5 Minute Timer: Free Online Timer with a Chime

For a 5 minute timer, open the free countdown timer and press Start: the Length box is already set to 5 minutes. You can also press the 5 min quick button, which starts the countdown in one tap. The time left shows in large numbers and in the browser tab, and a short chime plays at zero. It's free, needs no account, and runs in your browser on your own device.

Five minutes is the length people reach for most often: a cup of tea, a quick exercise set, a timed practice question, a short break. Here's how to set it up, how to run several 5-minute rounds, and when a stopwatch is the better tool.

How to start a 5 minute timer

1. Open the free countdown timer. Timer is selected and the Length box reads 5.
2. Press Start, or press the 5 min button. Either one begins at 5:00.
3. Keep the tab open with sound on. At zero the panel turns yellow, says Time's up! and plays a three-note chime.

Use Pause and Resume if you're interrupted, and Reset to return to 5:00 for another round.

Need four and a half minutes, or five and a half? Type 4:30 or 5:30 in the Length box. A colon means minutes and seconds; a plain number means minutes; 5m 30s and 330s work too.

Quick uses for five minutes

Tea and coffee

Steeping times depend on the tea and on taste, but many black teas are brewed for about 3 to 5 minutes, and herbal teas often for 5 minutes or more. A French press coffee is commonly given about 4 minutes. Follow the packet if it gives a time; the point of the timer is that you stop guessing and get the same cup every day. There's a 3 min quick button for shorter brews.

Planks and quick workouts

Five minutes is a long plank for most people, so the timer is better used for a short circuit:

• 5-minute plank challenge: alternate 30 seconds of plank and 30 seconds of rest, five times each. Watch the countdown and switch at each half-minute (4:30, 4:00, 3:30 and so on).
• A 5-minute warm-up before a run: march, arm circles, leg swings, squats.
• Desk reset: five minutes of stretching at the end of every hour of sitting.

For timing each set or lap separately, the free online stopwatch records laps with a tap (or the L key) and shows your fastest and slowest.

Exam and interview practice

Timed practice is where a 5-minute countdown earns its keep:

• One question in five minutes. Many short-answer and aptitude questions are meant to be done in a few minutes. Set the timer, answer, and see whether you'd have finished in time.
• Five-minute recall. Close the book, start the timer, and write down everything you remember from a chapter. Then check what you missed.
• Spoken answers. Interview and speaking tests often give a minute or two to prepare and a few minutes to speak. A 5-minute talk is about 650 words at a calm pace; see how many words a 5-minute speech is.

If you're doing a full study session, the Pomodoro technique uses 25-minute focus blocks with 5-minute breaks, and the free focus timer runs them for you.

Around the house

• Five minutes to tidy the desk before you log off.
• A 5-minute warning before bedtime, home time or the end of screen time. Children cope with transitions much better when they can see the time running down.
• Five minutes to sort the post, water the plants or pack tomorrow's bag.

Running several 5-minute rounds

The timer doesn't repeat by itself, but a new round is one tap: after the chime, press 5 min again and it restarts at 5:00. For a set of rounds with rests in between, decide the pattern first, for example "5 minutes on, 1 minute off", and alternate between the 5 min and 1 min buttons.

If you want work and rest phases that roll on automatically, the free focus timer does that. You can change its focus and break lengths to any number of minutes.

Countdown timer or stopwatch?

You want to...	Use
Stop after a fixed 5 minutes	Countdown timer
Know how long something actually took	Stopwatch
Time several laps or sets	Stopwatch (Lap button)
See a deadline approaching from across the room	Countdown timer (progress bar)

A useful trick for exam practice: do one question with the stopwatch to see your real pace, then switch to the 5-minute countdown to train yourself to fit it.

Tips so you never miss the end

• Tap to start. Browsers only allow sound after you interact with the page, and pressing Start or a quick button counts.
• Background tabs are fine. The timer counts from the clock, so it stays accurate when you switch tabs or apps. Closing the tab stops it.
• Check silent mode on phones. A muted phone won't play the chime.
• Watch the tab title. The remaining time, like 2:14, appears in the tab name.

For a longer block, such as a tidy-up or a talk rehearsal, see setting a 10-minute timer.

Start a 5 minute timer now

Open the free countdown timer and press Start. Five minutes is already set.