How to test your microphone
- Click Start microphone test and allow microphone access when asked.
- Speak at your normal volume. The waveform should move and the level bar should jump with each word. The white marker holds your recent peak.
- If you have more than one input — a built-in mic, a USB mic, AirPods — choose it from the list and speak again.
- Click Record 5s and play back and listen. It is the quickest way to hear echo, hiss or a muffled sound that a meter can’t show.
Reading the level meter
The meter is in dBFS — decibels relative to full scale. 0 dBFS is the loudest a digital signal can be; everything else is a negative number. The bar runs from −60 dBFS on the left to 0 on the right.
| Where your voice peaks | What it means |
|---|---|
| Below about −30 dBFS | Too quiet — background noise will be close to your voice once it is turned up. Raise the input volume or move closer. |
| Around −12 to −6 dBFS | A common target for recorded speech: clear of the noise floor, with headroom for laughs and emphasis. |
| At or near 0 dBFS | Clipping. The tops of the waveform are cut off and it sounds harsh. The tool warns you; lower the input. |
The tool also watches for the opposite problem: if the level stays near the bottom of the scale for three seconds, it shows a hint, because a completely flat meter almost always means a mute switch or the wrong input rather than a quiet voice.
Voice processing: on or off?
Browsers can clean up a microphone before a page hears it: echo cancellation removes sound coming back from your speakers, noise suppression cuts steady background hum, and automatic gain evens out loud and quiet speech. Video-call apps rely on the same kind of processing.
Test both settings. On is close to how you will sound on a call. Off is close to what a screen recorder or audio app records, since they usually take the microphone as it is. If a recording sounds worse than your calls, the difference between these two is why.
Microphone not working on a Mac? Check these in order
- Hardware mute. Many USB mics and headsets have a mute button or switch, often with a light.
- The selected input. System Settings › Sound › Input lists every input with a live level bar. Pick your mic there and check that the bar moves and the Input volume slider isn’t at the bottom.
- Permissions. System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone must allow your browser, and the browser must allow this site (the icon at the left of the address bar).
- A stuck permission. If the browser never appears in the Microphone list, reset it in Terminal and reopen the browser:
tccutil reset Microphone com.google.Chrome # Chrome
tccutil reset Microphone com.apple.Safari # Safari
tccutil reset Microphone # every appIf your camera needs checking too, the Webcam Test shows its real resolution and frame rate.
Privacy
Audio from your microphone is analysed inside this page to draw the meter and waveform. It is not stored, streamed or uploaded. The five-second test clip exists only in the page until you close it. Microphone permission applies to this page alone; other tools on this site cannot use your microphone.
