Count up timer: days since, not days until
A count up timer runs the other way. Give it a date in the past and it shows how long it’s been: 211 days sober, six weeks at the new job, two years together. The number only climbs, and it’s there every time you open a tab.
A number you don’t want to reset
A countdown is pressure. A count up is what you’ve already banked, and for a streak that feels completely different. Day 1 is a win. Day 47 is something you’d rather not throw away over one cigarette.
Teams run it as days since the last incident, on a shared theme everybody installs, and it quickly becomes the most closely guarded number in the office, because nobody wants to be the one who sends it back to zero. Nobody.
Poster, and the “and counting” line
The designs are the countdown’s six: Classic, Cards, Bold, Ring, Minimal, Poster. New count ups start in Cards, and anything set up before 4.0 keeps the Classic look.
Poster is the one to try first. The biggest unit you’ve switched on turns into one huge number with “years and counting” or “days and counting” under it, and the smaller units sit next to it as chips. Add a title like Together or Smoke-free and it reads like a small banner — or a quiet boast.
Without a title, Show target date prints “Since Sep 26, 2:23 PM”, handy when the date itself is the milestone.
What it leaves out
It shares its settings window with the countdown, but only part of it. No holidays, no repeats, no weekdays-only mode, and the start date picker offers only the past.
It never ends, so there is no finish screen, no confetti and no progress bar (there’s nothing to measure progress against). It keeps adding days until you move the start date.
Count Up settings
- Count up from
- A start date and time in the past. Future dates are greyed out.
- Units
- Years down to seconds in the new designs, milliseconds as well in Classic. Weeks begin switched off.
- Title
- Up to 40 characters above the number, in the new designs. The placeholder suggests Smoke-free, which tells you who it was built for.
- Accent color
- Eight colours or Default. On Poster it paints the gradient, which is where you notice it most.
- Layout
- A row or a column, switched in settings or from the toolbox.
- Look
- Font and colours come from the toolbox, size from stretching the frame. A text shadow is only offered in Classic and Bold.
What people use it for
- Sober, smoke-free or sugar-free streaks.
- Days since you started a language, a course or an instrument.
- Time at a new job, in a new city, or together.
- Days since launch or since the last incident, on a team theme.
- The age of a project, a puppy or a sourdough starter.
Put the count up on your new tab
It comes with New Tab Studio. The extension is free to install and needs no account to start.
- 1Add New Tab Studio to Chrome
- 2Open a new tab, click the button at the bottom left
- 3Pick the widget, then drag it into place
Questions about the count up widget
How do I count the days since something happened?
To count the days since something happened, use a count-up timer, which starts from a date in the past and keeps adding days. A date calculator such as timeanddate.com gives you the number once, while New Tab Studio’s Count Up keeps it on every new tab. Set the start date, add a title like Smoke-free, and choose which units to show, from years down to seconds.
Is there a free sobriety or streak counter for Chrome?
Yes, the count-up widget works as a free sobriety or streak counter on the Chrome new tab, and it has no PRO settings at all. Sober days, smoke-free days or a no-sugar run cost nothing to track. The free plan only limits how many widgets you place yourself, three, and a counter inside an installed theme isn’t one of them.
How is a count up different from a countdown?
A count up measures time since a past date and never ends, while a countdown aims at a future date and finishes at zero. So the count up has no holidays, no repeats, no weekdays-only mode, no confetti and no progress bar. The six designs are shared, and Poster writes “days and counting” under its big number.
How do I reset a streak?
To reset a count-up streak, open the widget’s settings and move the start date to today, and the number starts climbing again from there. Want to keep the old record in view? Add a second count up first and call it Best run, bearing in mind that it takes another widget slot.
Will my count up move to a new computer?
Yes, a count up moves with your page. Export the page as a theme file or publish it, then install it on the other machine. The start date travels inside the widget, so the number picks up exactly where it was.
Widgets that pair well with it
See the full widget catalogue or browse themes other people have built.