Disclosure: we make Time Tracking for Trello, one of the Power-Ups in Way 6. Ways 1 to 5 don't involve our product. Prices come from each vendor's own page, and Trello menus from Atlassian's support pages, as of September 2026.
Short answer: Trello has no built-in time tracking (September 2026)
No. As of September 2026, Trello has no feature for logging hours on a card. None of its plans, from Free to Enterprise, includes a timer, an hours field or a time report (Trello pricing). In May 2025 an Atlassian team member put it this way: "Trello itself doesn't have any native time-tracking features" (community thread).
You can work around that with Trello's building blocks (comments, Custom Fields and automation), or add a Power-Up or an outside time tracker. The six ways below start with the cheapest.
| Way | Trello plan | What it measures | Hours per person and date | Where totals appear | Cost (September 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Comments | Any | Hours people type | Partly | Nowhere; add up by hand | Free |
| 2. Custom Field | Standard or higher | One number per card | No | Per list or board with Dashcards | Included in Standard ($5 per user per month, billed annually) |
| 3. Automation timestamps | Any (Free: 250 runs a month) | Clock time in a list | No | In card comments | Free within the quota |
| 4. Time-in-list Power-Up | Any | Clock time in each list | No | In the Power-Up | Free basics, or $3 per member per month |
| 5. Browser-extension timer | Any | Time worked | Yes | In the tracker's web app | Free tiers, then per seat |
| 6. Time tracking Power-Up | Any | Time worked | Yes | Inside Trello | Free with a storage cap, or about $10 / €9 per Workspace per month |
Time worked, time in list, time until due: three different questions
People use "time tracking" for three different measurements, and many forum answers mix them up.
- Time worked (effort). The hours a person actually spent on a card. Timesheets, payroll and client invoices need this. Ways 1, 2, 5 and 6 record it.
- Time in list (cycle time). How long a card sat in a list such as "Doing", measured by the clock, including nights and weekends. Ways 3 and 4 measure this.
- Time until due. The span between a card's start date and due date. It says nothing about effort.
The most-viewed thread on the subject, "Automatic Time Tracking in Trello" (over 8,000 views), asks for a timer that runs while a card sits in a list called Counting. That gives list time. It equals hours worked only if people move cards at the exact moment they start and stop. A card moved into Doing at 4pm on Friday and out at 10am on Monday shows 66 hours.
List time is still the right number when you want to see where work gets stuck. If you need to pay people or bill clients, you need time worked.
Way 1: log hours in comments
Agree on a fixed format and have everyone post a comment after each piece of work, for example Time: 1.5h, fixed the login redirect. Use decimal hours and put the number first. It works on every plan, and each comment already carries the author and the date.
The problem is totals. Trello doesn't add up numbers in comments, so someone has to open every card and do the sum by hand. The board CSV export is Premium only and leaves comments out, and the JSON export includes only the 1,000 most recent actions on the board (Atlassian's export page). A testing team in this 2021 thread logged hours in comments and couldn't get a quick picture of the hours on the board.
Use it if you work alone or log time rarely, and a written record matters more than totals.
Way 2: a Custom Field for hours spent
Custom Fields need a Workspace on Standard or higher: $5 per user per month billed annually, or $6 monthly. To add one (Atlassian's Custom Fields page):
- Open the board menu (…) and choose Custom Fields.
- Select New field and name it "Hours spent" (titles can be up to 25 characters).
- Choose the Number type. The type can't be changed later.
- Leave Show field on front of card checked so the number shows on the board.
- Select Create.
People then add their time to the number. For totals, add Trello's Dashcards Power-Up: select Track in the board header, choose Customize, set the filters and select Start tracking. Open the Dashcard, select Explore and Edit, and under Metrics choose sum for your numeric field (Dashcards page). The Dashcard panel can export its table as CSV.
On the Free plan, SumUp is the nearest substitute. It adds its own value to each card and shows the total at the top of the list, free for one summed value.
A Custom Field holds one number per card. It can't record who worked the hours or when, so you can't get a weekly total, and a split by person needs a separate field for each person. One useful detail: when a card moves to another board, Custom Fields that contain data move with it.
