Countdown — Free Events Social Post Template
Events · v1.0.0 · Updated 2026-10-16 · Instagram, Facebook & X · HTML + CSS
What's included
Features
About this template
Countdown — Free "Days Left" Countdown Post Template
Countdown is a free urgency post template for launches, events, sales and deadlines. A giant number sits inside a glowing ring, with "Only" above, "days left" below, the event or offer name and the exact deadline.
Urgency at a glance
The number is set in Space Grotesk at a huge size in the centre of a circle drawn with a thick accent border. An outer glow and an inner glow (both CSS box-shadows) make the ring look neon against the deep indigo background. People get the message, "3 days left", before they read anything else.
A series in minutes
Countdowns work best as a sequence: 7 days, 3 days, 1 day, "Today". Change only the number and unit for each post, and keep the colours and title the same so your followers recognise the series. Use "hours left" or "spots left" for other kinds of urgency.
Be specific about the deadline
The deadline line ("Ends Friday, 11:59 PM ET") states exactly when the offer or registration closes, including the time zone. A precise deadline builds more trust, and more action, than a vague "ending soon".
Every size
The layout is centred for portrait, square and Story sizes, and the ring shrinks slightly on the 16:9 landscape size for X. Long event names shrink to fit.
Pair it with We're Live for launch day, Black Friday Sale for holiday deals, or Webinar Event for registrations.
Extend with AI
Take This Post Further With AI
Use an AI assistant to plan a countdown posting schedule, write a different hook for each day, or generate the full 7-to-1 sequence from this template.
Prompt to recreate it
Copy this into your AI assistant of choice to build the effect from scratch, or as a jumping-off point for your own variant:
Create a 1080×1350 countdown social post in HTML and CSS.
- Deep indigo background with a radial accent glow behind the centre.
- Centred stack: uppercase "Only" kicker, a large circle with a thick accent border and inner/outer glow box-shadows containing a huge number (Space Grotesk 700), an uppercase accent "days left", the event name and a small deadline line.
- Use --u (1% of the shorter side) for sizing so it scales to square, Story and 16:9.Want to tighten it up first? Run this prompt through the AI Prompt Studio to score it across 8 quality dimensions, catch anti-patterns, and tune the wording for Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini before you paste it in.
Why use it
Why Use the Countdown Template
How it’s different
How It’s Different From Canva-Style Templates
Step by step
How to Use
- 1Pick the sizeChoose Portrait 4:5 (the Instagram feed default), Square, Story / Reel, Landscape 16:9 for X, a 1200×627 LinkedIn image or a 1000×1500 Pinterest pin. Countdown opens at 1080×1350.
- 2Edit the textClick any text in the preview, or use the fields on the left (kicker, number, unit, event or offer and more). Wrap words in *asterisks* to colour them.
- 3Add your imagesClick a photo area in the preview or use Images to upload your logo. Images stay in your browser.
- 4Match your brandApply your saved brand kit or one of 12 palettes, set exact colours, and choose heading and body fonts from any Google Font or your own uploaded font.
- 5Preview it in the feedSwitch the preview to Instagram, Story, X or LinkedIn to see the post with your name, handle and caption, and fix anything the quality checks flag.
- 6Download, save or bulk createDownload PNG, JPG or PDF, every size as a ZIP, or copy the HTML. Save it to My designs to reuse later, or turn a CSV into dozens of posts with Bulk create.
Real-world uses
Common Use Cases
Follow it up
Email Templates to Match the Countdown Post
Reach the people who are not on social media with a matching email from the free responsive HTML email templates: Last Chance Sale Email, Webinar Invitation Email. Both libraries use the same brand colours and fonts, so the post and the email look like one campaign.
Got questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
Open Countdown, enter the number of days, the event or offer name and the deadline, then download the Story size (1080×1920) for daily reminders or the portrait size for the feed.
No. Social images are static, so the number is whatever you type. Make one image per day, which takes seconds because only the number changes.
Yes. The unit is free text, so "hours left", "spots left" or "seats left" all work.
Include the day, the time and the time zone, such as "Ends Friday, 11:59 PM ET".
Portrait post 1080×1350 (4:5): Instagram feed (recommended), Facebook and LinkedIn feeds, X portrait. Square post 1080×1080 (1:1): Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and X feeds. Story / Reel 1080×1920 (9:16): Instagram and Facebook Stories, Reel covers. Landscape post 1600×900 (16:9): X feed image, Facebook landscape. LinkedIn image 1200×627 (1.91:1): LinkedIn shared image and link posts, Facebook link images. Pinterest pin 1000×1500 (2:3): Pinterest standard pin (the recommended 2:3 ratio). Switch sizes in the editor and the layout adapts, or click "All sizes (ZIP)" to download every size at once.
Press Play in the editor to watch the animation for free. Downloading it as an animated MP4 (or WebM) for Reels, Stories and WhatsApp Status is for Patreon supporters, who enter the supporter passcode once. PNG, JPG, PDF and HTML exports are free.
Yes, for Patreon supporters. Choose Export, then "Bulk create from CSV", and paste rows from a spreadsheet or upload a CSV whose column names match the Countdown fields. Every row becomes one post, and you download them all as a ZIP.
Yes. The preview switches between the plain design and mock-ups of an Instagram feed post, an Instagram Story, an X post and a LinkedIn post, using the name, handle and logo from your brand kit and the caption you type.
Yes. "Copy HTML" and "Download .html" give you one self-contained file: the markup, all the CSS and links to the Google Fonts it uses. "Fork to My Code" saves an editable copy in the UI Snippets editor. The file records the template name and version (v1.0.0).
Yes. It is free for personal and commercial posts, with no sign-up and no watermark. Everything runs in your browser and nothing you type or upload is sent to a server.