How to Add a Countdown Timer or Clock to vMix

Streaming & hybrid10 min readUpdated October 16, 2026

vMix already has a countdown built in. A Title input can run a countdown timer: you set it in the Countdown Settings window and control it with shortcut functions such as StartCountdown and AdjustCountdown. If you'd rather run the timer from another device, add a Web Browser input pointed at a web timer. For the time of day, or a countdown to a clock time, a date and time code in a title's text field does the job.

The menu names and functions below come from the vMix User Guide for vMix 29. Check them against the help for your version if your screens look different.

Option 1: the countdown built into vMix titles

Click Add Input, choose Title, and pick a template with a text field that's large enough for the digits.
Right-click the title input and open the Text Editor (the vMix help also calls it the Title Editor).
Click Settings to open Countdown Settings:
- Duration: hours, minutes and seconds, for example 00:15:00 for a 15-minute timer.
- Stop Time: where the countdown stops. Leave it at zero for a normal countdown. The help gives the example of a 15-minute duration with a Stop Time of 00:05:00, which runs from 00:20:00 down to 00:05:00.
- Display Format: how the time appears. With mm:ss or mm, hours are folded into the minutes, so 2 hours and 30 seconds shows as 120:30.
- Reverse: counts up instead of down. It still stops at the end of the range, so it's an elapsed-time counter with a limit, not an open-ended stopwatch. In the help's example, reverse mode runs from 00:05:00 up to 00:20:00 and stops.
Start it with the StartCountdown shortcut described in the next section. The help documents the settings but doesn't describe a start button, so rehearse how your version starts and resets it.
Put it on air with one of the numbered overlay buttons on the input (the help calls them 1 to 8). Clicking the same button again takes the overlay off with its transition running in reverse (vMix help: Overlay).

Control the countdown with shortcuts

Opening the editor mid-show to start a timer is slow and easy to get wrong. vMix lets you call countdown functions from a keyboard key, a controller, or its API. Add them in Settings > Shortcuts: click Add, choose the Function, select your countdown title as the Input, and enter a Value where the table asks for one. These come from the vMix Shortcut Function Reference:

Function	What it does	Value
`StartCountdown`	Starts the countdown	none
`SuspendCountdown`	Pauses only	none
`PauseCountdown`	Pauses or resumes. If the countdown has finished, starts it again from the beginning	none
`StopCountdown`	Stops and resets	none
`AdjustCountdown`	Adds or subtracts seconds from the current time	seconds, e.g. 60 or -60
`SetCountdown`	Sets the duration	hh:mm:ss
`ChangeCountdown`	Changes the current countdown time	hh:mm:ss

A practical set for a live show, as a suggestion rather than a vMix default:

F1 StartCountdown
F2 PauseCountdown (pause and resume on one key)
F3 AdjustCountdown with 60 (add a minute)
F4 AdjustCountdown with -60 (take a minute off)
F5 StopCountdown

Know the catch in PauseCountdown: once the countdown has finished, pressing it starts the countdown again from the beginning, so a nervous press after zero puts the full time back on air. If that worries you, map SuspendCountdown, which only ever pauses, to the key your operator reaches for in a hurry. Test every key in a rehearsal.

Being able to add or remove a minute is what saves you when a segment overruns. What to do when an event runs late covers the decisions behind those button presses.

Option 2: show the time of day, or a countdown to a clock time

vMix's knowledge base article vMix Clock and Timer Options says you can type a date and time code into a title's text field, in the form {0:DATETIMESTRING}, and vMix keeps it updated. The letters are standard .NET date and time format codes: hh is the 12-hour hour, HH the 24-hour hour, mm minutes, ss seconds and tt AM or PM. The article's own examples include:

{0:HH:mm:ss} for 24-hour time with seconds, and {0:HH:mm} for 24-hour time without them
{0:h:mm tt} for 12-hour time with AM or PM, such as 3:15 PM
{0:3:00 PM|HH:mm:ss} for a countdown to 3 pm, which shows how long is left until then

That last form is the one to use when a webinar or stream must start at a fixed clock time: put the start time before the |. For other kinds of countdown, the article says to leave the text blank and use the Countdown feature from Option 1.

