Counter
Tap the number, click it, or press the space bar — every one counts up. Set a maximum, run several counters side by side, and pick a background you can read across a room.
Pick the counter for your job
A counter holds a number and moves it by one every time you tell it to. That's the whole idea, and it's been useful for as long as people have needed to count things they can't hold still — people through a door, stock on a shelf, laps in a pool, reps in a set, cars at a junction, birds at a feeder.
The reason a tool beats counting in your head is simple: the moment you have to do anything else at the same time, a running total in your head is gone. A counter takes that load off you entirely, and unlike a mechanical clicker it remembers where you were tomorrow.
Everything this counter does
| Feature | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Click, tap or space bar | Count however your hands happen to be busy |
| Set a maximum | Shows how many are left, then stops at the limit |
| Count by any step | Batches, cases, pairs, denominations — not just ones |
| Several counters at once | A breakdown rather than one meaningless total |
| Tally-mark display | Five-bar gates, readable at a glance from a distance |
| Count down | Tickets left, darts scores, stock going out |
| Undo, 50 steps | A mis-click costs one keystroke, not the whole count |
| Twelve background colours | Legible in a dark room or across a bright hall |
| Full screen | Turns a laptop or tablet into a visible tally board |
| Saves automatically | Survives a refresh, a locked phone, or next week |
Counting up, and counting what's left
Most counting is open-ended — you don't know the total in advance, so a number that climbs is exactly right. But a surprising amount of counting has a ceiling: a room holds 250, a box takes 24, a target is 1,000. In those cases the number you actually want is what's remaining, not what's done.
Turn the limit on and this counter shows both at once: the running count in large type, and how many are still available underneath, with a bar that fills as you approach the maximum. It stops there rather than sailing past, which matters when the limit is a capacity rather than a preference.
Why several counters usually beats one
One counter answers 'how many'. Several answer 'how many of each', which is almost always the more useful question. A traffic survey wants cars, vans and bikes separately. A stocktake wants a figure per product. A door wants in and out. A game wants a score per player.
Add as many as the job needs, name them, and each keeps its own total and its own step size. Switching between them is one tap, and resetting one leaves the others alone.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| Space, ↑ or → | Count up |
| ↓ or ← | Count down |
| R | Reset this counter |
| Z | Undo the last change |
| Esc | Close settings |
It runs on your device, not a server
Nothing you count is uploaded, logged or tied to an account. The totals live in your browser's own storage on the device you're using, which is why the count is still there after a refresh, a locked phone or a week away — and why it keeps working with no connection at all once the page has loaded.
That also means the count is per-device: a tally started on your phone won't appear on your laptop. For anything to do with cash or stock, that's the property you want.
Use it as an app
Add the page to your home screen and it opens full screen from an icon, with no address bar — on iOS through Share then Add to Home Screen, on Android from the browser menu. It behaves like an installed counter app from that point, without installing anything.
Mechanical clicker, phone app, or this
A handheld mechanical clicker is unbeatable for pure tactile speed and needs no battery, but it counts in ones only, has a fiddly reset wheel, shows a number too small to read at any distance, and does nothing else. A downloaded counter app does more, but wants an install, often an account, and frequently shows ads over the thing you're trying to read.
A browser counter sits in between: nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, a screen large enough to read across a room, and the count saved without asking. The one thing it can't match is the physical feel of a metal clicker under a thumb — which is why vibration feedback is on by default here.
Questions people ask
Is this counter free?
Yes, completely, with no account and no limits on how much you count.
Will my count still be there tomorrow?
Yes. It's saved in your browser on that device, so it survives closing the tab, restarting the browser and going offline.
Can I count more than one thing at a time?
Yes — add as many named counters as you need under Settings. Each keeps its own total and step, shown as tabs above the number.
How do I set a maximum?
Turn the limit on under Settings and enter the number. The counter then shows how many are still available and stops when it reaches the limit.
Can it count down instead of up?
Yes — the countdown counter starts at your maximum and takes one off with each click.
Does it work offline?
Yes, once the page has loaded. Nothing is fetched while you're counting.
Can I use it on a phone?
Yes, and it's built for it — the whole middle of the screen is the tap target so you can count one-handed without looking.
How do I reset the count?
The reset button at the top sets the current counter back to zero, or press R. There's a reset-all under Settings for every counter at once.