Use it if you already pay for Standard and a rough figure per card and per list is enough.
Way 3: automation timestamps, and why elapsed time isn't hours worked
Trello's automation (formerly Butler) is included on every plan: 250 runs a month on Free, 1,000 on Standard and unlimited on Premium (automation quotas). It can't time a person, but it can note when a card entered a list and how long it stayed. Based on Atlassian's pages on creating automations and variables:
- Select the Automation (lightning) button in the board header, or open the board menu (…) and select Automation.
- Choose Rule, then Create automation.
- Build the trigger
when a card is moved into list "Doing"with the actionpost comment "Started on {date} at {time}", and select Save. - Add a second rule:
when a card is moved into list "Review",post comment "Spent {cardhoursinpreviouslist} hours in {triggercardpreviouslistname}".
Atlassian's variables page says {cardhoursinlist} can be used "to track time spent on tasks". That is true in the list-time sense only, so keep these limits in mind:
- It is clock time, so the Friday-to-Monday card still reports 66 hours.
- It measures the card. Two people working an hour each in parallel show one hour.
- Re-entering a list starts from zero. A community member who tested these variables found the earlier time was overwritten.
Use it if you want a free, rough view of how long cards spend in each stage.
Way 4: time-in-list Power-Ups for cycle time
These Power-Ups show list time on every card without any rules, and keep a history for each list a card passed through.
- Time in List by Blue Cat (50,000+ boards) shows time in the current list and in earlier lists. It costs $3 per member per month or $30 per member per year, and a member on several boards counts once.
- Card Time In List by GTOLA has free basics. Premium, at $10 per member per year, adds working-hours tracking and weekend exclusion.
- Assista counts time while a card sits in lists you mark for tracking, and reports it by card, board or member.
Working-hours settings bring the numbers closer to real effort, but these tools still assume a card in "Doing" is being worked on the whole time it sits there. They are best at showing where work waits.
Way 5: a browser-extension timer (Clockify, Toggl, Everhour app)
Most standalone trackers reach Trello through a browser extension that adds a start button to the card. The time and the reports stay in the tracker's own app.
- Clockify. With the extension installed and logged in, a Clockify timer button appears on Trello cards (Clockify's Trello page). Reports and edits happen in Clockify's web app. The Free plan covers up to 5 users, with a one-month report range and PDF-only export (Clockify pricing).
- Toggl. Toggl's Trello page now says: "This is a legacy integration for Toggl Track which we currently don't support for Toggl" (source). The setup steps are still there for existing Toggl Track users, but the new Toggl doesn't support Trello.
- Everhour (the app). Only teammates in your Everhour team with the extension installed see time data in Trello, and "you can’t see the Everhour timer and other controls inside Trello desktop and mobile apps" (Everhour's Trello page).
The "Toggl Integration" and "Clockify Integration" Power-Ups in the directory come from a third-party developer and cost from €2.5 per board per month billed annually, on top of the tracker (listing).
Extensions only work in a desktop browser, teammates without one see nothing on the card, and paid plans are priced per seat. In exchange, these trackers also time work done outside Trello, and Clockify and Everhour add desktop and mobile apps and invoicing on paid plans. If much of the team's work happens in other tools, this is usually the better route. Our Toggl, Clockify and Everhour guide covers each in detail.
Way 6: a time tracking Power-Up with reports inside Trello
A time tracking Power-Up puts a timer and manual entry on the card, shows totals on the board and keeps reports in Trello. Every entry has a person and a date, so weekly and per-person totals work. Nobody needs a browser extension or a second app.
Before choosing one, check where it stores entries. Free Power-Ups often use Trello's own Power-Up storage, which is capped at 4,096 characters per scope and visibility pair for card data (Trello developer docs). In April 2026 the developer of the free Time Spent Power-Up said users hit that cap at roughly 20 to 25 entries per card, raised to about 40 to 50 by a compact format (article comments). That's fine for short tasks and too little for a long-running retainer card.
Paid Power-Ups usually store entries on their own servers. These three charge one price per Workspace rather than per person:
- Time Tracking Power-Up by Everhour: $10 per month, unlimited users and boards, 14-day trial. It works without an Everhour account.
