How to test your microphone
- Press Start mic test. Your browser asks whether this site may use the microphone — choose Allow. The page never turns the microphone on before you press the button.
- Speak at your normal volume. The level bar and waveform move with your voice, and within seconds the box at the top tells you whether sound is coming through.
- More than one microphone (laptop, headset, webcam, USB)? Pick it in the Microphone list; the test switches at once.
- Press Record 5 seconds and play back to hear yourself — listening reveals what a meter can’t: hum, echo, a muffled or crackling voice.
- Press Stop test when you are done; the microphone is released. Leaving the page turns it off too.
What the numbers mean
Digital audio is measured in dBFS, decibels relative to full scale. 0 dBFS is the loudest value the input can represent, so every reading is zero or negative. Each −6 dB halves the signal’s amplitude and −20 dB is a tenth of it:
| Reading | Share of full scale | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| 0 dBFS | 100% | The maximum. Anything louder is cut off (clipping) and sounds distorted. |
| −6 dBFS | 50% | Loud, with little room left for a laugh or a cough. |
| −20 dBFS | 10% | A clear, comfortable voice level for calls and recordings. |
| −40 dBFS | 1% | Quiet: whispering, or speaking far from the microphone. |
| −60 dBFS | 0.1% | Near silence — room noise or a faint hiss. |
- Level (RMS) is the root mean square of the last few hundredths of a second: 20 × log10(√(average of the squared samples)). It follows how loud you sound overall.
- Highest peak is the largest single sample since you started: 20 × log10(largest absolute sample). A pure tone that just touches full scale peaks at 0 dBFS with an RMS of about −3 dBFS.
- Sample rate is how many times per second the input is measured, usually 48,000 or 44,100 Hz. A recording captures frequencies up to half its sample rate — beyond the range of human hearing at either rate.
- Echo cancellation, noise suppression, automatic gain control: the processing browsers apply before a website gets the sound, as on a video call. Switch them off to hear the raw microphone; if your browser ignores the request, the switch flips back.
A good level for speech: peaks between about −20 and −6 dBFS. Much lower and listeners turn you up together with the background noise; at 0 dBFS loud moments distort.
Microphone not working? Fixes by system
“Microphone access is blocked”
The test shows the exact steps for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. In short: use the icon at the left of the address bar to allow the microphone for this site, then reload.
Windows 11
Open Start › Settings › Privacy & security › Microphone and turn on Microphone access, Let apps access your microphone and Let desktop apps access your microphone — browsers count as desktop apps. Then check Settings › System › Sound: under Input, choose the right device and raise its volume.
Mac
Choose Apple menu › System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone and turn your browser on; macOS may ask you to quit and reopen it. Input device and input volume are in System Settings › Sound.
No error, but no sound
Look for a mute switch on the headset or its cable, an input volume at zero (some USB microphones also have a gain knob), or the wrong device — a webcam microphone across the room or a Bluetooth headset that has disconnected.
“The microphone is busy”
Another app holds it. Close Zoom, Teams, Discord, OBS and other tabs, then start again. On Windows, a device can also be locked by an app in exclusive mode: in the classic Sound control panel, open the microphone’s Properties › Advanced and untick “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device”.
Before a Zoom, Teams or Google Meet call
Each app chooses its microphone separately from the browser. Note the name of the device that worked above and pick the same one in the app: Zoom under Settings › Audio (its Test microphone plays back a short clip), the Teams desktop app under Settings › Devices (with Make a test call), Google Meet on the preview screen before you join. Check your camera with the webcam test, or record a longer sample with the online voice recorder.
Privacy
The sound is analyzed on your device and never uploaded, streamed or recorded on a server; the five-second clip lives in the page’s memory and is gone when you leave.
Frequently asked questions
Is this mic test private?
Yes. The level, waveform and settings are computed in your browser, and the five-second clip is kept in memory only. No audio is uploaded or stored on a server.
Why doesn’t my browser ask for microphone permission?
It remembers an earlier answer: if you blocked the site before, it refuses silently, and the test shows how to allow it again. A block in Windows privacy settings or macOS Privacy & Security has the same effect, and browsers built into other apps sometimes have no microphone access at all.
Why is my microphone so quiet?
Raise the input volume in your system sound settings, move closer, and check that the selected device is the one in front of you. Automatic gain control, when on, also lifts a quiet voice.
Can I test a Bluetooth headset or AirPods?
Yes — connect them, then pick them in the Microphone list. Many Bluetooth headsets switch to a lower-quality hands-free mode while their microphone is in use, so the playback can sound narrower than music from the same headset.
Does the mic test work on a phone?
Yes, in current mobile browsers such as Chrome on Android and Safari on iPhone. Phones often list only one microphone because the system chooses among the built-in ones for you.
Last updated: October 15, 2026