Yes/No counter · Free · No sign-up
Yes / No Counter
A yes/no counter tallies two options at once and shows the split between them. Each key records one response, and the percentage updates as you go. This one shows the sample size beside the percentage and withholds a confidence range until there is enough data for one to mean anything.
Free, no sign-up, works offline, and no respondent data is collected.
Y and N count the two options, ← and → do the same, Ctrl+Z undoes.
This counts and divides. It does not make a bad sample good. The interval it shows assumes you drew people at random from the group you want to talk about; tallying whoever walks past is not that, and no arithmetic here can repair it. Nothing is sent anywhere and no respondent data is collected, because only two running numbers exist.
Any two-way counter gives you 31 and 19. The useful question is what the 62% is worth, and that depends on two things almost no tool shows you: how many you counted, and whether the people you counted were a random sample at all.
A yes/no counter is a two-category tally counter used for surveys, polls and quick head counts, recording how many chose each of two options and the proportion between them.
- No sign-up
- No ads
- Counts never leave your browser
- Works offline
- Unlimited counters
Key facts
| Detail | Answer |
|---|---|
| Price | Free, no sign-up, no ads |
| Counts | Two options at once, each with its own key |
| Labels | Editable. Yes/No, Agree/Disagree, Pass/Fail, In/Out |
| Shows | Count per option, total, and the live percentage |
| Sample size | Displayed beside the percentage, not beneath it |
| Confidence range | 95%, and only above n = 30 |
| Random sample | Asked for explicitly, not assumed |
| Undo | Yes, last 100 changes |
| Offline | Yes, after the first load |
| Respondent data | None. Two running numbers and two labels |
How to run a two-option tally
The counting takes a second. Deciding what the number is worth is the part worth doing properly.
Name the two options
Yes and No by default, but Agree and Disagree, Pass and Fail or In and Out work the same. Naming them stops you losing track of which key was which.
Decide how you are choosing people, before you start
Whether you will ask everyone who passes, every fifth person, or a list drawn at random. This decides what your final number can be used for, and it cannot be fixed afterwards.
Tick the random box only if that is true
It is a claim about your method, not a setting that improves the data. Unticked, the page still shows the range but keeps the condition attached to it.
Count with the keys
Y and N, or the arrow keys, or the two buttons. Undo takes back a mis-tap without disturbing the other option.
Keep going past thirty if you can
No range is shown below thirty, because one calculated there is more confident than the count deserves. The range narrows quickly after that.
Copy the result with its method
The copied summary carries the counts, the share, whether the sample was random and the interval, so the number never travels without its caveats.
Where a yes/no counter gets used
Anywhere a question has two answers and you need the split rather than a total.
Quick opinion surveys
Asking a yes/no question at a stand or a door and wanting the share, not just the count.
Pass and fail checks
Inspections, quality checks or practice attempts, where the proportion passing is the figure that matters.
A/B preferences
Two samples, two options, one key each. The labels take whatever the options are called.
Classroom votes
A show of hands counted honestly, with the total visible so nobody has to trust a rough estimate.
Attendance and no-shows
Turned up against did not, where the percentage is the thing being reported upward.
Sports and practice attempts
Made against missed, giving a live success rate over a session rather than at the end of it.
Why the percentage is the least useful number on this page
Every two-way counter will give you 31 and 19. Divide and you get 62%, and the percentage is the number that ends up in the email. It is also, on its own, close to meaningless — and the two reasons why are the reason this page exists rather than being a preset on the multi counter.
A percentage without n is not a result
Two out of three is 67%. Two hundred out of three hundred is also 67%. They are not the same claim, they are not close to the same claim, and written as a bare percentage they are indistinguishable. This is why the sample size sits next to the percentage here at nearly the same size, rather than in grey text underneath it.
| Counted | Share | 95% range, random sample | What you can say |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 of 8 | 62% | not shown | Nothing. One more tap moves it 7 points |
| 19 of 31 | 61% | ±17 points | Possibly a majority, possibly a minority |
| 62 of 100 | 62% | ±10 points | Probably a majority |
| 620 of 1000 | 62% | ±3 points | A majority, and roughly this big |
Read the second row again. Thirty-one people, a clear-looking 61%, and the honest range still reaches from 44% to 78% — it does not even settle whether most people said yes. That is the count most informal surveys actually stop at, and it is why no interval at all is shown below thirty here: a tidy ± on twelve responses reads as precision and is not.