- Limita: $10 per month or $96 per year, 14-day trial.
- Time Tracking for Trello (ours, listed in the directory as "just another Time Tracker"): €5 per month or €50 per year, with a 5-day trial that starts at the first tracked minute. Besides the timer and board badge, it has estimates, client hourly rates, reports across boards and CSV or XLSX export. It is English only and doesn't create invoices. It has no desktop or mobile app of its own and no idle detection, and we haven't tested it in Trello's desktop and mobile apps.
Whichever you use, export your hours regularly. In March 2024 one user found the Timesheet for Trello Power-Up gone from their boards and the directory, with entries they needed for payroll (thread). Our Power-Up comparison lists prices and export formats side by side.
A timer on every Trello card
Time Tracking for Trello puts a start/stop timer on the card and a live badge on the board, with estimates, client rates and reports across boards.
Add to Trello€5 per month for the whole workspace · 5-day free trial · No card needed
Is there a free way to track time in Trello?
Yes, within limits. Comments, automation comments and the free version of SumUp cost nothing on any plan. Beyond those:
- Free Power-Ups using Trello storage, such as Time Spent, work until a card collects a few dozen entries.
- Clockify Free covers up to 5 users, with a one-month report range and PDF export.
- TimeCamp Free allows unlimited users (pricing), and its directory listing says the Power-Up works on that plan.
- Chronos Free has one seat, for the Workspace administrator only (pricing).
Everhour discontinued its Power-Up's free plan (support article, updated 1 April 2025), and Toggl's integration is legacy, although older listicles still call both free. Ours isn't free either: after the trial, new time needs a plan, while reports and exports keep working.
Which method fits your team
| Your situation | Best fit |
|---|---|
| You work alone and log time now and then | Way 1: comments |
| You're on Standard and a rough total per card and list is enough | Way 2: a Custom Field with Dashcards |
| You want to see where work waits, not who did it | Way 3 for a quick look, Way 4 for ongoing numbers |
| Your team also tracks work outside Trello, or needs invoices or desktop apps | Way 5: Clockify, the Everhour app, or Toggl Track if you already use it |
| Several people work in Trello and you need hours per person, week or client | Way 6: a time tracking Power-Up |
Team size changes the cost. A 26-person firm asking about time tracking in Trello would pay for 26 seats with a per-seat tracker, and the same flat price as a team of 3 with a per-Workspace Power-Up.
For client billing, see Trello timesheets and billable hours. To compare hours with a plan, see time estimates on Trello cards. If your board is a support queue, start with using Trello as a help desk.
Frequently asked questions
Can a whole company track time in Trello?
Yes, but not with Trello's own features. A firm needs hours it can total by person and by week, which comments and Custom Fields can't produce, so use a time tracking Power-Up or an outside tracker, and create cards for routine work such as meetings. Per-seat trackers charge for everyone who tracks, while Everhour's Power-Up, Limita and ours charge one price per Workspace.
How do I see how many hours we spend on each card?
On Standard or higher, add a Number Custom Field called "Hours spent" and total it with Dashcards. That gives one figure per card, without a split by person or date. A time tracking Power-Up or an extension-based tracker records each entry separately, so you get the card's total and each person's share.
Can a timer start automatically when a card moves to "In Progress"?
Yes, but you get time in the list rather than time worked. Trello's automation can post how many hours a card spent in its previous list, Assista counts time while a card sits in a list you mark, and the third-party Clockify and Toggl Integration Power-Ups can start and stop a timer when a card is dragged to a chosen column. Treat the result as cycle time.
How long does a card stay in each list?
A time-in-list Power-Up answers that directly. Time in List by Blue Cat costs $3 per member per month, and Card Time In List by GTOLA has free basic features. Without a Power-Up, the automation variable {cardhoursinlist} returns the hours a card has spent in its current list.
Does logged time follow a card when it moves to another board?
It depends on the method. Custom Fields that contain data move with the card. In our Power-Up, the card's back still shows its full history after a move, but badges, reports and exports on the new board include only time logged after the move, and earlier entries stay with the original board. With other tools, move a test card before you reorganise boards, because some treat each board as a separate project.