The article was last updated in 2020, so test your code in your version before the show. The time comes from the vMix computer's clock, so check that its time zone is right.

vMix 29 also has two Production Clocks for the operator, switched on with the Production Clocks checkbox in Settings > Options. A clock can show the current time with an hour offset for another time zone, or an event countdown between start and end times. Create Input turns them into a single vMix input, so they can be shown on an output, but the help describes them as an operator tool, not a styled overlay.

Option 3: a web timer through the Web Browser input

A web timer makes sense when the person running the clock isn't the vMix operator, or when the show has many timed segments. Steps from the vMix help for the Web Browser input:

Click Add Input and choose Web Browser.
Enter the timer's full URL.
Set Width and Height. If they're smaller than your vMix output size, the page appears centred at that smaller size, which suits overlays. Move it into place in Input Settings > Position with Zoom, Pan X and Pan Y. Input Settings opens from the cog under the input in Advanced mode, or by double-clicking the input's thumbnail preview.
Use the CSS field if you need custom CSS on the page. The help says this needs browser version V115 or higher.
Put the input on air with an overlay button, or add it as a layer on a camera input under Input Settings > Layers / MultiView.

vMix supports transparent backgrounds in this input. Its help explains that a page is transparent when the page doesn't set a background colour on its body. If the timer shows a solid box behind the digits, the page sets its own background somewhere.

One setting to stay away from during a show: Keyboard Enabled in the input's right-click menu. While it's on, vMix keyboard shortcuts stop working, including the countdown shortcuts above.

Using StageClock's Broadcast Overlay in vMix

StageClock has a Broadcast Overlay view meant for browser inputs. The Views menu describes it as a "Transparent timer for OBS, vMix, etc." It is the event's display URL with ?transparent=true on the end, and it shows only the countdown digits on a transparent background: green, then yellow from half the segment remaining, then red for the last 10%, counting into negative numbers after zero. It has no title, messages or progress bar, and it is a countdown, not a time-of-day clock.

Open your event's Control Panel, choose Views > Broadcast Overlay, and copy the address of the new tab into the Web Browser input's URL. The producer then runs the timer from the Control Panel on a laptop or phone signed in with Google, and the vMix operator only has to place the overlay. The StageClock team has not tested the overlay in vMix, so treat the steps above as vMix's own and rehearse with your setup. It also needs an internet connection throughout the show.

Common problems and how to fix them

Hours show as 120:30. The Display Format is mm:ss or mm, which folds hours into minutes. Pick a format with hours if your timer runs longer than an hour.
The countdown jumped back to full time. Someone pressed PauseCountdown after the countdown finished. Keep that key away from zero, or use SuspendCountdown.
vMix shortcuts stopped working. A Web Browser input has Keyboard Enabled switched on. Right-click the input and turn it off.
The web timer has a black or white box behind it. The page sets a background colour. Check the timer service for a transparent option, or override the style in the input's CSS field if you know CSS.
The web timer froze. Right-click the input, open its Properties window and load the URL again, then check the internet connection and the device controlling the timer.
The time-of-day clock is wrong. It reads the vMix computer's clock. Check its time zone and automatic time setting.

For OBS users, the same jobs are done differently; see adding a timer or clock to OBS Studio. If the countdown is for a webinar's holding screen, timing webinars and hybrid meetings covers the rest of the run-up.

Frequently asked questions

Can I control the vMix countdown from another computer?

Yes. The vMix Shortcut Function Reference says every function in it can be called either from a shortcut or through the vMix API, so StartCountdown, AdjustCountdown and the rest can be triggered by another machine or a control surface that talks to the API.

Will a web timer's alarm sound end up on air?

It can. The vMix help says audio from the Web Browser input is fully supported and appears as its own source that you mix like any other. If the timer page beeps at zero, mute that input's audio in the mixer unless you want viewers to hear it.

Key takeaways

vMix has a countdown built into Title inputs: set Duration, Stop Time, Display Format and Reverse in Countdown Settings.
Run it live with shortcut functions from Settings > Shortcuts. PauseCountdown restarts a finished countdown, so consider SuspendCountdown for the pause key.
A time-of-day clock, or a countdown to a clock time, is a format code in a title text field, such as {0:HH:mm}, reading the vMix computer's clock.
A Web Browser input shows a web timer with a transparent background when the page leaves its body background unset. Keep Keyboard Enabled off so your shortcuts keep working.
Rehearse every timer key and overlay button before the show.