The interval only means anything if the sample was random
This is the bigger of the two problems and the one almost nobody states. The arithmetic behind that ± assumes every member of the group you want to describe had an equal chance of being counted. Tallying whoever walks past a table does not do that. You sampled people who were in that place, at that time, and willing to stop — which is a real group, but not the group you meant.
That is a convenience sample, and the honest thing to do with one is report the count and how you collected it, not a confidence interval. So the checkbox is unticked by default, and while it is unticked the page shows the range with the condition attached rather than quietly implying it holds. Ticking it is a claim you are making, not a setting that improves the data.
Three ways a count that feels fair usually is not: people who feel strongly answer and the indifferent walk on, the question is asked differently once you are tired of asking it, and whoever is in that corridor at 3pm is not whoever is in it at 9am. None of these show up in the arithmetic. All of them move the answer more than the ± does.
What this does not do
It holds two categories, not five, and it deliberately stops there: a third option turns a proportion into a distribution and the honest statistics change with it. Use the multi counter for more categories. It does not record who answered, does not weight or adjust for who you did not reach, does not do a chi-squared or any test of significance, and does not know anything about your population size. Everything stays in this browser; the only things stored are two numbers and your two labels.
Online counter vs a clicker, an app, paper and a spreadsheet
Every counting method trades something away. This is what each one actually costs you.
| Feature | This online counter | Handheld clicker | Counter phone app | Pen and paper | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | $5–$15 | Free with ads, or paid | Cost of paper | Subscription |
| Anything to install | No | Buy the device | App store download | No | Yes, or a web login |
| Several counts at once | Unlimited | One per device | Usually limited | Yes, messy | Yes |
| Fix a miscount | Undo and redo | Start over | Sometimes | Cross it out | Edit the cell |
| Counts by more than one | Any step size | One at a time | Sometimes | Manual maths | Yes |
| Below zero | Yes | No | Rarely | Yes | Yes |
| Keeps the count if you close it | Saves automatically | Until you reset the dial | Yes | If you keep the paper | Yes |
| Works with no signal | Yes, after first load | Yes | Yes | Yes | Often not |
| Keyboard and shortcuts | Full | None | None | None | Partial |
| Sends your data anywhere | Never | Never | Often, for accounts and ads | Never | Yes, to the cloud |
Other counter types
The same counter, set up and explained for a specific job. Your counters are shared across all of them.
Online counter
The all-purpose counter. Any step size, any number of counters, negative values allowed.
Open online counter →Tally counter
Tally marks in groups of five for surveys, stock takes and wildlife counts.
Open tally counter →Click counter
A browser clicker that replaces the handheld thumb counter for door headcounts.
Open click counter →Lap counter
Count pool lengths, track laps and treadmill intervals without losing your place.
Open lap counter →Rep counter
Track reps and sets during a lifting session, with a step size for supersets.
Open rep counter →Score counter
A scoreboard for cards, darts and board games. One counter per player, negatives allowed.
Open score counter →Tasbeeh counter
A digital dhikr counter that stops at 33, 99 or 100 and keeps each dhikr separate.
Open tasbeeh counter →Differential counter
Six keys for a manual white cell differential, with an auto-stop and live percentages.
Open differential counter →Multi counter
Run as many counters as you like at once, side by side in a grid.
Open multi counter →Pitch counter
Count pitches, then get the rest days owed and the next eligible date.
Open pitch counter →Auto counter
Counts on its own from every 0.1 seconds to once an hour, and stops at your limit.
Open auto counter →Click speed test
Measure your clicks per second over 1 to 60 seconds, with your personal best kept on-device.
Open click speed test →Habit counter
Count toward a daily target and keep the streak, with a day boundary you choose.
Open habit counter →People counter
In and out at a door, with live occupancy against a capacity and a fix for drift.
Open people counter →Bird counter
A row per species recording the high count, so a circling flock is not counted twice.
Open bird counter →Inventory counter
A count sheet holding the book quantity beside the counted one, with the variance per line.
