A small celebration you can keep
Most of the numbers on Days Counted are fun to read once and then forget. A life card is a way to keep them. It takes one date, your birthday or the day you met someone, and turns it into a single picture with a handful of surprising facts: how many days you have been alive, roughly how many times your heart has beaten, how old you are on Mars, how many full moons you have seen and when your next round-number milestone arrives. It makes a nice message for a birthday, a fun thing to post on a milestone day, or a small surprise for a partner or an old friend.
There are four styles. Playful is bright and full of confetti, Elegant is a calm cream card with a fine border that suits anniversaries, Space puts your numbers among the planets, and Party is made for birthdays. The card is drawn on your own device, so nothing is uploaded, and your date of birth stays off the card unless you tick the box to show it.
How the numbers are worked out
Days are counted on the real calendar from the date you enter to today, so every leap day is included. Heartbeats and breaths multiply the minutes you have lived by typical resting averages, about 80 beats and 15 breaths a minute, and are rounded because everyone is different. Your Mars age divides your days by 686.98, the number of Earth days Mars takes to orbit the Sun, and full moons divide them by the average 29.53 days between one full moon and the next. The next milestone is the nearest round number of days, a multiple of 1,000, or for couples whichever comes first of 1,000 days, 500 weeks or your next anniversary.
| On the card | How it is calculated |
|---|---|
| Days alive or together | Calendar days from the date to today |
| Heartbeats (Me) | Minutes lived × 80, rounded |
| Age on Mars (Me) | Days ÷ 686.98 |
| Full moons | Days ÷ 29.53 |
| Next milestone | Next multiple of 1,000 days (Me); earliest of 1,000 days, 500 weeks or anniversary (Us) |
Worked example. A card made on 1 November 2026 for someone born on 12 April 1990 shows 13,352 days alive, about 1.54 billion heartbeats, an age of 19.4 on Mars and 452 full moons. Their next milestone is 14,000 days old, on Thursday 10 August 2028, which is also the day they turn 2,000 weeks old.
Ideas for using your card
The obvious moment is a birthday, but round-number days are even better because they are so unexpected. Very few people know they are about to turn 10,000 or 15,000 days old, so a card on that day gets a reaction. For couples, a 1,000-day or 500-week card is a sweet alternative to the usual anniversary message. You can add the next milestone to your calendar straight from this page, so you will not miss it, and our milestone finder lists every round number coming up in the years ahead.
Questions people ask
Is my birthday shown on the card?
Not unless you choose to show it. By default the card shows your numbers but not your date of birth, so you can share it without giving that away. Everything is drawn in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
What size is the image?
The card downloads as a PNG of 1080 by 1350 pixels, the portrait size that fits well in most social feeds and messaging apps, and it prints cleanly at postcard size.
Can I make a card for a couple or friends?
Yes. Switch to “Us” and enter the date you met, got together or became friends. The card then counts the days, weeks and full moons you have shared and your next round-number milestone together.
How are heartbeats and breaths worked out?
They are friendly estimates using typical resting averages: about 80 heartbeats and 15 breaths a minute over a lifetime. Real figures vary from person to person, so they are rounded on the card.
Sources. Gregorian calendar; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Planetary Fact Sheet (Mars orbit 686.98 days); synodic month of 29.530589 days from the US Naval Observatory; typical resting heart and breathing rates. Calculations run in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.