4 minute timer
A quick countdown for small tasks. Your 4-minute countdown is ready.
Ready
Minutes : Seconds
Keep this tab open for the alarm.
Related timers
How to use this 4 minute timer
Get started in four simple steps.
Choose your sound
Pick Bell, Chime or Off and use Test sound to check the volume.
Start
Press Start timer when you are ready. Opening this page never starts the countdown by itself.
Pause when needed
Pause and resume at any time. Reset restores the full 4 minutes.
Time’s up
At zero the page shows Time’s up and tries to play your alarm for up to 10 seconds.
4 minute timer at a glance
- Total seconds
- 240
- Starts at
- 04:00
- Half-way mark
- 02:00
4 minutes is 240 seconds. Presets never start on their own, so you can set up first and press Start timer when you are ready.
Where 4-minute interval workouts come from
Short workouts of about four minutes are often linked to a 1996 study by Izumi Tabata and colleagues. Participants did seven to eight sets of 20 seconds of very hard cycling with 10 seconds of rest between sets. This page counts one continuous 4-minute block; it does not beep for each interval, and it is not exercise advice.
Source: Tabata et al., Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1996 (PubMed) (opens in a new tab)
Frequently asked questions
Still have a question? Get in touch
How many seconds are in 4 minutes?
4 minutes is 240 seconds. The timer shows it as 04:00 when it is ready to start.
When will a 4 minute timer end?
Exactly 4 minutes after you press Start timer. For example, if you start at 3:00 PM it ends at 3:04 PM. While it runs, the finish time is shown under the countdown, and pausing moves it later.
Can I pause the 4 minute timer?
Yes. Pause holds the remaining time and Resume continues from there. Reset returns to the full 4 minutes, and asks first while the timer is running.
Will the alarm work if I leave this tab?
Keep the tab open. Switching to another tab is usually fine, but browsers can slow down pages in the background and may block sound that was never enabled. For the best chance of hearing the alarm, keep this page open and visible and press Test sound first. Closing the tab stops the alarm.