About this tool: Mic Test
Check that your microphone works, watch the input level as you speak, then record a short sample and play it back to hear how you actually sound.
The worst moment to discover a microphone problem is thirty seconds into a call. Someone types "we can't hear you" in the chat, you start unplugging things, and the opening minutes of an interview or a client demo are gone. Checking before you join takes about half a minute and removes that whole category of problem.
This page tests two different things, and the difference matters. The level meter answers whether the microphone is picking up anything at all: speak, and the bar moves. Recording a sample and listening back answers the more useful question — what you sound like at the other end. A microphone can show a perfectly healthy signal and still come through thin, distant, or buried under hiss, and the only way to catch that is to hear it.
Testing outside the app you are about to use also splits the problem in half. When Teams or Zoom insists your mic is not working, the fault can sit in the hardware, the operating system, the browser, or the app's own device settings, and a test inside that same app cannot tell you which. If your voice plays back clearly here, the microphone and the system are fine, and you can go straight to the app's audio settings instead of hunting for drivers.
Nothing is uploaded. The audio is captured, measured, and played back by your browser; it never reaches a server and it is gone when you close the tab. Downloading the recording saves it straight to your device.
How to use it
- Press "Start Mic Test" and allow access. The browser asks for permission the first time. If no prompt appears, look for a crossed-out microphone icon in the address bar — the site may have been blocked earlier.
- Speak at your normal call volume and watch the meter. Ordinary speech from about 30 cm away should push the bar well into the middle of its range. A bar that never moves usually means the browser is listening to a different device than the one you are speaking into.
- Record about ten seconds. Press "Start Recording" and say something realistic — a couple of sentences at the pace and distance you would use on the call, not a shouted "test, test". Reading any two lines of text works fine.
- Listen back through headphones. Speakers create a feedback loop and make everything sound worse than it is. Check that the voice is loud enough, that consonants are crisp, and that there is no hum, keyboard clatter, or room echo behind it.
- Save the file if it is useful. "Download Audio" gives you a WebM file — handy for comparing two headsets, keeping a reference before you change settings, or sending to whoever handles IT.
- Press "End Test" when you are done. That releases the microphone and clears the recording indicator from the browser tab.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to install anything?
No. The test runs inside the browser tab, with no download, no account, and no time limit. It works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari, on desktop and on phones.
Where is my recording stored? Is anything uploaded?
Nowhere except your own machine. Capture, the level meter and playback all run locally through the browser's built-in audio interfaces, the recording sits in your computer's memory while the page is open, and it is discarded the moment you close or reload the page. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no request that carries your voice to us or to anyone else. You do not have to take that on trust: open your browser's developer tools on the Network tab while you record and you will see no upload, and the whole test keeps working even if you disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded. The only lasting copy is the file you choose to download, saved straight to your device.
The meter moves here, but nobody hears me in Zoom or Teams. What now?
That result is good news: the microphone and the operating system are working, so the problem is inside the app. Open its audio settings and check which input device is selected — apps often keep a stale device after you plug in a headset. Then check that the app has microphone permission at the system level, and close anything else that might be holding the microphone. Restart the app after changing devices; many only detect new hardware at launch.
Nothing happens when I press Start.
That is almost always permissions. Click the icon at the left of the address bar, allow microphone access, and reload the page. If the browser itself has no access, check Windows Settings > Privacy & security > Microphone (both the general toggle and the desktop-apps one), or on a Mac, System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone. Work laptops sometimes block microphone access by company policy.
How do I choose which microphone gets tested?
The browser uses whatever your system has set as the default input. To test a different one, change the default in Windows sound settings or in macOS System Settings > Sound > Input, then reload this page. In Chrome you can also pick a device per site through the padlock icon in the address bar.
Why do I sound quiet and far away?
Usually distance or gain. A headset boom should sit two or three centimetres from the corner of your mouth; with a laptop microphone, sit closer and keep your hands off the area around it. If it is still quiet, raise the input level in the system sound settings. And make sure you are not testing the laptop's built-in microphone while wearing a headset — that combination catches a lot of people.
Why does my voice sound muffled or robotic?
More often the processing than the microphone. Aggressive noise suppression or "voice enhancement" in the driver or the app can chew through speech; on Windows, open the recording device properties and disable the enhancements, then test again. Bluetooth headsets are the other common cause: when the microphone is in use, the connection drops to a narrow, low-quality profile, which is why the same headset sounds great for music and rough on calls. A wired or USB headset avoids it entirely.
There is an echo in my recording.
If you played the recording through speakers while the test was still running, the microphone simply picked it up again — use headphones. A hollow, roomy echo is different: it comes from bare walls and hard floors, and it improves quickly if you move away from the corner of the room or add soft surfaces such as curtains.
How often should I check the microphone?
Before anything that matters: an interview, a client demo, a webinar, a recording session. It is also worth a quick check after a system or driver update and the first time you use new headphones — those are exactly the moments when the default input device changes without telling you.
What do the device details show, and can I see the driver version?
The panel lists what the browser reports about the live microphone: its name, the sample rate and sample size, how many channels it delivers, the measured latency where the browser provides it, and whether echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain control are switched on. Those three matter more than people expect, because they are the usual reason a voice arrives clipped or robotic. Driver versions are not shown, as no browser exposes them to a web page; look in Device Manager on Windows or System Information on a Mac for those. The Copy details button puts the whole list on the clipboard, which is the quickest way to hand it to whoever handles support.