Microphone test
Click start, allow microphone access, and speak. The level meter below reacts in real time, so you can see — not just hope — that your microphone is actually capturing sound before a call, a recording, or an interview.
How this microphone test works
Two browser APIs do all of the work, and both run entirely on your device.
getUserMedia() opens the microphone
Clicking Start calls navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ audio: true }). The browser shows its own permission prompt — this page cannot skip it, pre-approve it, or style it — and only if you allow it does the call resolve with a live MediaStream. This is part of the Media Capture and Streams specification implemented by every major browser.
AnalyserNode measures the level
The stream is piped into a Web Audio AnalyserNode, never into a recorder and never onward to your speakers unless you turn Monitor on. Roughly sixty times a second, this page reads the node's current time-domain samples, computes their RMS (root-mean-square — the standard way to summarise how loud a short window of audio is) and their peak, converts both to decibels relative to full scale (dBFS), and paints the result onto the meter. That loop is cancelled the instant you click Stop.
What never happens: no MediaRecorder, no file, no fetch/XHR/WebSocket call. What you say into the microphone is measured and discarded, frame by frame, on your own device.
Why a working microphone can still look — or sound — silent
A flat meter rarely means a broken microphone. In rough order of how often each turns out to be the actual cause:
- The wrong input is selected. Video-call apps, the OS, and this page can each have a different device selected as "default." Plugging in a headset is a common trigger — some systems switch the OS default but not what an already-open app was using.
- It is muted at the operating-system level. Windows and macOS both keep a system-wide input mute/volume that is entirely separate from any in-app mute button, and a page cannot detect or override it — only measure whatever the OS chooses to hand over.
- A hardware mute is engaged. Many headsets and webcams have a physical mute switch or a button with an LED indicator; some in-line remote controls default to muted after being unplugged and replugged.
- The browser permission was denied or later revoked. A prior "Block" click, or a site-settings reset, stops
getUserMediafrom ever reaching the OS layer — the error message under Start's button will say so explicitly. - Another application has exclusive access. Some drivers only allow one consumer of a microphone at a time; a call app left open in the background can starve every other program of the device.
Troubleshooting checklist
- 1.Check the device picker above the meter and select your intended microphone explicitly — do not assume "Default" points at it.
- 2.Open your OS sound settings and confirm the input device is not muted and its input volume is not at zero.
- 3.Look for a physical mute switch, button or LED on the microphone, headset or webcam itself.
- 4.Check your browser's site permissions (the padlock or "ⓘ" icon in the address bar) and confirm microphone access is set to Allow for this site.
- 5.Close other applications and browser tabs that might already be holding the microphone open, then click Start again.
- 6.Unplug and replug a USB device, or remove and re-pair a Bluetooth one — this clears a surprising number of stuck driver states.
- 7.Still nothing? See the full microphone-not-working guide for platform-specific steps.
Use cases & limitations
Where this is genuinely useful
- Before a video call, interview or meeting. A thirty-second check that the correct device is selected and actually picking up sound, before you are live in front of someone.
- Before recording or streaming. Confirm levels are neither silent nor clipping before you hit record on a podcast, a voiceover, or a stream.
- After changing hardware. New headset, new webcam, new USB hub, or a fresh OS update — any of these can silently change which device is "default."
- Diagnosing a "my mic doesn't work" report without installing anything, on any device with a modern browser.
What this tool cannot tell you
- Audio quality. A level meter measures amplitude, not tone, clarity, background noise or how you actually sound to a listener. It cannot substitute for an actual test recording or call.
- Whether the remote side hears you. Network conditions, the other application's own audio processing, and echo cancellation settings are outside what a browser page can observe.
- Every OS-level state. A muted OS input, a disabled device in Device Manager, or a driver failure can each prevent
getUserMediafrom ever returning a usable stream — the browser's error is the most this page can surface. - Consistent behaviour across every browser. Permission prompts, default noise suppression/echo cancellation and autoplay-adjacent policies differ between Chrome, Firefox and Safari, and between desktop and mobile builds of each.
Frequently asked questions
Does this tool record or upload my voice?
No. The audio is read locally by a Web Audio AnalyserNode purely to measure its level; it is never written to a file, never buffered for later playback, and never sent to a server — there is no server call this page could send it to. Closing the tab or clicking Stop releases the microphone immediately.
Why does my browser ask for microphone permission?
Any page that calls getUserMedia({audio: true}) must get explicit, per-site permission first — it is a deliberate browser security boundary, not something this page can bypass or pre-approve. Choosing Allow only grants access to this origin; it does not grant any other site access, and you can revoke it at any time from your browser's site settings.
I clicked Start but nothing happened — what's wrong?
Check for a permission prompt that appeared outside the visible page area (some browsers show it near the address bar rather than as a modal), and check the error line under the Start button — it names the specific cause: permission denied, no device found, the microphone already in use by another app, or the page not being loaded over a secure connection.
The meter isn't moving at all when I talk — what's wrong?
Three things cause this far more often than a broken microphone: the wrong input device is selected in the picker above the meter, the microphone is muted at the operating-system level (a separate setting from the browser), or a physical mute switch/button on a headset or webcam is engaged. Work through the troubleshooting checklist above in order — it is ordered by how often each cause turns out to be the real one.
Can I test a Bluetooth or USB headset microphone here?
Yes. Any input device your operating system exposes to the browser shows up in the device picker once permission is granted, including USB microphones, USB/Bluetooth headsets and webcams with a built-in mic. Bluetooth specifically can silently downgrade call quality on some systems when a headset switches into its lower-bandwidth hands-free profile — if the sample rate reads unexpectedly low (for example 8000 Hz or 16000 Hz instead of 44100/48000 Hz), that switch is the likely cause.
Why do I see several microphones in the list for one headset?
Operating systems commonly expose the same physical microphone more than once: a generic "Default" or "Communications" device that follows whatever you pick in system settings, plus the device's own named entry. Both work; picking the named entry directly is more predictable if you regularly switch devices, because "Default" changes meaning whenever the OS default changes.
Does a good reading on this meter mean my microphone sounds good?
It means the microphone is capturing sound and the signal is neither silent nor clipping — that is a real and useful confirmation, but it is not a quality measurement. Frequency response, background noise, wind or pop filtering and how you sound to another person are not things a level meter can evaluate; a level meter measures amplitude, not tone or clarity. For that, do an actual test call or recording with a person or app you trust.
Is it safe to use this on a shared or public computer?
The page itself stores nothing and sends nothing anywhere. The one thing worth doing on a shared machine is checking that you revoke the microphone permission afterwards in the browser's site settings if you do not want the next person on that browser profile to reuse your earlier grant — most browsers scope permission to the browser profile, not to your personal identity, so anyone using the same profile after you could otherwise still have access.