Press Start camera and allow it: you see your picture, with its size and the frame rate your webcam delivers.
Press Start camera and allow it. Your picture shows below.
Your browser will ask for the camera and the microphone. Nothing is recorded or sent.
How to read it
Two frame rates
The reported rate is what the camera is set to. The measured rate counts the frames that really reached this page over five seconds. A dim room is the usual reason the second is lower.
Sample
1280 × 720, reported 30.0 fps, measured 29.8 fps.
Picture size
1280 × 720
Reported rate
30.0 fps
Measured rate
29.8 fps
Slowest second
29 frames
Your picture shows here. It stays on this device.
The snapshot stays in this tab until you press Stop. Save as PNG keeps it.
Microphone level
Picture size
Reported rate
Measured rate
Slowest second
Shape
Camera side
Resizing
Camera
Microphone
More options
What the readings mean
Your runs in this tab
No measurement yet.
The code on this page sends no picture anywhere and stores nothing. The camera is let go when you press Stop or hide the tab.
How this test works
The page asks your browser for the camera with the largest picture it offers, and prints the size, rate and mode the browser reports back.
Where the browser can count video frames, the page counts them for five seconds and prints the average and the slowest second next to the reported rate.
Stop, a hidden tab and leaving the page all let go of the camera and the microphone, and clear any snapshot.
This online webcam test shows your camera live, so you can see at once that it works. It reads the picture size and frame rate the browser reports, then counts the frames that really arrive over five seconds.
Read the full guide
How to test your webcam
1. Press Start camera and choose Allow when the browser asks.
2. The size and the two frame rates fill in under your picture over the first five seconds.
3. Press Stop camera for the result. The page then lets go of the camera and the microphone.
Webcam and mic test before a call
While the camera runs, a Microphone level bar moves when the mic hears you. Nothing is recorded here: to hear yourself played back, use the mic test. Then check left and right with the sound test.
Face a window or a lamp: more light allows a shorter exposure, so the measured rate should climb.
No lamp? Open the white screen on a second monitor at full brightness as a soft light.
Questions and answers
Is my webcam working?
If you can see yourself in the picture, yes: the camera, the browser and this site's permission all work. For a black picture or an error line, the rows under the tool say what to try.
Does this online camera test record or upload my picture?
This page's own code draws the picture and never records, uploads or keeps it. A snapshot is discarded when you press Stop camera or hide the tab, unless you press Save as PNG. Your browser shows its own indicator while a camera is in use.
Why does the camera tester show two frame rates?
Browsers report the rate a camera is set to, not the rate it achieves. A camera set to 25 fps that manages 20 in poor light still reports 25, so where the browser allows, the page counts the frames itself.
How can I test my webcam when the camera is blocked?
Open the padlock or site settings icon beside the address, set Camera to Allow and reload. If every site is blocked, your system has its own camera switch. Still nothing? Quit any call app that may hold the camera.
Is this webcam check a resolution test too?
Yes. The result gives the picture size in pixels beside the frame rates, such as 1280 × 720. To try another size, open More options and choose one under Picture size to ask for.
All 30 readings
Picture sizes a webcam reports 9
320 × 240 (QVGA)76,800 pixels in a 4:3 frame, a quarter of VGA and the size the early webcams sent. Uncompressed at 30 fps it needs 37 Mbit/s, a thirteenth of what a USB 2.0 link can signal.
640 × 360230,400 pixels in a 16:9 frame: half the width and half the height of 720p, so a quarter of its pixels. Uncompressed at 30 fps it needs 111 Mbit/s.
640 × 480 (VGA)307,200 pixels, 0.3 megapixels, in a 4:3 frame: four QVGA pictures. Uncompressed at 30 fps it needs 147 Mbit/s, so even an old USB 2.0 link carries it with room to spare.
960 × 540 (qHD)518,400 pixels in a 16:9 frame, a quarter of Full HD. The small q means quarter. QHD with a capital Q is 2560 × 1440, four times 720p, so the two are easy to confuse on a spec sheet.
Show all 30 readings (26 more)
Picture sizes a webcam reports, continued
1280 × 720 (HD, 720p)921,600 pixels, 0.9 megapixels, 16:9. Uncompressed at 30 fps it needs 442 Mbit/s. A USB 2.0 link signals at 480 Mbit/s and carries at most about 424 Mbit/s of data, so from this size up a USB 2.0 camera has to compress each frame, as Motion JPEG for example, or slow down.
1280 × 9601,228,800 pixels, 1.2 megapixels, in a 4:3 frame: exactly four VGA pictures, and the same width as 720p with 240 more rows. A 4:3 picture in a widescreen call window gets bars at the sides or loses its top and bottom.
1920 × 1080 (Full HD, 1080p)2,073,600 pixels, 2.1 megapixels, 16:9. Uncompressed at 30 fps this is 995 Mbit/s, about twice what USB 2.0 can signal, so a USB 2.0 camera has to compress the frames, slow down or send a smaller picture.
2560 × 1440 (QHD, 1440p)3,686,400 pixels, 3.7 megapixels, 16:9: four times 720p. Uncompressed at 30 fps it is 1,769 Mbit/s, so it needs compression or a USB 3 link, which signals at 5 Gbit/s.
