Egg Timer

An egg timer that rings on time

This egg timer counts down soft, medium or hard boiled eggs and plays an alarm when they are done. It does not count ticks, which browsers slow down when a tab is in the background. Each timer remembers the exact moment it should end and works out the minutes left from the clock, so it is still right when you switch to a recipe in another tab or answer a message.

The alarm sound is made in the browser, with no sound file, and it is scheduled on the audio clock when you press Start, so it rings on time in a hidden tab too. Phones that support it also vibrate. Press Notify me and allow notifications to get a message from your system when a timer ends, even with the browser behind other windows. While a timer runs, the time left shows in the tab title and the page asks the browser to keep the screen on.

Soft, medium and hard boiled times

The presets are this timer's starting points, not an official or universal standard. No two kitchens are the same: the size of the eggs, how cold they are when they go in, the pot, the amount of water and the stove all change the result. Treat the first batch as a test, then nudge the minutes up for a firmer yolk or down for a softer one. Copy link saves your times, so the next batch starts where you left off. In the table, the cold water times count from the moment the water boils.

Soft means a set white with a runny yolk, medium a yolk that is thick and jammy in the middle, and hard a yolk that is firm all the way through. For anything in between, type your own minutes and seconds into a timer. When the alarm rings, lift the eggs out and put them in a bowl of cold water, so they stop cooking in their own heat.

Boiling water start or cold water start

• In boiling water: bring a pot of water to a boil, lower the eggs in gently with a spoon and press Start straight away. You control the exact time the eggs spend in the water, which makes the result easy to repeat.
• In cold water: put the eggs in the pot, cover them with cold water and heat it. Press Start when the water comes to a full boil. The eggs warm up while the water heats, which is why the times after the boil are shorter.

Switch the method at the top and every timer that uses a preset changes to the times for that method. Timers that are already running keep going.

Egg safety

The US Food and Drug Administration advises cooking eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm. Soft and medium eggs, with a runny or jammy yolk, do not meet that advice. The FDA lists children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems as being at greater risk for severe illness from food poisoning. If you cook for someone in one of these groups, boil the eggs hard and cut one open to check that the yolk and the white are firm. For recipes in which eggs stay raw or undercooked, it recommends eggs treated to destroy Salmonella, such as pasteurized shell eggs, or pasteurized egg products.

The same FDA page gives these tips for handling eggs:

• Buy eggs only from a refrigerator or refrigerated case, and check that the shells are clean and not cracked.
• Store eggs in their original carton in a refrigerator at 40 °F or below, and use them within 3 weeks for best quality.
• Never leave cooked eggs or egg dishes out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours.
• Use hard-cooked eggs, in the shell or peeled, within 1 week after cooking.

Cooking several eggs at once

Add a timer for each egg or group of eggs that needs a different time. A typical breakfast might have one soft egg, one medium egg and a few hard boiled eggs for lunch, all in the same pot of boiling water: set three timers, lower all the eggs in together and press Start all. Each timer rings on its own and flashes, so you know which eggs to take out. The other timers keep counting while the alarm rings. Need a timer for something else on the stove? The online timer counts down any length, and the meat cooking time calculator plans the roast.

How to use the egg timer

1. 1Choose whether the eggs go into boiling water or start in cold water.
2. 2Pick soft, medium or hard, or type your own minutes and seconds. Add more timers for eggs that need different times.
3. 3Press Start when the eggs go into boiling water, or when the cold water comes to a boil.
4. 4When the alarm rings, press Stop alarm and move the eggs to cold water. Press Start again to run the same timer for the next batch.

Built by Tobias Kurth, designer. Updated October 13, 2026.

Frequently asked questions