Check if your microphone is working properly.
All calculations performed locally in your browser. No data sent to server.
Results are for informational purposes. Verify results with other sources.
Testing a microphone before the call, not during it
Most microphone problems are not the microphone. They are the wrong input selected, a mute switch nobody noticed, or a permission the browser quietly denied — and all three are visible in ten seconds if you look before the meeting rather than after it starts.
How it works
- Requests microphone access through your browser's own permission prompt and shows the live input level.
- Lets you pick between inputs, which is how you confirm the browser is listening to the device you think it is.
- Displays the signal locally only — nothing is recorded, stored or sent anywhere.
what a working input looks like silence → meter near zero, small flicker normal speech → meter moving in the middle of its range clipping → meter pinned at maximum, sound distorts aim for peaks around two-thirds of full scale, not at it
Worked example
A microphone that appears dead on a call, diagnosed in order of likelihood.
- check the browser permission — a blocked prompt shows no meter movement at all
- check the input selector — laptops often default to the built-in mic, not the headset
- check the hardware mute — many headsets have an inline switch or a boom that mutes when raised
- check the operating system input level — a system slider at zero looks identical to a broken mic
- only then suspect the device itself
Four of the five causes above are configuration rather than hardware. Running through them in this order finds the problem faster than restarting the meeting software, which is what most people try first.
Reading the result
- This test uses your browser's permission prompt and shows the stream back to you locally. Nothing is recorded, nothing is uploaded, and closing the tab ends the capture — the same is not true of every site that asks for your microphone.
- A meter pinned at maximum is worse than a quiet one. Clipping cannot be repaired afterwards, so it is better to sit slightly low and raise the gain than to distort at source.
- Browsers apply their own processing — echo cancellation, noise suppression, automatic gain. That is usually helpful for calls and unhelpful for recording, and it is why the same microphone sounds different in a browser than in an audio application.
- Position matters more than price. A modest microphone 20 cm away outperforms an expensive one across the desk, because the ratio of your voice to the room is what determines intelligibility.
Common questions
- Why does the meter show nothing at all?
- Almost always a permission that was denied rather than a broken microphone. Check the padlock or camera icon in the address bar and confirm the site is allowed. If permission is granted and the meter is still flat, the input selector is pointing at a different device.
- Is my audio being recorded by this page?
- No. The stream is rendered locally to draw the meter and is discarded as it arrives; nothing is written to disk or transmitted. Closing the tab releases the microphone, and your browser will show an indicator for as long as capture is active.