9 min countdown
Egg Timer
One-tap soft, medium, and hard presets — or set your own timing for the perfect boil.
Egg
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Frequently asked questions
- How long do soft, medium, and hard boiled eggs take?
- For a large egg dropped into boiling water: about 6 minutes for soft (runny yolk), 8 to 9 for medium (jammy), and around 12 for hard (fully set). The presets here use those times; adjust to taste.
- Should I start the timer with cold or boiling water?
- These presets assume the egg goes into already-boiling water. If you start eggs in cold water and bring it to a boil, the total time is longer and less predictable — the boiling-water method is easier to time consistently.
- Why do my eggs come out underdone?
- The usual reasons are altitude (water boils below 100°C at elevation, so eggs cook slower — add a minute or two), using fridge-cold eggs, or a weak simmer rather than a proper boil. Nudge the time up and keep the water at a steady boil.
- Why put the eggs in ice water afterward?
- An ice bath stops the cooking immediately, so the eggs do not keep firming up on residual heat, and it makes the shells much easier to peel. Slightly older eggs also peel more cleanly than very fresh ones.
- Will the alarm go off if I leave the kitchen or lock my phone?
- While the tab stays open and the screen is awake, yes — though a backgrounded tab can delay it by up to a minute. Lock the phone or let the screen sleep, especially on an iPhone, and the alarm may not fire at all; a closed tab will not either (there is no server). Keep the page in front, and on iPhone keep the side mute switch off.
This timer keeps the exact time even if you switch tabs. If this tab or your browser closes, nothing can alert you at the exact finish time — there's no server behind this, by design. Come back any time and we'll tell you honestly how long ago it ended.