20 Minute Timer
Free online 20 minute timer with alarm. Great for power naps, meditation, and study sessions.
⏱️ 20 Minute Timer: Start a free 20-minute countdown timer instantly — no downloads, no sign-up. Just click Start.
Why use a 20-minute timer?
Twenty minutes is the optimal nap length per most sleep researchers, the threshold where compound-interest reading delivers, and the standard duration of a TED Talk.
What people use a 20-minute timer for
Optimal power nap
20 minutes maximises alertness without crossing into deep sleep / sleep inertia.
TED Talk length
Most TED Talks run 18-20 minutes — the maximum attention span without losing audience.
Steeping for cold brew
Cold brew concentrate steep tests well at 20 minutes for fast-extraction setups.
Cardio interval
Most "minimum effective dose" cardio research starts at 20 minutes.
Drawing / sketch warm-up
Artists often time 20-minute warm-up sketches.
The 20-minute interval, in context
Twenty minutes appears in many disciplines: Eric Mazur's interactive teaching cycles, the standard TED Talk, Walter Mischel's marshmallow test (kids waited 15 minutes on average — 20 was the cap). It's the natural unit of sustained casual attention.
Five minutes longer than the Pomodoro long break; ten minutes shorter than a deep-work block.
About the 20 Minute Timer
Free online 20 minute timer with alarm. Great for power naps, meditation, and study sessions.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Why use a 20-minute timer specifically?
20-minute blocks fit the canonical Pomodoro pattern, single test sections (most AP and SAT subsections fall here), guided meditation cycles, and sustained-work blocks for older students or focused adults. Long enough for deep work, short enough to maintain attention.
Does the 20-minute timer keep accurate time?
Yes. The 20-minute countdown uses monotonic time, so DST transitions, system clock changes, or tab backgrounding do not throw it off. End-of-window accuracy is within a fraction of a second across the full interval.
Should I take a break after each 20-minute session?
Yes. Research on the Pomodoro Technique and ultradian-rhythm work (Sonnentag, 2018) shows that breaks after 20-minute blocks restore the same prefrontal-cortex resources that sustained focus depletes. Skip the break and your next block performs measurably worse.
What happens when the 20-minute timer reaches zero?
The alarm plays and the page flashes. For 20-minute sessions you have likely shifted attention to other work — that audio cue is what brings you back. The alarm is loud enough to be noticeable across a room without being startling.