12 Minute Timer

Press Start to count down 12 minutes.

This free 12 minute timer counts down 12 minutes with a shrinking red disc you can read at a glance. 12 minutes is 720 seconds (seven hundred and twenty seconds). It is the length of the Cooper running test, as well as a common classroom station and timed-writing slot.

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What a 12 minute timer is good for

Twelve minutes has a famous sporting use. In 1968 Dr Kenneth Cooper designed a fitness test for the US Air Force: run as far as you can in twelve minutes, then compare the distance with a table. Schools and sports clubs still use it today.

The Cooper test

Run or walk as far as you can around a track in twelve minutes. Around 2,400 metres is a good result for an adult man and around 2,000 metres for an adult woman, depending on age.

Station rotations

Four stations of twelve minutes fit a 50 minute lesson with time to move between them.

Timed writing

Twelve minutes is long enough for an essay paragraph with a plan, a common format in English exam practice.

Steel-cut oats

A pan of steel-cut or pinhead oats needs around twelve minutes of gentle simmering to turn creamy.

To pace yourself, glance at the disc rather than the numbers. With the 12 minute timer running, half the colour has gone after 6 minutes, and when only a quarter is left you have 3 minutes to wrap up. Open fullscreen if the timer needs to be read across a room, and add a label so everyone knows what the 12 minutes are for.

How to use the 12 minute timer

  1. It is ready

    The dial is already set to 12 minutes. To change it, drag the disc, tap a preset or open Custom.

  2. Press Start

    Or press the Space bar. The red disc shrinks back towards 12 o’clock as the time runs down.

  3. Watch the disc

    Read the time left at a glance, or open fullscreen for a big dial that fills the screen.

  4. Time’s up

    Your alarm plays until you press Stop. Press Reset or R to run the same time again.

12 minutes in other units

12 minutes equals
Seconds720
Minutes12
Hours0.2
Fraction of a day1/120

Why use this timer

Why a visual timer helps

A shrinking disc turns time into something you can see. You read how much is left at a glance, without doing sums on a clock, and an invisible deadline feels less stressful when you can watch it approach. That is why visual timers are a staple in classrooms and are widely used by people with ADHD and autistic children and adults. Read our guide to using a visual timer, how it helps with ADHD time blindness, classroom transitions and autism.

Why this timer is accurate

The countdown is anchored to your device clock rather than counted in animation frames. It does not drift if you switch tabs or your screen sleeps: it keeps running in the background and still sounds the alarm on time. When you come back, the disc jumps straight to the correct position.

Frequently asked questions

There are 720 seconds in 12 minutes. That is 0.2 of an hour, or seven hundred and twenty seconds written out.

The twelve minute Cooper running test, a four-station lesson, a planned exam-style paragraph, or simmering steel-cut oats until creamy.

Yes. The 12 minute countdown is anchored to your device clock rather than counted frame by frame, so it stays accurate in a background tab and the alarm still fires when the 12 minutes are up.

No. The 12 minute timer runs in your browser on phone, tablet and desktop. It is free, and there is no account, app or download.

Yes. Press the fullscreen button or the F key. The dial fills the screen, so the remaining part of the 12 minutes is readable from the back of the room.

Yes, once this page has loaded. Nothing is sent over the network while the 12 minutes count down, so a dropped connection will not stop the timer.

Steel-cut oats, basmati rice that has been rinsed and soaked, a salmon fillet in a hot oven, or thick spaghetti such as bucatini. Start this 12 minute timer when the pan reaches a simmer.

When the 12 minutes are up the disc is empty, the screen shows Time’s up! and your alarm plays until you press Stop. It stops by itself after five minutes.

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