A Pomodoro timer built for students.
StudySalary adds a financial reward layer to the Pomodoro Technique. Complete a focus session, earn virtual salary, invest it in a simulated stock portfolio, and grow a Study City as your net worth compounds — one semester at a time.
Free · No sign-up required · Works on any device
▲ Market
Why students use StudySalary
Immediate rewards
Grades take weeks. Virtual salary lands the moment you finish a session — turning abstract effort into something visible you can reinvest today.
Daily streaks
Keep a streak alive by showing up every day. Streak-freezes cover the occasional missed day without wiping weeks of momentum.
Study dashboard
See today's earnings, lifetime salary, shift history, and portfolio performance — all from your browser, all in one place.
Ambient sounds
Study to rain, café chatter, birdsong, fireplace crackle, or ocean waves. Five loops built in, plus Spotify embed support.
Guest mode
No email, no account, no friction. Open the app, start the timer. Your data saves locally in your browser automatically.
Cloud sync
Sign in with a magic link or Google to sync your progress across your laptop, tablet, and phone. No sensitive permissions ever requested.
The gap between effort and reward
The hardest thing about being a student isn't the workload — it's that effort and reward are months apart. You study in October; the grade arrives in December. That gap drains motivation faster than the material does.
StudySalary closes the gap. Every session pays. Every payday is immediate. The salary is virtual, but the signal it sends your brain — "that was worth it" — is real and it lands today, not at graduation.
The bigger picture
Your study economy.
Your focus becomes income.
Your income becomes investments.
Your investments become a city.
Your city becomes a reason to come back.
Study with your cat
Earn salary
Invest earnings
Grow your city
Decorate & repeat
Who it's for
Built for serious students.
Whether you're grinding through med school, prepping for boards, or just trying to finish your reading before lecture — this is the Pomodoro timer that makes the grind feel like it pays.
Student questions
- What is the Pomodoro Technique?
- The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method: work in focused intervals (typically 25 minutes), take a short break, then repeat. After four sessions, take a longer break. The structure helps reduce mental fatigue and makes large tasks feel more approachable. StudySalary uses this framework and adds virtual salary to make each interval feel rewarding.
- What session length actually works best for studying?
- It depends on the task. 25 minutes works well for reading, flashcards, or practice problems where context-switching is low-cost. 45–90 minutes suits deep work like essay writing or solving problem sets. StudySalary lets you set any duration in Settings, so you can match the session to the work.
- Does the Pomodoro technique work for long exams?
- For exam prep — not the exam itself — yes. Breaking a 4-hour study block into timed sessions with planned breaks reduces the mental cost of sitting down. Many med students and bar-exam preppers use Pomodoro-style sessions for review blocks, then adjust duration as the exam approaches.
- What is virtual salary and why does it help?
- Grades take weeks to arrive. Salary arrives the moment you finish a session. That immediate, visible payoff shortcuts the motivation gap — your brain gets a clear 'this was worth it' signal today, not next month. The simulated portfolio lets you reinvest that salary and watch it compound, making consistency feel like it literally pays.
- Is this Pomodoro timer free for students?
- Yes — completely free. No subscription, no account required, no features locked behind a paywall. Open the app and start studying in under a minute.
- Can I sync my progress between my laptop and phone?
- Yes. Sign in with a magic link or Google to sync your full state — salary, portfolio, streaks, settings — across every device. No Gmail or sensitive scope is ever requested. Signing out doesn't delete your local data.
- Does StudySalary work offline?
- The timer and local data work offline. Cloud sync requires a network connection, but your session history and earnings are saved to your browser immediately after each session — no connection needed.
- Can I use it on mobile?
- Yes. StudySalary is a responsive web app that works on any device. You can also install it as a PWA from your browser for a full-screen, app-like experience with a home screen icon.
Your Salary Cat is waiting to clock in.
No sign-up. No credit card. Start studying — and earning — in under a minute.
Simulated salary & investments — no real cash value. Market data delayed. Not financial advice.