A free online voice recorder that stays on your device
Press record (or the Space bar), allow your microphone and talk. A level meter and a moving waveform show what the mic hears while you record, and the line at the top warns you if you are too quiet or clipping. Pause and resume as often as you like; there is no time limit. When you stop, the take opens in the editor: play it back, click the waveform to jump around, drag the copper handles to cut silence from the start and end, name the file and download it as WAV or WebM. Every take you record stays in a list until you leave the page, so you can compare a few attempts and keep the best one.
How to record good voice audio at your desk
- Get close, and stay at the same distance. About a hand’s width or two from your mouth suits most desk mics. Closer gives a fuller voice and less room; much further and you sound distant and echoey. Whatever you choose, keep it the same for the whole take so the level doesn’t wander.
- Set the gain before the take that matters. Record a few test lines at the volume you will really use. Speech should peak inside the shaded band on the meter, roughly −24 to −6 dBFS. If the Clip lamp lights, turn the gain down: distortion can’t be fixed afterwards. A little too quiet is easier to rescue than a little too loud.
- Tame the room. Hard, bare walls make a voice sound hollow. Curtains, a rug, a bookshelf or a sofa behind the mic help more than you would expect. Switch off fans, close the window and move the phone away from the mic, since its buzz can get into the recording.
- Stop the pops. “P” and “b” sounds push a puff of air that thumps into the mic. A pop filter or foam windscreen catches it, and so does angling the mic slightly to the side of your mouth instead of straight at it.
- Mind the processing switches. Noise suppression, echo cancellation and auto gain start off, so you record your mic as it is. In a noisy room, noise suppression can rescue a take, but it may make your voice sound thin. Record a short line each way and listen on headphones before you decide.
WAV or WebM: which download to pick
WAV is uncompressed audio, exactly what the recorder captured. It is the safe choice for editing in Audacity, GarageBand, Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, and it opens almost everywhere. The trade-off is size: several megabytes for every minute. WAV is also the download that keeps your trim.
WebM holds the same recording compressed with Opus, a codec built for voice, so it is many times smaller and still sounds clear. It is the better file for sending a voice note, a quick demo or a message to a colleague. Browsers, VLC and most editors open it; if an app refuses, use the WAV. Some browsers, Safari among them, may record the compressed file as M4A instead, and the button shows which one you get. Because a compressed file can’t be cut in the browser without recording it again, this download is always the whole take.
Your recordings stay on your device
The recorder runs entirely in your browser. Your voice goes from the microphone to the page’s memory and nowhere else: there is no upload, no account and no server copy. Takes disappear when you close or reload the tab, and the page asks before letting you leave with a take you haven’t downloaded. Downloading saves a copy to your own device. The microphone turns off when you press “Turn mic off” or leave the page.
When a USB mic or headset beats a laptop mic
A laptop’s built-in mic sits far from your mouth and right next to the keyboard and fan, so it records the room, your typing and the computer along with your voice. For a quick voice note it is fine. For anything you will publish, such as a podcast, a voice-over, a course or an audition, a USB microphone on the desk or an arm sounds clearer at once, mainly because it can sit much closer to you. A headset with a boom mic is the simple answer for calls and noisy rooms: the mic stays at the same distance however you move. Try a take with each mic you own here and compare them side by side in the list.
Ready to upgrade? The microphone finder narrows the choice down by how and where you record, our USB microphone picks are the easiest step up from a laptop, and the podcast microphone picks suit longer recordings. To check levels and room noise before you start, use the mic test.
Questions
How long can I record?
There is no set limit. The recording is kept in your browser’s memory, so very long takes are limited only by your device. For takes of an hour or more, download the WebM: turning a very long take into WAV needs a lot of memory and can fail on phones. On a phone the page asks to keep the screen awake while you record, because a locked screen can pause the browser.
Does this voice recorder work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. Open the page in Safari or Chrome, tap Start recording and allow the microphone. Keep the browser in front while you record. Phones switch between several built-in mics, so hold the phone the same way for the whole take, with the bottom edge toward your mouth.
Can it record the sound playing on my computer?
No. Browsers only let a page record from a microphone, not from your speakers or other apps. To capture a video call or game audio, use a desktop app such as OBS Studio, or the screen recorder built into your system.
Why does my recording sound quiet, muffled or noisy?
Quiet usually means the mic is too far away or the gain is low; muffled often means you are speaking into the side of a mic that listens from the top, or the other way round; noise is the room or gain set too high. The mic test shows your levels and measures your room’s background noise, and the headphone test rules out your speakers.
Is it really free?
Yes, with no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on takes. Build Your Setup is a guide to desk gear, and this recorder is one of our free tools for checking the gear you already have.