Stopwatch
Track elapsed time with lap recording for calls, tasks, and meetings.
Track elapsed time with lap recording for calls, tasks, and meetings.
An online stopwatch is a count-up timer: it starts at zero and shows how much time has passed until you stop it. A countdown timer works the other way, starting from a set duration and alerting you at zero. A stopwatch is the right choice when the length of an activity is the thing you want to measure — how long a call ran, how long a task really took, or how long each part of a meeting lasted.
Office workers use a stopwatch to log time for timesheets and client billing, to check estimates against reality, to rehearse a presentation against a time slot, and to track phone calls for records. Accuracy depends mostly on habits: start the stopwatch the moment work begins, pause it during interruptions, and record the result before resetting. When elapsed time goes on an invoice or timesheet, it usually needs to be converted to decimal hours and possibly rounded to a billing increment, such as 0.1 hour (6 minutes) or a quarter hour.
To use this stopwatch, press Start; the display counts up in whole seconds, shown as minutes and seconds and switching to hours, minutes, and seconds after the first hour. Press Pause to hold the time and Start again to resume. Press Lap to record the current elapsed time; each lap appears in a list below the display, newest first, numbered Lap 1, Lap 2, and so on. Each lap shows the total time since the start, not the length of that segment alone. Reset returns the display to 00:00 and clears every lap. Nothing is saved, so write down results before closing the page.
Timesheets and invoices usually need elapsed time in decimal hours. Divide the minutes by 60 and add the result to the whole hours: decimal hours = hours + minutes ÷ 60 (+ seconds ÷ 3,600 if needed). For example, a stopwatch reading of 1:27:00 is 1 + 27 ÷ 60 = 1.45 hours.
Because laps show cumulative time, subtract the previous lap to get the length of a segment. If Lap 1 reads 12:30 and Lap 2 reads 31:00, the second segment lasted 31:00 − 12:30 = 18:30, or 18.5 ÷ 60 ≈ 0.31 hours.
Minutes to decimal hours (rounded to two places)
| Minutes | Decimal hours |
|---|---|
| 6 | 0.10 |
| 10 | 0.17 |
| 12 | 0.20 |
| 15 | 0.25 |
| 20 | 0.33 |
| 30 | 0.50 |
| 40 | 0.67 |
| 45 | 0.75 |
| 50 | 0.83 |
| 90 | 1.50 |
Press Start to begin. The display updates every second. Press Lap to record a split time — useful for tracking how long each segment of a meeting takes, or how long individual tasks consume.
Press Pause to hold the current time, Start to resume, and Reset to return to zero and clear all laps.
Press Start to begin counting. Press Lap to record the current time as a split. Press Pause to stop temporarily. Press Reset to clear everything and return to zero.
Yes — press Lap at any point to save the current elapsed time as a lap record. All laps are listed below the timer.
Yes — the JavaScript timer continues running even when the tab is not visible. Return to the tab to see the updated time.
A stopwatch counts up from zero — you start it and see how much time passes. A countdown timer counts down from a set time and alerts you when it reaches zero.
Yes — start the stopwatch when you begin a task, stop it when you finish, and use the Billable Time Calculator to round the result to your billing increment.
No — it counts in whole seconds, displayed as MM:SS and as H:MM:SS once an hour has passed. That resolution suits tracking calls, tasks, and meetings rather than sports timing.
Each lap records the total elapsed time when Lap was pressed, so subtract the previous lap from the current one. If Lap 2 shows 14:10 and Lap 3 shows 22:40, the third segment took 8 minutes 30 seconds.
No. The elapsed time and lap list exist only while the page is open, so refreshing or closing the tab clears them. Copy the final time and any laps before leaving.