Microphone Test
Check your mic in seconds: allow access and watch the live level meter and waveform respond to your voice. Nothing is recorded or sent.
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Microphone working — sound detected ✓
Audio is analysed in memory for the meter only; never recorded, never sent anywhere.
How the Live Meter Works
When you click start, the browser's getUserMedia API asks for microphone permission and, once granted, hands back a live audio stream. That stream is connected to a Web Audio API AnalyserNode, which continuously runs a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to turn the raw audio signal into frequency and amplitude data. A requestAnimationFrame loop reads that data dozens of times per second and paints it onto the canvas as the level meter and waveform you see moving while you talk.
This is a meaningfully different pipeline from an audio recorder: this tool never calls the MediaRecorder API, the browser feature responsible for turning a stream into a saved file. Audio only ever exists as live AnalyserNode data used to draw a single frame, then it is gone — it is never assembled into a Blob or a file at any point. That is not just a policy promise; it is an architectural fact about which API is, and is not, being used.
What You Should Know
Two permission layers are involved here, and confusing them is one of the most common reasons a working microphone still appears to show no signal. The browser's own permission prompt controls whether this page can access any microphone at all; separately, the operating system decides which physical input device is the current default and at what input volume — a setting the browser cannot see or control. A flat meter despite an allowed permission almost always traces back to that operating-system-level setting rather than to the site.
- Check the browser's own permission indicator in the address bar first — a blocked prompt shows no data at all.
- Open the operating system's sound settings and confirm the correct input device is selected and its input level is not at zero or muted.
- Physical mute switches on headsets and USB microphones sit outside any software layer and silence the signal before it reaches the browser.
- Only one application can hold an exclusive lock on some microphones at a time — close video-call apps that might already be using it.
Frequently Asked Questions
The meter stays flat — what should I check?
In order: the browser permission (address-bar icon), the OS input device and its level, a physical mute switch on the headset, and whether a video-call app is holding the mic. Testing another device from the dropdown isolates hardware vs settings.
Is my voice recorded during the test?
No. The stream is analysed in memory to draw the meter and waveform, then discarded frame by frame. Use our Voice Recorder tool if you actually want a recording.
Why does the browser ask permission every time?
Microphone access is permission-gated per site for privacy. You can choose "allow always" in the permission prompt if you trust the site.
Does this tool use the MediaRecorder API?
No — that is the key architectural difference from our Voice Recorder tool. This page only ever reads live data from an AnalyserNode to draw the meter and waveform; MediaRecorder, the API that would turn the stream into a saved file, is never called, so there is no code path that could produce a recording.
I allowed the microphone but the wrong device still shows up — why?
Browser permission and operating-system device selection are two separate layers. Granting the site access only lets it use whichever input device the operating system currently has set as default; switching input devices happens in the system sound settings, not in the browser permission prompt.
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