Microphone Test
Check your mic in the browser. Allow access and speak — the waveform and dB meter move with your voice, and a short recording plays back exactly what your mic picks up. Nothing leaves your device.
Your browser will ask for permission to use the microphone. The audio is analyzed locally and never leaves your device.
Nothing is recorded until you press record — and even then it stays on your device.
Speak at call volume — the meter should sit around −30 to −15 dB and never hit 0 dB, which distorts.
Go silent for a few seconds — that reading is what listeners hear between your words. Fans and AC raise it fast.
Meters show signal; playback shows quality — record a sentence and listen for volume, hiss, and muffling.
A microphone rarely announces that it has died — the call connects and only the "you're muted" gestures reveal the problem. Usually the mic is fine: the app picked the wrong input, the OS or a hardware switch muted it, the browser permission lapsed, or a Bluetooth headset connected in the wrong mode. This test shows the same signal Zoom, Meet, Teams, or Discord would get — if the waveform moves when you speak, the mic, its driver, and the browser permission all work. Everything runs locally; no audio is uploaded.
Press start and the browser opens your mic through the same WebRTC API voice-call sites use, then analyzes it with the Web Audio API. The waveform draws the raw signal; the meter shows decibels relative to full scale, where 0 dB is the loudest the mic can report before distorting. Peak and noise-floor readings build up as the test runs — speak, pause, and clap once to see all three react. Any recording stays in memory and is never sent anywhere.
What the numbers mean
| Reading | What it is | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Level | The loudness of the signal right now, in dB relative to full scale (0 dB = maximum) | Normal speech should land around −30 to −15 dB; a needle stuck at −60 dB means no signal |
| Peak | The loudest moment since the test started | Aim below −6 dB — peaks that hit 0 dB are clipping and will sound distorted |
| Noise floor | The level while you are silent — the hiss, hum, and room noise the mic always picks up | Below −50 dB is quiet; above −35 dB, listeners will hear a constant hiss or fan |
| Sample rate | How many times per second the audio is measured | 44.1 or 48 kHz is standard; a Bluetooth headset stuck at 8–16 kHz is in call mode and sounds muffled |
What if the waveform doesn't move?
Work through the causes in order. Check the device picker above the waveform — laptops often expose two or three inputs and default to the wrong one. Check the mute switch on the headset or its cable. Then check the OS input settings, where a per-app mute or a zeroed input volume silences every app at once. If the browser never asked for permission, it was blocked earlier — click the mic icon in the address bar to re-allow it. A moving waveform with a very low level usually means the mic is too far away or the gain is set low. Since the mic permission works just like the camera one, the Webcam Test is the quickest way to check the video half of your setup next.
Common reasons a mic picks up nothing
| Cause | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong input device selected | The app listens to an unplugged jack or a virtual device while you speak into another mic | Pick the right device in the dropdown, then in your OS sound settings |
| Muted in the OS or on the hardware | A keyboard key, headset switch, or in-line cable button cuts the signal before any app sees it | Check the physical switch and the OS input mixer |
| Browser permission blocked | The site never gets a stream, so the prompt seems to do nothing | Re-allow the microphone from the address-bar icon and reload |
| Bluetooth headset in the wrong profile | The headset plays audio but its mic never engages, or the sound turns muffled and phone-like | Reconnect the headset, or select its "hands-free" device entry |
| Another app holds the mic exclusively | Some conferencing and recording apps lock the device, so the browser gets silence or an error | Quit other apps using the mic, then retry |
| Broken cable, port, or mic capsule | The signal is dead or crackles on every device you try | Test the mic on another port or computer to confirm, then replace it |