How to use the mic test
- Press Start microphone and allow the microphone when the browser asks.
- Speak normally, at the distance you would in a call. The bar moves with your voice.
- Press Record 5 seconds to hear yourself back, exactly as the microphone picked you up.
If you have more than one microphone, such as a laptop’s built-in one and a headset, pick the one to test from the list. The test works the same for a USB microphone, a headset, earbuds with a microphone, or a phone.
Reading the meter
The levels are in decibels below the loudest sound the microphone can report, which is 0 dB. Everything else is a negative number: −6 dB is loud, −40 dB is quiet. These are not the decibels of a sound level meter, which measure the loudness of the room itself, so they cannot be compared with one.
- Level now is the average level of the last moment.
- Loudest, last 10 s is the highest peak. Speaking normally, a common rule of thumb is peaks between about −18 and −6 dB: the shaded band on the graph.
- Background is the level of the room between words: the quietest tenth of the last 10 seconds. The lower, the better.
When the bar turns red, the microphone is clipping: the sound is louder than it can report, and comes out distorted. Turn the input volume down or move back a little.
Hear yourself, and call processing
Record 5 seconds is the best way to judge how you sound. Hear yourself plays the microphone back live instead. Use headphones for it: through speakers the microphone picks up its own sound and howls.
Calling apps such as Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and Discord clean up the sound with echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic volume. The test starts with all three off, to show what the microphone itself picks up. Turn on Call processing to hear what the browser’s own versions of them do.
If the meter does not move
- The browser says the microphone is blocked. Click the microphone or lock icon at the left of the address bar, allow the microphone for this site, and press Start again.
- Windows is blocking it. Open Start → Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone. Turn on Microphone access, and “Let desktop apps access your microphone”, which browsers need.
- A Mac is blocking it. Open Apple menu → System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone, and turn access on for your browser.
- It is muted. Many headsets and USB microphones have a mute button or switch, and some laptops have a microphone key. Check the input volume too: Settings → System → Sound → Input on Windows, or System Settings → Sound → Input on a Mac.
- The wrong microphone is chosen. Pick another one from the list above, and set the right one as the default in the same system settings.
- Another app has it. Close Teams, Zoom, Discord or any recording app, then press Start again.
Too quiet or too loud
If your voice peaks below about −30 dB, raise the microphone’s input volume in the system settings, or move closer. If it clips, lower the input volume or move back. For a headset, the microphone usually works best just to the side of your mouth, where it does not pick up your breath.
Is it private?
Yes. The sound goes from the microphone to this page and nowhere else. The 5-second recording stays in the page and is gone when you close it. Press Stop microphone, or close the page, to turn the microphone off.
To keep a recording, use the online voice recorder. To check your speakers or headphones, use the sound test, and for your webcam, the camera test.