Countdown to a date

Popular countdowns

Every holiday below has its own page that works out the next date for you. They always count to the next one, so there is nothing to set.

How to set up a countdown

1. Give it a title if you like — “Launch day”, “Flight to Vancouver”, “Last day of school”. The title appears above the numbers and in the sentence beneath them.
2. Pick the date and the time. If you leave the time empty, the countdown ends at midnight at the start of that day.
3. Choose the time zone. Leave it on your device’s own zone, or pick a city from the list.
4. Watch it run, then press Copy link to share it or Full screen to put it on a big screen.

The cards show days, hours, minutes and seconds. Underneath, the same wait is written out in one unit at a time — weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds — which answers questions like “how many hours until Friday?” at a glance. Your last setup is remembered on your device, so the page is ready when you come back.

Time zones and daylight saving

The countdown is built from the clock time you enter in the zone you choose, not from your device’s offset on the day you typed it. That matters when the clocks change between now and the date: the countdown is exact, so it reaches zero at the right moment.

Leave the zone on your device’s own and the countdown ends at that clock time wherever the page is opened — the right choice for midnight on New Year’s Eve. Choose a city and everyone who opens the link counts to the same moment, which suits a webinar or a flight. If you want to compare cities first, the world clock shows them side by side.

Two rare cases are handled the way a person would expect. A time that never happens, because the clocks jump forward past it, moves on to the same moment an hour later. A time that happens twice, because the clocks go back, uses the first of the two. Days are counted as 24-hour blocks, so if a change falls between now and your date the hours can differ by one from a count on a wall calendar.

When the moment passes

If the date you enter is already behind you, the page says That moment has passed and shows how long ago it was, so the same page doubles as a counter. For a counter in years, months and days, use time since a date.

Share it or embed it

Copy link gives an address that carries the date, title and time zone, so whoever opens it sees the same countdown. Only share a link if you are happy for those details to be seen. To show a countdown on your own website, the embed page builds a snippet you can paste into most site builders. For a short timer with an alarm, use the countdown timer instead.

Good to know

• The countdown uses your device’s clock. If that clock is wrong, the countdown is wrong by the same amount.
• Nothing runs while the page is closed. It works out the time left each time it is open, so it is right after your computer has slept.
• Nothing you type is sent anywhere. The online clock is there if you need to check the time as the moment approaches.