Microphone Test
Check that your microphone is picking up sound. The level and the waveform move as you speak, so you can see it working even if you cannot hear it.
Your microphone audio stays in this browser tab. It is never uploaded, never stored, and never sent anywhere — there is no code on this page that could send it.
Not listening
No level while stopped
StoppedNot listening yet.
Your input devices are named once you allow microphone access — browsers hide the names until then.
Record and play back
Record up to fifteen seconds and hear it back. The recording stays in this tab: it is never uploaded, and it is gone the moment you leave the page.
Nothing recorded yet
StoppedIf the level is not moving
A microphone that does nothing on this page almost always fails for one of four reasons, and they are worth ruling out in this order. The browser may never have been given permission — or the prompt may have been dismissed rather than refused, which looks identical afterwards. The browser may be listening to a different input from the one you are speaking into, which is common the moment a headset, a webcam or an audio interface is plugged in, because each of them arrives as a microphone of its own. The input may be muted at the operating-system level, where a browser cannot see it and cannot tell you about it. Or another application may already hold the device: on Windows especially, a conferencing app that is still running in the background can keep exclusive use of a microphone long after you have closed its window. The full breakdown of each of these — including exactly where the setting lives in Windows, macOS, Linux, Discord, Zoom and Google Meet — is in why isn't my microphone working.
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No prompt appeared at all | The site was blocked earlier, or the prompt was dismissed | Click the microphone or lock icon in the address bar and allow this site, then press Start listening again |
| "No microphone was found" | No input device is connected, or the system does not list one | Check the cable or the USB port, then look in your system sound settings for an input device |
| The meter stays at Silent | Muted at the operating-system level, or the wrong input is selected | Unmute the input in your system sound settings, then try each entry in the Input device list |
| "Could not be opened" | Another app is holding the device | Quit Zoom, Teams, Discord or OBS completely, then reload this page |
| The level moves but is very low | Input gain is set low, or the microphone is far away | Raise the input level in your system sound settings, and speak closer to the microphone |
Where the permission lives in each browser
In Chrome and Edge, the permission is behind the icon at the left-hand end of the address bar — a lock, a slider, or a microphone once the site has asked. Open it, set Microphone to Allow, and reload. If the site is not listed at all, the prompt was never answered; pressing Start listening again will raise it.
In Firefox, a blocked microphone shows a crossed-out microphone icon in the address bar. Click it and remove the block, then reload. Firefox also treats a dismissed prompt as temporary, so simply pressing the button again is often enough.
In Safari, microphone access is per-site and lives in Settings for This Website, reachable from the Safari menu or by right-clicking the address bar. Set Microphone to Allow. On iPhone and iPad, check Settings › Safari › Microphone as well, because a global refusal there overrides the per-site choice.
Every browser also requires a secure connection. A page loaded over plain http, or opened as a file from disk, cannot open a microphone at all, and the refusal arrives before any prompt is shown.
When the microphone works here but not in your app
If the meter on this page moves, the hardware, the driver and the operating system are all working. What is left is the application's own device selection and its own permission, and each of the big three keeps its own.
In Discord, open User Settings › Voice & Video and check Input Device. Discord keeps its own setting there, separate from the system default: if the dropdown names a specific device rather than Default, a microphone added later will not be picked up until you select it yourself. The Let's Check button on that page is the equivalent of this one.
In Zoom, open Settings › Audio and use Test Mic. If Zoom shows no input, check that Automatically adjust microphone volume is not fighting you, and confirm the device in the dropdown matches the one that works here.
In Google Meet, the microphone is a browser permission like this page's, but granted separately for meet.google.com. Check the address-bar icon there as well as here, then confirm the input under the three-dot menu › Settings › Audio.
On Windows, one more setting sits above all of these: open Settings and look for Privacy (Windows 10) or Privacy & security (Windows 11), then Microphone. Either version shows a master switch and a per-app list beneath it. A browser that is switched off there will report no microphone at all, with no prompt and no error the page can read.
What this test can and cannot tell you
The level shown here is relative. It is measured in dBFS — decibels below digital full scale — which describes how close the signal is to the loudest value the audio system can represent. It is not a sound-pressure level, and it is not comparable to the dB figures quoted for traffic noise or for a concert. An absolute measurement would need a calibrated microphone and a known reference level, and consumer hardware supplies neither, so any page claiming to show you a sound-pressure-level reading from a laptop microphone is guessing.
What the meter does tell you is reliable as far as it goes: whether audio is arriving, how close it is to clipping, and whether the level moves when you speak. That is enough to answer the question most people arrive with, which is whether the microphone works at all.
The recording is held in this browser tab and nowhere else. It is not uploaded, not stored, and not written to your disk — there is no code on this page capable of sending it anywhere, and a test in this site's source checks that on every change. Leaving or reloading the page discards it.
Not sure where the problem is? Run the full sound check: six quick questions, and one summary that points you at the right tool.