Check your microphone level before a call

"Can you hear me?" — test the mic locally: a live RMS meter in dB, a peak readout, and a 5-second peak test. Audio never leaves the browser.

Tools used in this guide

The job

Meeting apps bury the level meter in settings. Before joining, you want a quick answer: does the mic pick up sound, and is it too quiet or clipping?

How to do it

Allow microphone access — the browser will prompt — and the meter starts immediately. Speak normally; the bar shows the live RMS level in dBFS and a peak-hold marker keeps the loudest moment visible. The 5-second test captures the peak over a fixed window.

Around −30 to −12 dB is a comfortable speech range; sustained 0 dB means clipping.
Denying permission or a missing mic surfaces as an error, not a frozen meter.

Worked example

Open the page, say a sentence at normal volume. If the bar barely moves, the mic gain is low or the wrong input is selected; if it pins to the top, you are clipping.

Limits

Analysis is local — nothing is recorded or sent. It needs microphone permission and Web Audio support. The values are relative dBFS, not calibrated sound-pressure levels, and it reads the browser's default input device.