3840 × 2160 (4K UHD)8,294,400 pixels, 8.3 megapixels, 16:9: four Full HD pictures. Uncompressed at 30 fps it is 3,981 Mbit/s. A 5 Gbit/s USB 3 link has 4,000 Mbit/s left after its line coding and about two thirds of that in practice, so a 4K webcam compresses its frames. A snapshot at this size is an 8.3 megapixel still.
Frame rates 6
15 fpsOne new picture every 66.7 ms, and movement starts to look like steps. A camera that measures 30 fps beside a window and 15 fps in the evening is slowing down in low light, which gives each frame up to twice as long to gather light.
24 fpsOne picture every 41.7 ms, the rate of sound film since about 1930. When the reported rate says 30 and the measured rate says 24, one frame in five is not arriving.
25 fpsOne picture every 40 ms: one for every two cycles of a 50 Hz mains supply. Television in most of the world runs at 50 pictures a second, exactly twice this.
30 fpsOne picture every 33.3 ms. Most consumer webcams can send this rate at VGA size; the measured figure shows whether yours keeps it up at a larger size or in dim light. An exposure cannot last longer than the gap between frames, so at 30 fps the sensor has at most a thirtieth of a second to gather light.
50 fpsOne picture every 20 ms: twice 25 fps, and one picture per cycle of a 50 Hz supply. The measured figure can only reach 50 on a screen that refreshes at least 50 times a second.
60 fpsOne picture every 16.7 ms, the same pace as a 60 Hz screen. The measured rate never reads higher than your screen refreshes, because the browser counts a frame when it draws one.
Readings that need a second look 9
A flat microphone meter beside a good picturePicture and sound come from separate devices with separate permissions. Check that the microphone named under the meter is the one you expect and that a mute key or headset switch is not on, then run the full mic test with playback.
A smaller picture than the box promisedPress the 1920 × 1080 row to ask the camera for that size. If it still reads 1280 × 720, rule out three things in turn: a USB 2.0 port or hub, a call app that already holds the camera open, and a size limit in the maker's own settings software.
The camera light stays on after you press StopThis page stops its camera track when you press Stop or hide the tab. A camera that another tab or app is also using is not switched off until every user has let go, so look for a call app or a second browser tab that still has it open.
Dark bands drifting through the pictureLamps on mains power pulse with the supply, and the exposure is catching the pulses. Webcam drivers can offer a power line filter set to 50 Hz, 60 Hz or auto. Match your mains: 60 Hz in North America, parts of South America (Brazil, Colombia, Peru) and parts of Asia (South Korea, the Philippines); 50 Hz in most other places, Argentina and Chile among them. Japan has both, so try each setting and keep the one that stops the bands.
facingMode reads environmentOn a phone, environment is the rear camera, the one that faces away from you, and user is the selfie camera. Switch with the camera list. A desktop webcam may leave facingMode empty, and that is not a fault.
Measured rate well below the reported rateThe reported figure is the rate the camera is set to; the measured figure counts the frames that arrive. The standard that browsers follow gives this very case: a camera set to 25 fps that manages only 20 in poor light still reports 25. Put a lamp or a window in front of you and measure again.
resizeMode reads crop-and-scaleThe browser, not the camera, produced this picture size by cropping or scaling a larger one. When resizeMode reads none, the size is one that the camera, its driver or the operating system offered directly.
Width and height swapped, such as 720 × 1280You are holding a phone upright. Browsers are required to flip the reported width and height to match the picture as the device turns, so rotate the phone and the two numbers trade places.
Writing reads backwardsMirror is on. The preview starts flipped left to right, the way a mirror shows you, and a snapshot is saved the way the preview looks. Mirror changes only what is drawn on this page, never what the camera sends, so switch it off before you save a snapshot with writing in it.
When no picture appears 6
A black picture while the camera light is onFrames are arriving and every one of them is black. Look for a sliding lens cover, a sticker over the lens, or a camera-off key or switch on the laptop. Any opaque cover blocks a lens completely, which is the point of one.
Blocked on every site: the operating system's own switchThe system keeps a camera permission above the browser's. On Windows 11 open Settings, Privacy & security, Camera, and turn on Camera access and Let desktop apps access your camera, because browsers count as desktop apps. On a Mac open System Settings, Privacy & Security, Camera, and switch your browser on.
NotAllowedError: camera blocked for this siteThe browser refused the camera before it opened. The refusal can be an old one: a browser must ask the first time at least and may then remember the answer. Open the padlock or site settings icon beside the address, set Camera to Allow and reload. If Camera already reads Allow, the block sits higher up: see the row about the operating system's own switch.
NotFoundError: no camera foundThe browser found no video input at all. Reseat the USB plug, try a port on the computer itself and check that the camera is not disabled in the system's device settings. Browsers hide camera names until you give permission, so a blank name is not a missing camera.
Nothing happens after you press StartThe browser is waiting for your answer. A permission request can sit unanswered indefinitely, neither allowed nor refused, so look for the prompt beside the address bar or behind another window.
NotReadableError: the camera would not startPermission is in place and the camera still did not open. Rule things out in order: first a call app that still holds the camera, so quit it fully and not just its window; then the connection, so unplug a USB camera, wait a few seconds and plug it back in. Press Start again after each step.