Free Online Presentation Timer

Enter the total time you have been given and start the countdown as you begin speaking. The display is designed to be read from a laptop at the lectern or from a phone propped against a water glass: large digits, a progress bar and colour changes at the warning points. The timer turns amber and then red as the end approaches, so that for a 20-minute slot you get a clear signal with a few minutes left and again with about a minute to go. If the venue has a screen-sharing setup, put the timer on the presenter display, not the audience one, and use full-screen mode to blank everything except the numbers.

A comfortable speaking pace in English is 130–150 words per minute, and slower for a non-native audience or technical content. That gives roughly 1,400 words for a 10-minute talk and 2,800 for 20 minutes. Slides are a poorer guide, but the common rule of one slide per minute is a reasonable ceiling; most over-runs come from speakers with 40 slides for a 20-minute slot. Rehearse at least once with this timer running and note the time at each section boundary. If you finish a rehearsal at 19:30 of 20:00, you will finish the real talk late: questions, a laptop hiccup and audience reaction reliably add a minute or two.

• Conference talk. Total time includes questions unless the programme says otherwise. A 30-minute slot is typically a 25-minute talk and 5 minutes of Q&A; set the timer for 25.
• Lightning talk. 5 minutes, hard stop, often with auto-advancing slides. Watch for the red warning at the last minute.
• Thesis defence. Usually 20–45 minutes of presentation; ask your committee. Practise the first two minutes until they are automatic; nerves are worst at the start.
• Pitch. Investor pitches are commonly 3, 5 or 10 minutes. The audience judges timekeeping as a proxy for discipline, so finishing 15 seconds early is better than 15 seconds late.
• Toastmasters and speech contests. Speakers are signalled with green, amber and red cards at fixed points, which map directly onto this timer's colour warnings.

For a whole agenda rather than a single slot, the meeting timer divides a session into named segments. Formal debates with alternating speakers are better served by the debate timer, and teachers running timed activities on a projector should look at the classroom timer. Our guide to timed meetings covers agenda design and how to stop a discussion politely when the clock runs out.