Free Online Kitchen Timer

A kitchen timer should feel at home in the kitchen — warm, clear, and easy to read from across the room.  That's exactly what this one is designed to be.  A blurred kitchen background, bold high-contrast time display, and kitchen-appropriate alarm sounds make this timer feel like it belongs on your counter, not on a generic utility page.

Set your time, press Start, and step away from the screen.  The large time display stays readable from a distance, and the alarm sounds when your interval is up — no hovering over the keyboard required.

What to Time in the Kitchen

A kitchen timer earns its place by handling the intervals that matter most while you're busy cooking:

• Boiling eggs — Soft boiled:4–5 minutes.  Medium:6–7 minutes.  Hard boiled:9–11 minutes.  The difference between perfect and overdone is often less than a minute — let the timer catch it.
• Pasta and grains — Most pasta cooks in 8–12 minutes.  Rice, quinoa, and other grains have precise timing windows where texture goes from perfect to mushy quickly.  Set it and step away.
• Roasting vegetables — 20 to 45 minutes depending on size and temperature.  A timer check keeps you from pulling them too early or letting them go too far.
• Baking — Cookies, muffins, bread, and cakes all have precise bake times where a few extra minutes makes a real difference.  Set the timer when the oven door closes.
• Meat resting time — Steaks, roasts, and poultry need to rest after cooking.  5–20 minutes depending on the cut.  A timer keeps the rest honest while you plate everything else.
• Simmering sauces and soups — Long, slow simmers need a periodic check rather than constant watching.  Set a 15 or 20 minute interval and let the timer bring you back to the stove.
• Steeping tea — Green tea:2–3 minutes.  Black tea:3–5 minutes.  Herbal:5–7 minutes.  Steeping too long turns a good cup bitter — a precise timer fixes that.
• Multiple dishes at once — Use Loop to run the same interval repeatedly, or open the standard Timer in another tab to track two separate cooking times simultaneously.

Kitchen Timer Features

The Kitchen Timer is pre-configured for cooking use, with settings chosen for a real kitchen environment:

• High-visibility time display — The time is displayed in a large, bold, high-contrast format designed to be readable from across a kitchen — whether you're at the sink, the stove, or the other end of the counter.
• Kitchen alarm sounds — Pre-set to bell and chime sounds that feel natural in a kitchen context.  Choose from the full library of 50 sounds and tunes via Try Out Sounds & Tunes if you want something different.
• Alarm cycles — Set the alarm to ring multiple times so it cuts through kitchen noise — running water, extractor fans, background music.  A single beep is easy to miss;a repeated alarm is not.
• Loop — When the timer reaches zero it immediately resets and starts again automatically.  Useful for repeated basting intervals, stirring reminders, or any cooking task that repeats on a regular cycle.
• AutoRestart — With AutoRestart on, pressing Reset stops the timer, resets to your start time, and immediately begins counting down again.  Fast to re-run the same interval for a second batch without a separate Start click.
• Warm kitchen background — The blurred kitchen scene background keeps the timer feeling at home on the counter rather than clinical on a white screen.  Switch to dark mode for evening cooking if you prefer a darker display.
• Save and share your setup — Configure your preferred time, alarm sound, and cycles once, then save and copy the URL via the icon under the timer display.  Bookmark it and your kitchen timer is ready with one click every time.

Kitchen Timer — Common Questions

Does this timer work on phones and tablets?

Yes.  The Kitchen Timer works on any modern browser across desktop, mobile, and tablet.  The display scales automatically to fit your screen — prop a tablet on the counter and it reads like a dedicated kitchen appliance.

Will the alarm sound if I switch to another tab?

For reliable audio, keep the timer visible in an active browser tab with the window not minimized.  Browsers may throttle or mute background tabs, which can affect alarm playback — important to know when you're stepping away from the screen while something is on the stove.

Can I set the alarm to ring more than once?

Yes.  Open Settings and set Alarm Cycles to the number of times you want the alarm to repeat.  In a busy kitchen with background noise, setting it to ring 3–5 times makes it much harder to miss.

Can I time two things at once?

Not ideally — this is a current limitation worth knowing about.  Timers share local browser storage, so two tabs running the same timer can interfere with each other's settings.  As a workaround, a 5 Minute Timer and a 10 Minute Timer opened in separate window use separate storage and won't conflict — and both can be set to any time you need, not just their default durations.  For most single-dish cooking tasks the Kitchen Timer works perfectly;multi-dish timing with tight overlap is an area we're still working on.

Can I change the background image?

Yes.  Open Advanced Settings and paste in a URL to any web-accessible image to replace the default kitchen background.  You can set different images for light and dark modes independently.

How do I save my preferred kitchen timer setup?

Set your preferred time, alarm sound, and cycles, then click the icon under the time display and copy the URL.  Bookmark it in your browser and your exact kitchen timer configuration is one click away every time you cook.

Timer Tips & Tricks

Timer Help