle minutes or repeat rounds with rests.
- Focus timerFocus sessions and 5-minute breaks that follow each other.
- Online timerAny length you type in.
- StopwatchTime how long a break actually took.
Questions about the break timer
How does the back-at sign work?
Press Show back-at sign and the face shows the clock time you'll be back, worked out from when the countdown ends. Add a short note such as Getting coffee, then press Full screen so it fills the display. Anyone who walks up can read the return time without needing to know when you left.
Can it ring when I start as well as when it ends?
Yes. Tick Ring a bell when I press Start. It's useful for marking the start of a quiet sit, or so the people around you hear that your break has begun. Add the halfway bell if you'd like a marker at 2:30.
Why does the alarm only ring once?
A soft single chime suits a break or a quiet moment, so that's the default here. If you might be out of earshot, open Sound and screen and tick Keep chiming until I press Stop.
Is five minutes the right break between work sessions?
It's the length the Pomodoro® Technique uses: Duke University's Academic Resource Center describes 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break, ideally away from a screen. Plenty of people use different lengths, and the right one is whatever lets you come back ready to work.
What if I need six or seven minutes?
Use the timer for any other length and type the exact minutes. This page is fixed at five minutes so it starts in one tap.
Will the sign still be right if I pause the timer?
While it's paused, the sign changes to Paused and shows the time you'd be back if you resumed right now. It goes back to a fixed return time as soon as you press Resume.
Sources
- Duke University Academic Resource Center, "Pomodoro Technique" (25 minutes of work, then a 5-minute break), arc.duke.edu
Cedrick Reese built the 5 minute timer for TimerCalculator.com. The return time on the back-at sign comes from the same stored end moment that drives the countdown, so the two can't drift apart. For launch, scripted browser runs with a simulated clock confirmed that the start bell, the 2:30 bell and the end chime were each queued for the right moment, and that pausing for a minute pushed the sign's back-at time a minute later. Nothing you type in the note leaves your browser.
The Pomodoro Technique® is a registered trademark by Francesco Cirillo. This website is not affiliated with, associated with, or endorsed by the Pomodoro Technique® or Francesco Cirillo.