Webcam Test
See what your camera sees, with its resolution and frame rate.
Runs entirely in your browser
Loading the tool…
Camera preview appears here.
- —Level (dBFS)
- —Peak (dBFS)
- —Status
Your voice, drawn
- —Noise floor (dBFS)
- —Sample rate
- —Channels
- —Voice pitch
Hear yourself
Records five seconds into this tab's memory, ready to play when you want. Nothing is saved or sent.
The browser's own processing
Calls switch these on. Turn them off to hear the raw microphone, then record again to compare.
What the camera can do
- —Delivered
- —Frames per second, measured
- —Lighting
| Capability | This camera |
|---|---|
| Start the camera to read what it reports. | |
Press Start and your camera appears, with the resolution and frame rate it is actually delivering printed underneath. The microphone is not requested on this page, so the light that comes on is the camera's and nothing else.
Testing in a browser is the test worth running, because it is the same path a video call takes. Opening the camera app your operating system ships proves the hardware works and proves nothing about whether the browser can reach it, and the browser is where the meeting happens. A camera that works in the system app and not here is a permission or a conflict, not a broken camera.
Another program holding the camera is the usual cause. Most systems let only one application have it at a time, so a Zoom or Teams window left open in the background, even minimised, is enough to make every other app report no camera. Quit it fully rather than closing the window, then press Start again.
Below the preview the page goes further than a picture. It measures the frame rate by counting the frames that actually arrive, which in a dim room is often half what the camera claims. It lists what the camera reports it can do: its largest picture, frame rates, focus, exposure and zoom. You can ask for a resolution, from VGA to 4K, and see what you are given instead. A lighting check reads the picture twice a second and says whether it is too dark or backlit by a window, and a snapshot saves one frame the way the other side of a call sees it.
If there is more than one camera the menu below lists them and switching is immediate, which is how to tell a built-in lens from an external one when both are named unhelpfully. To check the microphone as well, the camera and microphone test does both at once, and the microphone test does that one on its own.
How to use it
- Press Start camera and allow access when the browser asks.
- Check the delivered resolution, the measured frame rate and the lighting verdict.
- Ask for a higher resolution to see the most the camera will give, and take a snapshot if you want one.
- Press Stop when you are done, and watch the camera light go out.
Questions
Why is my camera black or showing nothing?
Almost always something else is holding it: a video call app left running, even minimised, keeps the camera to itself on most systems. Quit that application rather than closing its window and press Start again. After that, check the physical shutter or the privacy switch, which several laptops have and which produces exactly this.
What resolution should my webcam be?
Whatever it reports here is what your calls will use, and 1280x720 at 30 fps is the common built-in laptop figure. A camera capable of 1080p may still hand over 720p if the light is poor, because many drop resolution to keep the frame rate up. The line under the preview shows what you are getting rather than what the box claimed.
Does this test whether the camera works in Zoom or Teams?
It tests the same thing those apps need from the browser: that permission is granted and no other program is holding the device. A desktop Zoom or Teams client asks the operating system directly rather than going through the browser, so a system-level privacy setting could still block it after this page succeeds.
Why is the measured frame rate lower than the camera says?
Because in poor light the camera keeps each frame's shutter open longer to gather enough light, and a frame that takes 1/15 of a second cannot arrive thirty times a second. Turn on a lamp in front of you and watch the measured figure climb. The number the camera reports is its setting; the measured one is what a call actually receives.
Why is my picture mirrored?
The preview is shown like a mirror, because that is how people expect to see themselves and it makes moving into frame natural. The camera itself is not mirrored: the other side of a call sees you the right way round, and the snapshot is saved that way too. Untick Mirror to see what they see.
How do I know the camera has really stopped?
Press Stop and the indicator light beside the lens goes out within a second. That light is wired to the camera on most machines rather than driven by software, which makes it the honest signal. Leaving the page does the same thing: the tracks are released when the tab goes away.
Is anything recorded or uploaded?
No. The stream goes from the device to this tab and nowhere else: there is no server here to send it to, no recording is made, and nothing is stored. The page has no network request of its own at all, and you can confirm that by disconnecting before you press Start, which changes nothing.
Why does it need permission every time on some browsers?
Because you are visiting rather than installing, and a browser only remembers a grant if you tell it to. Chrome and Edge remember per site once you allow it; Safari asks again by default, which is a deliberate choice on their part rather than something a page can override.
The page says it will not work from a file. Why?
A permission has to belong to a web address, and a page opened by double-clicking has none. Firefox allows it anyway; Chrome, Edge and Brave refuse before the prompt appears. On the hosted site this never comes up, since the address is a real one.
Webcam resolutions
| Name | Pixels | Megapixels | Shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| VGA | 640 × 480 | 0.3 | 4:3 |
| 720p (HD) | 1280 × 720 | 0.9 | 16:9 |
| 1080p (Full HD) | 1920 × 1080 | 2.1 | 16:9 |
| 1440p (QHD) | 2560 × 1440 | 3.7 | 16:9 |
| 4K (UHD) | 3840 × 2160 | 8.3 | 16:9 |
Most video calls send 720p or less and scale down further when the connection is slow, so a 4K webcam mostly buys a sharper picture in good light and room to crop. A good lamp in front of you does more for how you look on a call than any step up in resolution.
Where the camera permission lives
| System | Where |
|---|---|
| Windows 11 | Settings, Privacy & security, Camera: camera access, and access for desktop apps |
| macOS | System Settings, Privacy & Security, Camera: your browser must be switched on |
| ChromeOS | Settings, Privacy and security, Privacy controls, Camera access |
| iPhone and iPad | Settings, Apps, then your browser, then Camera |
| Android | Your browser's Site settings, then Camera |
| Any browser | The camera or padlock icon in the address bar, for this site only |
What the lighting check means
| Verdict | What it found | What helps |
|---|---|---|
| Good | Enough light, spread evenly | Nothing |
| Too dark | The average brightness is under about a fifth | A lamp or window in front of you, not above |
| Backlit | Bright edges around a dark middle: a window behind you | Turn to face the window, or close the blind behind you |
| Very bright | Most of the picture near white | Move out of direct sun, or lower the camera's exposure |
The other device
The same tester pointed elsewhere. Each page asks for its own device and nothing more.
Your data stays on your device
Everything above runs inside your browser as WebAssembly compiled from Rust. Nothing you type is uploaded, logged or stored on a server. You can load this page once, go offline, and it still works.
This page makes no requests at all, to anywhere. That is not a promise in the copy: it is a Content-Security-Policy header your browser enforces, and connect-src on it is none. Open the network tab and watch nothing happen.