Test your camera and microphone

See yourself, watch your mic level move, and find out which device your browser is actually using. Nothing is recorded and no video or audio leaves this tab.

How it works

Almost every video call that starts badly starts the same way: the camera shows black, or nobody can hear you, and there is a minute of "can you hear me now" before anyone can begin. Both problems are usually knowable in advance, and both have a specific cause the browser already knows about.

This page asks your browser for the camera and the microphone, then shows you exactly what it got. The video preview tells you the camera works and is pointed the right way. The level meter tells you the microphone is live, which a still picture of a waveform cannot. Alongside them it reports the device your browser actually chose, the resolution the camera really delivers and its frame rate, which is how you check a "1080p" claim.

When something fails, the browser rejects the request with a specific reason, and this page tells you which one: permission refused, no device attached, or the device already held by another application. That last one is the most common and the least obvious, because the other program does not have to be visible for it to be holding your camera.

Nothing is recorded. There is no server in this at all: the stream is attached to a preview element and an audio analyser inside this tab and is discarded when you press stop or close the page. That matters more here than on any other tool on this site, since the whole point is that you are switching on a camera and a microphone.

How to use it

1 Press Start and allow access when your browser asks.
2 Check the preview: you should see yourself, right way up and in focus.
3 Speak normally and watch the level meter move. A meter that never moves means the microphone is not picking you up.
4 Press Stop when you are done. The camera light goes out and the devices are released.

Good to know

Nothing is recorded, streamed or uploaded, so nothing needs deleting afterwards.
If the camera is black but permission was granted, another application is almost certainly holding it.
Device names only appear after you grant permission. Browsers hide them beforehand to prevent fingerprinting.
Press Stop before joining your call, so the meeting app can take the devices.

Browser support

Chrome 94 and later
Firefox 93 and later
Safari 16.4 and later
Edge 94 and later

These are the oldest versions with everything the tool uses. They are worked out from the tool itself, so they change when it does.

Version numbers checked on 2026-09-04.

The browser already knows why your camera is black

When a camera fails to start on a web page, the browser is not confused about the reason. The getUserMedia call rejects with a DOMException whose name is specified, and the name identifies the cause exactly. NotAllowedError means permission was refused, by you or by policy. NotFoundError means no device of that kind is attached. NotReadableError means the hardware is present and something else has it. OverconstrainedError means the device exists but cannot deliver the format that was asked for.

Almost every webcam test page throws that away and shows a black rectangle. The information needed to fix the problem was returned by the platform and discarded by the page, which is why people end up reinstalling drivers to solve a conferencing app they left running in the background.

That last case, NotReadableError, is the one worth knowing about, because it is both the most common and the least visible. On most systems a camera can be held by one application at a time. A video call that was closed with the window rather than quit, a recording tool minimised to the tray, or a background process that grabbed the device at login will hold it. Nothing on screen indicates this. The camera light may not even be on. The only symptom is that every other application reports a failure, and the reason is a program you believe you are not running.

The microphone half has a different problem, which is that a still picture of a waveform proves nothing. The useful test is a level meter that moves with your voice, and the useful measurement is root mean square rather than peak: peak jumps on a single keystroke and reads as working, while RMS tracks sustained level, which is what tells you the microphone is genuinely picking up speech. A signal that registers but stays very low is a distinct diagnosis from silence, since one usually means input gain and the other usually means the wrong device is selected.

It is also worth checking what the camera actually delivers rather than what was requested. A camera routinely ignores the resolution asked for and returns whatever it can, so the constraints tell you nothing; the track settings tell you the truth. That is the number to compare against a "1080p webcam" claim on a box. Nothing here is recorded: the stream is attached to a preview element and an audio analyser in the tab, and is discarded when you stop.

Frequently asked questions

How do I test my webcam before a video call?

Press Start on this page and allow access. If you can see yourself in the preview, the camera works and your conferencing app will be able to use it too. Press Stop before joining the call so the device is free.

Why is my camera showing a black screen?

If permission was granted and the preview is still black, another application is holding the camera. Conferencing apps commonly keep it open in the background after a call ends. Close them and try again. A physical privacy shutter is the other common cause.

How do I test my microphone?

Start the microphone and speak normally. The level meter should move with your voice. If it stays flat, the wrong input is selected or the device is muted in hardware. If it barely moves, the input level is set too low in your system sound settings.

Is my video or audio recorded or uploaded?

No. The stream is shown in this tab and discarded when you stop. There is no recording and no server. You can confirm it in your browser’s developer tools, on the Network tab, where no request carries any media.

Why can’t I see my device names?

Browsers hide device labels until you grant permission, because the list of attached hardware is a strong fingerprinting signal. Once you allow access, the real names appear.

Does this test my camera in Zoom, Teams or Meet?

It tests the same hardware those apps use, through the same browser interface, so a working preview here means the device itself is fine. If a specific app then fails, the problem is that app’s own device selection or permissions rather than the hardware.

Your files are processed on your device and are not uploaded. You can verify this in your browser’s developer tools under the Network tab.