Pomodoro Timer
Press Start and the timer runs the whole cycle for you: a work session, a short break, another work session, and a long break after every few sessions, with a beep each time it switches. The defaults are 25, 5 and 15 minutes, and you can change any of them. Free, no sign-up.
Focus
25:00
Session 1 · long break every 4 sessions
Settings (minutes)
0
Sessions completed
Focus
Current phase
4
Sessions until long break
How to Use the Pomodoro Timer
- 1. Set your lengths. Under Settings (minutes) enter the work session, the short break, the long break, and how many sessions come before a long break. Each length can be 1 to 180 minutes.
- 2. Press Start. The timer counts down the Focus phase. Press Pause to stop it and Start again to carry on from where it was.
- 3. Switch without touching anything. When a phase ends you hear a beep and the next phase starts on its own: a short break after most work sessions and a long break after every Nth one.
- 4. Watch the counters. The cards show the sessions you have completed, the current phase and how many sessions are left until the long break. Reset sends you back to session 1.
How the Pomodoro Technique Works
Francesco Cirillo began developing the technique in the 1980s as a university student, timing short bursts of study with a tomato-shaped kitchen timer. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato, and one timed interval is a pomodoro. The version most people teach is 25 minutes of work on one task, a break of about 5 minutes, and a longer break after four pomodoros. Those are this timer's defaults.
A timer is only part of it. Cirillo's own site is explicit that setting a timer for 25 minutes is not the Pomodoro Technique: the method also asks you to plan what you will work on before you start, deal with interruptions as they come, and look back afterwards at how long things really took. This page gives you the timer; the planning is a notebook and a few minutes of honesty.
One full cycle at the default settings
Order
Focus 25, short break 5, Focus 25, short break 5, Focus 25, short break 5, Focus 25, long break 15
Work time
4 × 25 = 100 minutes
Break time
3 × 5 + 15 = 30 minutes
Total
130 minutes, or 2 hours 10 minutes, and then session 5 starts a new cycle
The long break takes the place of the fourth short break, not an extra one. If you set Long break every to 2, the pattern becomes focus, short break, focus, long break, and so on.
Choosing Your Own Lengths
The 25-minute figure is a convention, not a law of attention. Shorter blocks of 15 minutes suit a task you are dreading, and 50-minute blocks suit deep work such as drafting a section, where stopping every 25 minutes breaks your train of thought. What research there is points at breaks rather than at a magic block length. A 2022 meta-analysis of 22 samples (Albulescu and colleagues, PLOS ONE) found that short breaks of up to about ten minutes gave small gains in vigor and fatigue, but no significant overall gain in performance, and that longer breaks helped performance more. Treat your own results as the test: if you finish sessions tired and behind, lengthen the break.
- Study and revision. 25 and 5 works well for reading, flashcards and problem sets.
- Writing and coding. Try 40 to 50 minutes of work with a 10-minute break.
- A short, dreaded task. Run a single 15-minute session and see whether you want a second.
- During the break. Stand up, drink water, look out of a window. Scrolling a feed is not a rest for your attention.
Which Tool Do You Need?
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| Repeating work and break phases that switch on their own | This Pomodoro Timer |
| One fixed time for an exam, a talk or a task, with an alarm | Countdown Timer |
| To count up and record laps or splits | Stopwatch |
| Steady background sound to mask noise while you work | White Noise Generator |
| To write non-stop against the clock | Freewriting Tool |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the Pomodoro technique?
- It is a time-management method by Francesco Cirillo: work on one task with full focus for a fixed interval, traditionally 25 minutes, then take a short break, and take a longer break after about four rounds. Cirillo's site stresses that it also includes planning your tasks and reviewing how long they took, not just running a timer.
- Can I change the work and break lengths?
- Yes. Work, short break and long break can each be any whole number of minutes from 1 to 180, and you can choose how many sessions come before a long break. Change them before you start: if you edit the length of the phase you are in while the timer is stopped, that phase restarts at the new length.
- Does the next session start by itself?
- Yes. When a phase reaches zero the timer beeps and begins the next phase straight away, so you do not have to press Start between work and break. Press Pause if you need longer, or Reset to go back to session 1 on a stopped timer.
- Does it keep running in a background tab?
- The countdown is worked out from your device's clock, so the time it shows is right whenever you look. Browsers slow down timers in hidden tabs, though, and Chrome can check them as rarely as once a minute after a tab has been hidden for five minutes, so a beep can arrive late. For exact alerts keep the tab visible, for example in its own window.
- Will I hear a sound?
- Yes. A short beep plays when each work session or break ends. Your device's volume and your browser's sound settings still apply, and the beep is made in the browser, so there is no file to download. The time left also appears in the tab title, so you can watch it from another tab.
- Is my data saved or sent anywhere?
- No. The timer runs entirely in your browser, and it does not store your settings or sessions, so closing or reloading the tab resets everything to the defaults. Nothing about your study sessions is uploaded.
- Why is it called the Pomodoro technique?
- Pomodoro is Italian for tomato. Cirillo timed his early study sessions with a tomato-shaped kitchen timer, and each timed interval became known as a pomodoro.