These are the two breathing patterns people compare most often, and the difference between them is easy to state: box breathing has four phases of equal length, and 4-7-8 has three phases of different ones.
Everything else follows from that. Below is what each pattern actually asks of you, which numbers move and which do not, and a timer you can run without installing anything.
Box breathing runs in for four seconds, holds for four, out for four, and holds again for four on empty. Every side is the same length, which is where the name comes from — and why it is also called square breathing.
4-7-8 runs in for four seconds, holds for seven, and out for eight. There is no hold after the out-breath: the next in-breath begins straight away. The out-breath is the longest phase, and that proportion is the pattern rather than any single number.
One box cycle is sixteen seconds at the default, so roughly three and a half breaths a minute. One 4-7-8 cycle is nineteen seconds, so a little over three.
Box breathing takes a pace: you can set each side anywhere from four to seven seconds, and because a box is equal by definition, the two holds lengthen with the two breaths. Seven-second sides make a twenty-eight-second cycle, which is a noticeably harder thing to hold to.
4-7-8 does not take a pace, and that is deliberate rather than an omission. The seven and the eight are what make it 4-7-8 — scaling them would produce a different pattern with the same name.
If you have not done either, 4-7-8 is where most people start, because the counting gives you something specific to do and the long out-breath is the easiest part of it to feel.
Box breathing is the one to reach for when you want something even. It gives you nothing to anticipate — every side is the same, so there is no long phase to brace for and no short one to hurry through. The evenness is the point, not the holds.
Neither requires you to finish anything. Stopping part-way through a round is an ordinary way to use both.
The timer below is the app, running in this page. It opens on box breathing — press Begin, or switch pace first.
The pattern In 4 s · Hold 4 s · Out 4 s · Hold 4 s
Yes. Both names describe one pattern with four phases of equal length.
It depends on what you find hard. 4-7-8 has the longest single hold at seven seconds. Box breathing has two holds per cycle rather than one, so there is more holding overall even though each hold is shorter.
You can breathe however you like, but a pattern with different numbers is not 4-7-8. If you want counts you can set yourself, box breathing and resonance breathing both take an adjustable pace.
That is how the pattern is usually described. A timer cannot tell which you are doing, so either works with it.
Both timers here start at four rounds. Set the number before you begin, and stop earlier if you want to.
On your phone it runs with sound and haptics, and it works with no connection at all.