Voice Recorder

A free online voice recorder that stays on your device

The Voice Recorder turns any microphone — the one built into your laptop or phone, a USB podcast mic or a headset — into a simple, dependable audio recorder in your browser. Press record, watch the live waveform and level meter to confirm you are being picked up, pause when you need a moment, and stop when you are done. Every take lands in a recordings list where you can play it back, give it a proper name and download it.

It is made for everyday jobs: voice notes and reminders, rehearsing a speech or an interview answer, capturing a song idea, recording a question for a teacher, or laying down a rough voice-over that you tidy up later in the Audio Cutter. There is nothing to install and no account to create.

Your audio never leaves your device. Recording, playback and WAV conversion all happen inside the browser using the standard MediaRecorder and Web Audio APIs, so nothing is uploaded to a server.

How to use the Voice Recorder

1. Pick your microphone from the Microphone list (names appear after you allow access the first time) and, if you like, the recording format.
2. Press Start recording and allow microphone access when the browser asks.
3. Speak normally and watch the level meter — peaks between −12 and −6 dB are ideal. If it shows “Too loud”, move back from the mic.
4. Use Pause and Resume to skip the parts you don’t want, then press Stop.
5. Play the take in the recordings list, press Rename to label it, then download it in its original format or as WAV.
6. Tick Keep recordings on this device if you want your takes to survive a page reload.

Voice Recorder features

Which download format should you choose?

Browsers record into a compressed format first because it keeps files small — at the 128 kbps used here, roughly 1 MB per minute. Which compressed format you get depends on your browser: Chrome, Edge and Firefox produce WebM with the Opus codec, while Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad produces M4A with AAC. Both sound excellent for speech.

Choose WAV when you plan to edit the recording in Audacity, GarageBand or another editor, or when a transcription or upload form asks for uncompressed audio. WAV is lossless but about five to six times larger: a minute of mono speech at 48 kHz takes about 5.8 MB.

Tips for a clear voice recording

• Get close: 10–20 cm (about a hand’s width) from the microphone gives a fuller voice and less room echo.
• Record in a soft room. Curtains, a sofa or a wardrobe full of clothes absorb echo far better than a bare kitchen or bathroom.
• Keep peaks below about −6 dB. Digital audio that reaches 0 dB clips, and that harsh distortion cannot be removed afterwards.
• Switch noise suppression off for music or ambient sound — it is tuned for speech and can make instruments sound watery.
• Make a five-second test take and listen on headphones before anything long. The Mic Test is handy for checking a new microphone, and Speech to Text can turn spoken notes into text.

If the microphone is blocked or silent

If you pressed “Block” on the permission prompt, your browser remembers that choice for this site. The message that appears above the settings explains how to undo it in the browser you are using — usually by clicking the icon left of the address bar, setting Microphone to Allow and reloading.

If access is allowed but the meter does not move, check that the right microphone is selected, that any mute switch on the headset is off, and that your operating system lets the browser use the microphone. Some USB microphones work with only one app at a time, so close video-call apps as well.