Countdown to a Date
Pick the day and time you are counting down to and it works out what is left, down to the second. Useful for a deadline, a launch, an exam or a holiday.
Time remaining
00:00
Counting down to a date
This is a different kind of timer from the rest. Everything else here measures a length of time from the moment you press start; this one measures the gap to a fixed point, so it is right the second you set it and does not need starting at all.
That distinction matters if you pause it, close it or come back tomorrow. A duration timer that you paused for an hour has an hour more to run than it did. This one does not — the target has not moved, so whatever you did in between, the number shown is still the honest answer.
The time you enter is read in your own device's time zone, which is almost always what you want and occasionally not. If you are counting down to something that happens at a fixed time somewhere else — a market opening, a broadcast, a call with another country — convert it to your local time first and enter that, otherwise you will be out by the offset between you.
Days are shown separately once there is more than one, because a countdown of four thousand hours is accurate and unreadable. Under a day it drops to hours, minutes and seconds, and under an hour to minutes and seconds.
What people use it for
- A deadline, a submission or a filing date
- An exam, an interview or a driving test
- A launch, a release or a go-live
- A holiday, a wedding or a birthday
- The end of a notice period or a contract
How it works
The remaining time is the gap between the target and the clock, worked out fresh every time the page repaints. There is nothing accumulating and nothing to drift, so a tab left open for a fortnight is exactly as correct as one opened a second ago.
Daylight saving is handled by your device rather than by us. If the clocks change between now and the target, the countdown absorbs the hour when it happens rather than being wrong for the whole period beforehand.
A target in the past reads zero rather than counting upwards. If you want to know how long ago something was, the date calculators work that out properly, including across leap years.
Nothing is saved. Close the tab and the date goes with it, so this is for watching a countdown rather than for remembering one.
- Space
- Start or pause.
- R
- Reset.
- Tab title
- Shows the time left, so a background tab still tells you.
Questions
Which time zone does it use?
Your device's own. If the event happens at a set time elsewhere, convert it to your local time before entering it.
Does it handle the clocks going forward or back?
Yes. The target is a fixed moment and your device knows when the offset changes, so the countdown adjusts on the day rather than being an hour out for weeks beforehand.
Does it count leap years?
It does not need to. It measures the gap between two moments directly, so any 29th of February in between is simply part of the gap.
Can I share a countdown with someone?
Not as a link — the date lives only in your browser and is not part of the address. Send them the date and time and they can set it in a few seconds.
What happens when it reaches zero?
It sounds the alarm and stays at zero rather than counting up past the target.
Do I have to leave the tab open?
To watch it, yes. Nothing is stored, so closing the page ends it — although since the number is worked out from the clock, reopening it and re-entering the date gives exactly the right answer again.
How many days until a date, without the seconds?
The days-between calculator gives that as a plain figure, along with weeks and working days, which is usually the more useful form for anything more than a few days away.
Can I count down to something years away?
Yes. There is no upper limit on the date, and it will show the days remaining however many there are.