Timers
Pomodoro Timer
A 25-minute Pomodoro focus timer with automatic breaks, an alarm, and a running tally of completed sessions, no account needed.
0 of 4 focus intervals toward the next long break · 0 completed
Focus intervals completed
0 focus intervals completed this session. A long break follows every 4th one.
Custom focus and break durations
Saved on this device — these four numbers only, not your progress.
This timer runs the Pomodoro cycle end to end: a focus session, then a short break, repeating until a long break arrives after every fourth focus session. All four numbers — the focus length, the short break, the long break, and how many sessions happen before the long break — are editable in the settings panel beneath the clock, so the 25/5/15 split below is a starting point rather than a fixed rule.
How long should a Pomodoro break be?
The classic split is a 5-minute short break after each focus session and a 15-to-30-minute long break after every fourth one. Five minutes is enough to step away from the screen without losing the thread of the task; the long break is where real recovery happens, since four consecutive focus sessions can easily add up to more than ninety minutes of sustained attention. If five minutes feels too short for your own breaks, lengthen it in the settings — there's nothing sacred about the original numbers beyond their being a sensible, tested-over-decades default.
Does the Pomodoro technique actually work?
Its value is mostly structural rather than magical: fixing a start and stop time turns an open-ended task into a bounded one, which lowers the barrier to actually beginning, and a scheduled break interrupts the tendency to grind past the point where focus has already faded. It won't suit every task — some work genuinely needs an unbroken hour or more before it clicks, which is exactly why the focus length here is a setting rather than a fixed 25 minutes. Treat the specific numbers as a starting default to adjust once you know how your own attention actually behaves, not as a rule to follow for its own sake.
Long break every fourth focus interval
By default, the fourth completed focus interval is followed by the long break instead of the usual short one, and the fifth interval starts a fresh cycle back at zero. The progress dots above the settings panel show exactly where you are in the current cycle at a glance, and the interval count itself — "how many focus sessions before the long break" — is one of the four settings you can change, alongside the three duration fields.
Tab title countdown: keep track from another tab
Since a Pomodoro timer is only useful while you're doing something else, this page writes the live countdown straight into the browser tab's title — glancing at your tab strip shows the time remaining and which phase you're in without switching back to check. Combined with the short alarm tone that plays automatically when a phase ends, this is what makes the timer useful in a background tab rather than only when it's the tab you're staring at.
Picking a focus length: 25 minutes, 50 minutes, or your own
The classic 25-minute Pomodoro isn't the only length worth using. The /25-minute-timer page opens straight into a plain 25-minute countdown for anyone who wants that exact length without touching a setting, and the /50-minute-timer page opens into a 50-minute focus block paired with a 10-minute break — the 50/10 cycle some people prefer for work that takes longer to get into than 25 minutes allows. Both are the same timer underneath with a different starting point, and every field stays editable afterward if neither preset ends up being exactly right.
Questions
- How long should a Pomodoro break be?
- The original Pomodoro technique uses a five-minute short break after each 25-minute focus session, and a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes after every fourth session. The short break is deliberately brief — long enough to stand up, stretch, or look away from the screen, but short enough that you don't lose the thread of what you were doing. The long break is where the real recovery happens, since four back-to-back focus sessions add up to well over an hour and a half of concentrated attention. This timer defaults to the classic 5-minute short break and 15-minute long break, and both are editable in the settings panel if you find either too short or too long for how you work.
- Does the Pomodoro technique actually work?
- It works for the same reason most fixed-interval work methods do: it turns an open-ended, vague task ('write the report') into a bounded one ('write for 25 minutes'), which lowers the activation energy needed to start. The forced breaks also fight the tendency to keep grinding on a task well past the point of diminishing returns. It is not a universal fix — some tasks genuinely need an uninterrupted hour or more to get into, which is why this timer lets you set a longer focus interval instead of forcing 25 minutes on everyone. The technique's real value is the structure it imposes, not the specific number 25; if a different focus length gets you into flow and keeps you there, that's a better fit than sticking to the original interval out of habit.
- What happens if I leave this tab in the background during a focus session?
- The countdown keeps running against the real clock the whole time, not against how often the tab happens to redraw — so a 25-minute session started and then left in a background tab for the full 25 minutes will show as finished the moment you come back, not still counting down. If the session finishes while you weren't looking, the timer says so honestly ("finished while this tab was in the background") instead of behaving as though it just ended, and it will not silently start the next interval without you confirming unless you've turned on automatic advancing. Turning on your browser tab title also helps here — this timer writes the live countdown into the tab title, so a quick glance at your tab strip tells you where you stand without switching back.
- Can I change the 25-minute focus time to something else?
- Yes — the focus length, both break lengths, and how many focus sessions happen before a long break are all editable in the settings panel beneath the timer, and your changes apply from the next interval onward. If you want a longer stretch without changing any settings, the /50-minute-timer page opens straight into a 50-minute focus block with a 10-minute break, which is a common alternative to the classic 25/5 split for people who find 25 minutes too short to get into deep work. The /25-minute-timer page is the reverse case — a plain 25-minute countdown for anyone who just wants the classic Pomodoro length without touching a single setting.
- Why does a long break come every fourth focus session?
- Four is the interval the original technique settled on, and this timer uses it as the default because most people find a longer break becomes genuinely useful only after roughly two hours of cumulative focus. You can change it in the settings panel — some people prefer a long break every third session for a shorter cycle, or every fifth or sixth for longer stretches of uninterrupted work. Whatever number you choose, the progress dots above the settings panel track exactly where you are in the current cycle, so you always know how many focus sessions remain before the next long break arrives.
- Is anything about my timer sent anywhere?
- No — the whole timer runs in your browser, and nothing about your sessions, your settings, or how many intervals you've completed is sent anywhere or saved anywhere between visits. Reloading the page or closing the tab resets the count and returns every setting to its default, precisely because nothing is written to this device or to an account. If you want a persistent daily or weekly tally, keep the tab open for the stretch of work you're tracking rather than relying on this page to remember anything across a reload.