How Long to Boil an Egg: Soft, Medium and Hard Boiled Times
Boiled eggs look easy, yet the difference between a runny yolk and a chalky one is only a few minutes. The times below are widely used guidance for large eggs taken straight from the refrigerator and lowered into water that is already boiling. Treat them as a starting point: your stove, pot and eggs will shift the result a little, and one test egg tells you more than any chart.
Boiling times at a glance
| Doneness | Large egg | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Soft | About 6 minutes | Set white, runny yolk |
| Medium | About 8 minutes | Firm white, soft jammy yolk |
| Hard | About 12 minutes | Fully firm white and yolk |
For small eggs, take off about a minute. For extra large eggs, add about a minute. The Egg and Kitchen Timer on this site applies these adjustments for you and counts down with an alarm.
A simple method
- Bring enough water to a gentle rolling boil to cover the eggs by about 2 centimeters (an inch).
- Lower the eggs in with a spoon so they do not crack against the pot. The water will stop boiling for a moment; keep the heat up until it bubbles again, then keep it at a steady simmer.
- Start the timer as soon as the eggs are in the water.
- When the timer rings, move the eggs to a bowl of ice water or run cold water over them for a few minutes. This stops the cooking, which prevents a gray-green ring around the yolk (harmless, but a sign of overcooking), and it makes the eggs easier to handle.
What changes the time
- Egg size. Bigger eggs have more to heat through. The one-minute step between sizes is a good rule of thumb.
- Starting temperature. Eggs from the refrigerator need longer than eggs that have sat at room temperature. If your eggs are at room temperature, expect to shave off a little time. Taking eggs straight from a cold fridge into boiling water can also crack some shells.
- How many eggs and how big the pot. A crowded pot drops in temperature more when the eggs go in and takes longer to recover. Use a pot large enough that the eggs sit in a single layer.
- Altitude. Water boils at a lower temperature the higher you live, so eggs cook more slowly. At high elevation you will probably need to add time. The simplest approach is to cook one test egg and adjust.
- Your stove. A strong boil and a gentle simmer are not the same. Keep the water moving but not violent.
Starting from cold water
Some cooks put the eggs in cold water and heat it up. This reduces cracking and works well, but the timing is harder to control because it depends on how fast your stove heats the pot. If you use this method, start the timer when the water reaches a boil, then take the pot off the heat, cover it, and use a shorter time than in the table. Because stoves vary so much, plan on testing it once with your own equipment.
Peeling
Eggs that are a week or two old are often easier to peel than very fresh ones. Cooling in ice water, then tapping the egg on the counter and rolling it gently to crack the shell all over, helps the shell come away. Peel under a thin stream of cold water if bits of shell stick. Do not worry about small imperfections; the egg is still good to eat.
Food safety
- Soft and medium boiled eggs have a yolk that is not fully set. People who are at higher risk from foodborne illness, such as young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, are commonly advised to eat eggs cooked until both the white and the yolk are firm.
- Refrigerate cooked eggs within two hours of cooking. Hard-boiled eggs in their shells keep for about a week in the refrigerator.
- Do not cook whole eggs in their shells in a microwave; they can burst and cause burns.
- Discard eggs with cracked shells that you found in the carton, and wash your hands after handling raw eggs.
Kitchen timer tips
Use a timer rather than guessing. Start it the moment the eggs hit the water, and set it before you walk away. If you are cooking batches of different doneness, use a separate timer for each one, or open the egg timer in a few browser tabs: the remaining time also appears in each tab title. Keep the sound on and the volume up, and stay within earshot of your device, because a phone that locks its screen may delay the alarm.
Cooking times are guidance only. Always check that food is cooked as you like it and safe for the people eating it.