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Create a countdown

1. Click Website Countdowns in the menu at the top of the page.
2. Enter a title, the date and time you are counting down to, and your timezone.
3. Choose a style and colors. The preview updates as you make changes.
4. Click Share to publish the countdown on its own page and get a link to it, or click Embed to get the code for your website.

Some visitors see our new editor instead. It has the same Share and Embed buttons below the preview, and its settings are in the Customize panel on the left. There are two versions of the new editor. The simpler one has the sections Background, The Numbers, Text and Settings. The full one has a banner at the top that says "This is the new countdown experience we're working on!" and the sections Text, Colors, Settings, Content and Ending. If you see that banner, Browse more designs shows ready-made designs you can start from, and go back to the old one switches to the original editor.

For a full-page countdown, click Countdown Pages in the top menu, then click New or click Customize under one of the starter countdowns.

Add a countdown to an email

1. Click Email Countdowns in the menu at the top of the page.
2. Enter a title, the date and time you are counting down to, and your timezone. Then choose the size, colors and font.
3. Click Add to my email and copy the code that appears.
4. Paste the code into your email in HTML mode. To send the countdown from your own email account instead, enter your address under Email me this countdown, click Send, and forward the email you receive.

Email apps can't run the code that makes a website countdown tick, so email countdowns are animated GIF images.

Find a countdown I created earlier

1. If you created the countdown while logged in, you will need to log in here
2. Click the account icon (the person icon) in the top-right corner, then click My countdowns
3. Click the countdown in the list. Countdowns made in the new editor are listed under Countdown Pages.

If you are not logged in, My countdowns only lists countdown pages and countdowns from the new editor that you made in this browser. To find all your countdowns later, log in before you create them.

Edit a countdown

1. Open the countdown from My countdowns, as described above
2. Make your changes. In the original editor, click Save. The new editor saves your changes automatically and shows "Saved" next to the Share and Embed buttons.

Your changes appear wherever the countdown is already shared or embedded. You only need to copy the embed code again if you change a setting that is part of the code, as described under "Change the size of a countdown" below.

Embed a countdown on another blog or website

Click here to learn how to embed countdowns on other websites and blogs.

Change the style and colors of a countdown

Styles and colors are available on every countdown, including free ones.

Original editor: choose a design from the Style list on the right. Under Colors, click the Text color or Background color square, then click a color. If you know the hex code for the color you want, type it into the box below the color squares. The switches below the colors turn on options such as a transparent background or counting up from a date in the past.

New editor: use the sections in the Customize panel on the left. In the simpler version, Background sets the background color or gradient, The Numbers sets the digit background color, and Text sets the font and the text color. In the full version, Colors sets the background (a color, a gradient, an image or none), the digit background color and the text color, and Text has the font, text sizes and unit labels.

Change the size of a countdown

Original editor: drag the Size slider on the right. The embed code uses the size shown above the slider, for example 300x154.

New editor: open Settings. In the simpler version, drag the Width slider to set the width in pixels. In the full version, Embed size offers Responsive, which makes the countdown fill the width of the space you put it in, or Fixed, which lets you set a width in pixels. The full version also has Embed location, which puts the countdown within your page content, fixed to the top or bottom of the page, or across the full page.

The size is part of the embed code in both editors. In the new editor, the embed location, the corner radius and whether the title and date are shown are part of the code too. If the countdown is already on your site and you change any of these, click Embed and replace the old code with the new code.

Remove the "Powered by countingdownto.com" badge

Countdowns made without a paid plan show a small "Powered by countingdownto.com" badge in the bottom-right corner. To remove it, choose a plan on our pricing page.

The badge is removed from all the countdowns on your account, including ones you have already embedded, so you don't need to change your embed code. Make sure you are logged in here when you create countdowns so they are saved to your account.

Evergreen countdowns keep the badge unless you are on a Pro plan.

What happens to my countdown once the date has passed?

Unless you set the countdown to repeat, it stops at zero: it shows 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds. It does NOT show negative values and does NOT remove itself from your page.

In the full version of the new editor, the Ending section can show a message, play a celebration, hide your buttons or send visitors to another page when the countdown reaches zero. Hiding buttons and sending visitors to another page are not available on countdowns that repeat.

The Ending section can also hide the countdown itself. Like hiding buttons and sending visitors to another page, it is not available on countdowns that repeat. Sending visitors to another page works on the countdown's share page. On your own website it needs embed code that you copied after turning it on, and if your website blocks inline scripts, allow the script in the embed code or the redirect will not run.

Using repeating countdown clocks

The Repeat setting controls what the countdown does when it reaches zero. In the original editor it is the Repeat list on the left. In the new editor, click the Repeat: None button below the date. There are six options:

1. None - Countdown displays zeros for all time values.
2. Hourly - Countdown adds one hour to the event time and starts counting down to the new time.
3. Daily - Countdown adds one day to the event date and starts counting down to the new date.
4. Weekly - Countdown adds one week to the event date and starts counting down to the new date.
5. Monthly - Countdown adds one month to the event date and starts counting down to the new date.
6. Yearly - Countdown adds one year to the event date and starts counting down to the new date.

Share a countdown and add it to a calendar

Click Share to publish your countdown on its own page and get a link you can send to people. For countdowns made in the new editor, that page also has "Add to calendar" links for Google Calendar and for Apple Calendar, Outlook and other calendar apps (an .ics file). These links do not appear on evergreen countdowns or after a one-off countdown has ended. A calendar entry someone has saved does not change if you edit the countdown later.

Give each visitor their own countdown (evergreen)

An evergreen countdown starts when a visitor first sees it and runs for the time you set, so each visitor gets their own deadline. In the full version of the new editor, set Countdown mode to Evergreen (per-visitor) and enter the number of days and hours.

Evergreen countdowns are free and show the CountingDownTo badge unless you are on a Pro plan. Everyone on the same network, such as one office or household, shares one countdown.

What if a visitor's device clock is wrong?

Countdowns made in the new editor check the time with our server when they load, so a phone or computer with its clock set wrong still shows the right time left.

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