Mic test

Test your microphone in three steps

1. Press Start mic test and allow microphone access when the browser asks.
2. Speak at your normal volume. The bar and waveform should move with your voice; pick another microphone from the list if they do not.
3. Press Record 5 seconds and listen to the playback to hear exactly how you sound to others.

What the readings mean

The level bar shows how loud the signal is in dBFS, decibels relative to full scale: 0 dBFS is the loudest value a digital recording can hold, and everything below it is negative. Normal speech at arm’s length usually peaks somewhere between −30 and −10 dBFS. If your voice barely moves the bar, the input is too quiet; if the bar hits the red end and the clipping warning appears, the loudest parts are being cut off and will sound distorted. The noise floor is the level of the quietest tenth of the readings, which is roughly the hiss and room noise between your words. Below −60 dBFS is a quiet setup, and above −45 dBFS you will hear the background in recordings. The details table also shows what your browser reports about the device: its name, the sample rate (usually 48,000 Hz), the number of channels, and whether echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain are switched on.

Microphone not working? Check these in order

Permission denied: the browser blocked access, either because you pressed Block or because the system does not allow the browser to use the microphone. Click the padlock or tune icon next to the address and allow the microphone, then reload. On a Mac, also open System Settings, Privacy and Security, Microphone and turn on your browser. On Windows, open Settings, Privacy and security, Microphone and allow desktop apps. Wrong device: laptops often have several inputs (built-in, headset, webcam, a virtual device from a meeting app). Pick each one from the list until the bar moves. Muted: a mute key on the keyboard, a switch or button on the headset cable, or the input volume at zero in the system sound settings all produce a flat line. When the browser receives pure digital silence, this page tells you so, which points at a mute rather than a broken microphone. In use by another app: some apps take the microphone exclusively; close them and try again. Bluetooth headsets switch to a lower-quality call mode when the microphone is in use, which is normal.

Voice processing, and why your call sounds different

Video calling apps and most browsers clean up the microphone by default: echo cancellation removes your speakers from the signal, noise suppression turns down fans and keyboard clicks, and automatic gain raises quiet voices and lowers loud ones. The Voice processing switch on this page asks the browser for exactly those settings, so with it on you hear roughly what a browser-based call would send. Turn it off to hear the raw microphone, which is what a recording app or streaming software usually captures. Browsers may ignore the request, so the table shows what was actually applied. If your voice sounds watery or cut off with processing on, the noise suppression is working too hard, and a quieter room or a closer microphone helps more than any setting.

What this test cannot tell you

A browser test checks that the microphone delivers a usable signal and lets you hear it. It does not measure the microphone’s frequency response or sensitivity in absolute terms, because those numbers depend on your operating system’s input gain as much as on the hardware. The playback is recorded with your browser’s own encoder (usually Opus in WebM, or AAC on older Safari versions), so it is a fair preview of a browser call but not a lossless studio capture. For loudness in decibels of the room, use the decibel meter; for a longer recording you can download, use the voice recorder.