20 Second Timer

Press Start to count down 20 seconds.

This free 20 second timer counts down 20 seconds with a shrinking red disc you can read at a glance. 20 seconds is 20 seconds (twenty seconds). Twenty seconds is the health guideline for handwashing and the work interval in a Tabata round.

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What a 20 second timer is good for

Twenty seconds is the length the US CDC and the World Health Organization recommend for scrubbing your hands with soap. It is also the work interval in a Tabata round, where twenty seconds of all-out effort is followed by ten seconds of rest.

Handwashing

Scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails for twenty seconds, roughly two rounds of Happy Birthday.

A Tabata work interval

Go flat out for twenty seconds, rest for ten, and repeat eight times for a four minute block.

A classroom freeze

Ask pupils to freeze for twenty seconds before giving an instruction, a simple attention routine.

The 20-20-20 rule

Every twenty minutes, look at something twenty feet away for twenty seconds to rest your eyes.

To pace yourself, glance at the disc rather than the numbers. With the 20 second timer running, half the colour has gone after 10 seconds, and when only a quarter is left you have 5 seconds to wrap up. Open fullscreen if the timer needs to be read across a room, and add a label so everyone knows what the 20 seconds are for.

How to use the 20 second timer

  1. It is ready

    The dial is already set to 20 seconds. 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.

20 seconds in other units

20 seconds equals
Seconds20
Milliseconds20,000
Minutes0.3333
Fraction of a day1/4320

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

20 seconds is simply 20 seconds, which is 0.3333 of a minute or 20,000 milliseconds.

Handwashing for the recommended twenty seconds, the work part of a Tabata round, a classroom attention routine, or the eye rest in the 20-20-20 rule.

Yes. The 20 second 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 20 seconds are up.

No. The 20 second 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 20 seconds is readable from the back of the room.

Yes, once this page has loaded. Nothing is sent over the network while the 20 seconds count down, so a dropped connection will not stop the timer.

Twenty seconds is one third of a minute, about 0.33 minutes.

At least twenty seconds of scrubbing with soap, according to the CDC and the WHO. This 20 second timer counts it for you.

Yes. Restart it after each alarm to run repeated twenty second work intervals.

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