15 Minutes Timer
A free, full-screen 15 Minutes countdown with an alarm. Press Start and it counts down from 15 Minutes; when it reaches zero, the alarm sounds.
15:00
How it works
Fifteen minutes is the standard length for a short break in the workday, a focused reading sprint, or a single step in meal prep like marinating or resting dough. It's long enough to fully disengage from a task — unlike a 5-minute break, fifteen minutes gives your attention time to actually reset — while still being short enough to fit in between meetings or errands.
For a reading sprint, silence notifications before starting the timer; the appeal of 15 minutes is a genuinely uninterrupted stretch, and a single notification check resets the focus benefit.
Common uses
- Taking a standard 15-minute break during a long work session.
- Running a focused 15-minute reading sprint without checking your phone.
- Timing a meal-prep step like resting dough or marinating meat.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the 15 Minutes timer keep running if I switch tabs?
- Yes. The 15 Minutes countdown is based on the real clock, so it stays accurate in the background and the alarm still rings when time is up.
- Will it make a sound when the time is up?
- Yes — a short alarm beep plays when the countdown reaches zero. Make sure your device isn't muted.
- Is a 15-minute break long enough to be useful?
- For most desk work, yes — 15 minutes is enough to step away from a screen, move around, and let mental fatigue ease before returning to focused work. Breaks under 5 minutes tend to be too short to fully disengage, while 15 minutes is a common sweet spot between recovery and lost work time.
- How much can you realistically read in 15 minutes?
- At an average reading speed of around 200-250 words per minute, 15 minutes covers roughly 3,000-3,750 words, or about 10-15 pages of a typical novel. That's enough to make steady progress through a book in daily short sessions.