Count it while it happens.

What it does

A tally counter is deliberately less capable than a spreadsheet. There is no formula to break, no cell to select, and no save prompt. You press a button; a number goes up. That is the whole interaction, which is exactly what you want when the counting is happening in front of you and your attention is somewhere else.

This version keeps a board of counters rather than a single total. Each counter has a name, a count, a five-bar mark display, and its own controls. The board shows the combined total, a simple bar for the relative size of each count, and a reset for the whole board. Everything runs in the browser tab and is gone when the tab closes.

Counting a room, a queue, or a set

The practical advantage of a browser tally counter over a notes app is speed. Pressing +1 does not open a keyboard, move a cursor, or risk editing the wrong line. On a phone, the large target is easier to hit than a plus sign in a spreadsheet. On a laptop, the keyboard and the button are in the same place, so you can keep your eyes on the thing you are counting.

Use +1 for a single event and +5 when you are counting in batches — five people entering, five repetitions completed, five items in a box. The −1 button is there for the inevitable miscount. Resetting one counter does not touch the others, and the whole-board reset asks you to mean it by requiring a second click on the same control.

Several counts at once

A single number is rarely enough. If you are counting traffic at an intersection, you may want separate counters for cars, bicycles, and buses. If you are tallying a vote, each option needs its own count. If you are tracking repetitions, each exercise needs a row. Add a counter for each category, rename it, and the board keeps them side by side.

• Labels are editable. Click the name and type. The label appears in the copied tally and the CSV, so use the words you will recognize later.
• Up to twenty counters. The limit keeps the board readable and the copied table manageable. For a larger study, use a form tool or a spreadsheet.
• The total is the sum of all counters. If the counters are categories of one event, the total is the number of events. If they are unrelated, ignore the total.
• Relative bars compare counters to the largest one. They are a reading aid, not a statistical chart. A count of zero still shows a thin bar so the row does not collapse.

Reading the marks

The five-bar mark is one of the oldest interfaces in the world. Four vertical strokes are drawn, then a fifth stroke crosses them diagonally to close the group. It is faster to read than a row of individual marks because the eye recognizes the group without counting each stroke. The numeric count sits directly above the marks, so you can use whichever is faster in the moment.

The copied text uses the same convention in plain ASCII: ||||/ for five, followed by the remainder. That makes the tally readable in a plain-text note, a chat message, or a CSV cell without relying on a special font. The visual board draws the marks with styled elements, so it can show the diagonal cleanly at any size.

Limits worth knowing

• No persistence. Refresh, close the tab, or navigate away and the board resets. Copy the tally first if the numbers matter.
• No timestamps or history. The tool counts totals, not the time of each event. It cannot tell you how many people arrived in the first hour.
• No undo beyond −1. If you press +5 by mistake, press −1 five times or reset the counter. There is no event log to edit.
• Keyboard focus matters. The buttons are ordinary buttons, so Tab and Enter work. There is no global hotkey that could fire while you are typing in another window.
• The count is local to this tab. Opening the page in two tabs creates two independent boards; they do not sync.

Page updated 27 October 2026