Free · no app · no sign-up

Free Visual Timer for Kids

A countdown kids can see. Pick a task, set the minutes, and the colour runs down while they work — no numbers to read, and a gentle glow instead of a beep at the end.

  • Time they can seeThe colour shrinks as the minutes go, so kids stop asking how long is left.
  • A Pal counts with themYoyo, Bonnie, Kyle or Ted keeps them company for the whole round.
  • No alarm, no startleIt finishes with a colour change rather than a beep.
Open the full PlaygroundWorks on any phone, tablet or classroom screen.

What a visual timer is, and why it helps

Young children do not have a feel for what ten minutes is. Telling them "five more minutes" only works if five minutes means something — and until roughly age seven, it usually does not. A visual timer fixes that by turning time into something they can watch: a colour that shrinks, an arc that fills, a shape that slowly disappears.

Because the timer is doing the counting, it also stops being you. The end of screen time arrives because the colour ran out, not because a parent said so, and that small shift takes a lot of heat out of the day.

When families reach for it

  • Tidy-up, getting dressed and out-the-door mornings
  • Brushing teeth and bath time
  • Ending screen time or a game without a meltdown
  • Homework, reading and instrument practice in short blocks
  • Taking turns between siblings

Kids who find transitions hard

Occupational therapists and teachers often reach for visual timers with children who have ADHD or autism, or who simply find switching tasks difficult. The timer gives an external, predictable cue — the same one every time — instead of a verbal warning that has to be processed in the middle of something absorbing. We wrote more about that in visual timers for kids with ADHD.

How to introduce it

  1. Try it first when nothing is at stake — set two minutes and watch it together.
  2. Let your child set it. Ownership matters more than accuracy.
  3. Say what happens at the end before you start: "when the colour is gone, we put the blocks away".
  4. Use the same wording every time so the routine does the work.

In the classroom

On a projector or a spare tablet, one timer runs a whole room: centre rotations, quiet reading, clean-up. It is silent, so it does not cut across a lesson, and children can see it from anywhere in the room.

Ages 3 and up

Kids who cannot read a clock yet can still read a colour.

Any device

A browser is all it needs — phone, tablet, laptop or classroom screen.

Free, no sign-up

No account, no app, nothing to install.

Questions parents and teachers ask

Is this visual timer really free?

Yes. It runs in your browser, there is no account and nothing to install. We make the physical Timer Pal, and this is the same idea on a screen.

Does it work on a phone or tablet?

Yes — phone, tablet, laptop or a classroom projector. Keep the screen awake while it runs.

Does it beep when the time is up?

No. It finishes with a colour change and a small celebration instead of an alarm, which is gentler for children who find sudden sounds stressful.

Can I use it with a whole class?

Yes. Teachers run it on a projector or a spare tablet for centre rotations, quiet reading and clean-up.

What ages is it for?

Most children get it from around 3. Older kids use it for homework blocks and practice sessions, and plenty of adults use it for focus sprints.

How is this different from the Timer Pal?

The Timer Pal does the same job without a screen: twist the dial to set 1–99 minutes and the Pal changes colour as the time runs down. Kids can use it on their own at a desk or a bedside, with no device in the room.

All FAQs

Take it screen-free

See all Timer Pals