Pomodoro Timer & Stopwatch
Stay focused and keep track of your time. A Pomodoro timer and a stopwatch in one page, with custom durations and precise laps, all running in your browser
Customize durations
Pause the timer to change durations
Laps will appear here once you start recording
How to use this tool
- Choose the Pomodoro Timer or Stopwatch tab.
- In the timer, pick Focus, Short Break or Long Break, or set your own durations (1–180 minutes) under “Customize durations”.
- Start the timer and work until the alarm sounds; the long break replaces the short one after the fourth focus session.
- In the stopwatch, start it and press Lap to record splits and totals.
Worked example
With the default 25/5/15 setup, a full cycle of four focus blocks is 4 × 25 + 3 × 5 + 15 = 130 minutes, or 2 hours 10 minutes. A student who prefers longer blocks can set 50/10/30: four blocks then take 4 × 50 + 3 × 10 + 30 = 260 minutes, or 4 hours 20 minutes. The session counter tracks completed focus blocks, which makes it easy to see how many you finished in a day. The countdown is recalculated from the system clock, so it stays correct even if the tab runs in the background.
Methodology
The Pomodoro Technique divides work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by 5-minute short breaks and a 15-minute long break after four cycles. You can customize all three durations to fit your own rhythm.
Technical Implementation: Both the Pomodoro timer and the stopwatch are driven by the same drift-free engine: instead of counting down with a simple setInterval, each tick recalculates the remaining time from the system clock (Date.now()). This means the countdown stays accurate even if the browser throttles the tab in the background, and it corrects itself the instant you return. The alarm chime is generated natively with the Web Audio API, so no external audio file ever needs to load, and its volume is deliberately kept moderate — a clear two-tone cue rather than a jarring siren.
Where the numbers come from: the technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s and named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used (pomodoro is Italian for tomato). The classic pattern is a 25-minute focus block, a 5-minute break, and a longer break (Cirillo suggests 15 to 30 minutes) after every fourth block. With the default 25/5/15 settings, one full cycle of four focus blocks therefore takes 4 × 25 + 3 × 5 + 15 = 130 minutes, or 2 hours 10 minutes. The timer follows this rule: the long break replaces the short one after the 4th completed focus session, not the 3rd. Each duration accepts whole minutes from 1 to 180, and a value outside that range is ignored and the previous one is kept.
The stopwatch: it displays hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds. Each lap records both the split (time since the previous lap) and the running total, so you can compare consecutive efforts instead of doing the subtraction yourself. Pausing and resuming keeps the accumulated time, and Reset clears the laps.
Inês fits a Pomodoro cycle into a 3.5-hour afternoon
Inês has a free window from 14:00 to 17:30, which is 210 minutes. A classic 25/5/15 cycle would use only 130, so she opens “Customize durations” and saves 40/8/20.
- Four blocks of 40 minutes, three short breaks of 8 and one long break of 20: 4 × 40 + 3 × 8 + 20 = 204 minutes.
- Her day then runs: Focus 14:00–14:40, short break until 14:48, Focus until 15:28, break until 15:36, Focus until 16:16, break until 16:24, Focus until 17:04, then the Long Break until 17:24.
- During the third block the “Up next” label shows Short Break; during the fourth it switches to Long Break, because the long break follows the 4th completed focus session, not the 3rd.
- The dots under the clock count completed focus blocks only, so after 17:04 she sees four dots.
The cycle ends at 17:24, six minutes inside her window. Her takeaway: durations can only be changed while the timer is paused, and the session count resets if she refreshes the page, so she jots the number down if she needs it later.
Gear for Focused Work
Headphones, a cube timer and a weekly planner for focused work sessions
Soundcore by Anker Q20i Hybrid Active Noise Canceling Headphones
Over-ear wireless headphones with hybrid active noise canceling, according to the listing, for working in a noisy room.
Pomodoro Cube Visual Productivity Timer
A cube timer you flip to start a preset countdown, according to the listing: a screen-free alternative to this page.
Undated Weekly Planner & To Do List Notebook
An undated weekly planner and to-do notebook, according to the listing, for writing down which tasks go into each session.
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Frequently asked questions
Will the timer stop or drift if I switch to another tab? ▼
No. Both the Pomodoro timer and the stopwatch calculate elapsed time from the absolute system clock, not from counting ticks. Even if the browser pauses the page in the background, the display resyncs to the exact correct time the moment you return to the tab. In a background tab, browser throttling may delay the alarm sound by a few seconds.
Can I change the focus and break durations? ▼
Yes. Open “Customize durations” above the timer, set your own focus, short break, and long break lengths in minutes, and save. Your custom durations are remembered in this browser for next time, and you can restore the classic 25/5/15 defaults at any moment.
Does it make a sound when the Pomodoro finishes? ▼
Yes, a short two-tone chime generated by your browser's built-in audio engine, tuned to be noticeable without being jarring. You can adjust its volume or mute it entirely using the speaker icon next to the timer.
Will my session count or laps be lost if I refresh the page? ▼
Your custom durations and mute/volume preference are saved in this browser. The live countdown, completed-session count, and stopwatch laps reset on refresh by design, so every visit starts from a clean slate.
Why is the long break after four sessions and not three or five? ▼
That is how the original technique defines a set: four focus blocks, then a longer rest. The timer counts only completed focus sessions toward the set (the dots under the clock), and a break never adds to the count. If four focus blocks of 25 minutes feel too long or too short for you, change the durations instead; the pattern of three short breaks followed by one long break stays the same.