Open inventory counter →Knitting counter
Rows, pattern repeats and a shaping schedule that names the increase rows and then ends.
Open knitting counter →Omer counter
The 49 days of Sefirat HaOmer, in days and weeks, with the blessing state tracked.
Open omer counter →Golf scorecard
Strokes per hole with the course handicap allocated by stroke index, net and Stableford.
Open golf scorecard →
Frequently asked questions
What is a yes/no counter?
A tally counter with two keys instead of one, so you can record two answers to the same question and see the split between them. It is the standard tool for a quick survey, a pass/fail check or any count where the proportion matters more than the total.
How do I count two things at once?
Give each option a key and tap the one that matches each response. Here that is Y and N, the arrow keys, or the two buttons. Each option keeps its own running count, and the percentage between them updates on every tap.
How many people do I need to survey?
More than feels necessary. At 31 responses a 61% result still spans roughly 44% to 78%, which does not even establish a majority. A hundred gets you to about ten points either way, and a thousand to about three. No range is shown here below thirty.
What is a margin of error?
How far the true proportion could reasonably sit from the one you measured, given how many you counted. It shrinks as the sample grows, and it only describes sampling luck. It says nothing about a leading question or about the people you never asked.
Why does the counter ask whether my sample is random?
Because the confidence range is only meaningful if it was. The arithmetic assumes everyone in the group you want to describe had an equal chance of being counted, which is not true of whoever happened to walk past. Unticked, the range is shown with that condition attached.
Is counting people as they walk past a random sample?
No. That is a convenience sample: you have counted people who were in that place, at that time, and willing to stop. It can still be worth doing, but report the count and your method rather than a margin of error.
Can I change the Yes and No labels?
Yes, to anything up to 24 characters. Agree and Disagree, Pass and Fail, In and Out, or two product names all work, and the labels appear on the keys and in the copied result.
Can I count three or more options?
Not here, deliberately. A third option turns a proportion into a distribution and the statistics shown on this page would no longer be the right ones. The multi counter runs as many independent counters as you need.
Does it save my count if I close the tab?
Yes. Both counts and your labels are written to this browser's local storage as you tap, so closing the tab or locking the phone loses nothing. Clearing site data clears them.
Is any respondent data collected?
None at all. Only two running numbers and two labels exist, all held in your own browser. There is no record of individual responses because none is ever created, and nothing is sent to a server.
Counting guides
Longer answers to the questions behind the counting.
- Swimming
How to count laps while swimming
Why swimmers lose count at length 14, and five methods that actually hold up.
- Tallying
Tally marks explained
Groups of five, the five-bar gate, and why the convention has survived for centuries.
- Events
How to do an accurate headcount
Counting people is easy. Counting them accurately, twice, is not.
- Habits
Track a daily habit streak
Why streak apps fail, and what a plain daily counter does better.
- Click speed
How to click faster
Hardware and grip account for most of the gap. Practice accounts for less than people think.
- Inventory
How to do a stock take
Counting is the easy part. Preparing, and knowing your count is right, is the job.
- Training
Reps and sets explained
How to read a programme, and why the rep range matters more than the total.
- Reference
Types of counters explained
Synchronous vs asynchronous, mod-N, ring and Johnson, plus mechanical and software counters.
- Build it
How to make a counter
Twenty lines gets you counting. Here is what to add after that, and why.
- Baseball
How to keep an official pitch count
Little League requires an official recorder at every game. Almost nobody explains the job.
- Dhikr
One tasbeeh is equal to how many?
The same phrase means a bead loop, a single dhikr, or a full set of a hundred. Which one is meant, and when.
- Haematology
How to do a manual differential count
Why the pattern matters, how many cells is enough, and the imprecision built into the method itself.
- Birding
How to count a flock of birds
Blocks, tens, and why the number to report is the most seen at one time.
- Knitting
How to read knitting shaping instructions
Every 4th row, alt rows, at each end, AT THE SAME TIME — translated, with the rows they land on.
- Golf
Stableford points and net scores
Stroke index, strokes received, net score, points — in the order you actually need them.
- Surveys
How many people do you need to survey?
Why 385 answers a city and 45 answers a club, and the margin each sample size buys.