Free online
Online Metronome
A metronome that keeps time the way a musician needs it to. Clicks on the audio clock, not a JavaScript timer, from 20 to 300 BPM. Any time signature, accents you set per beat, eighths, triplets and sixteenths, tap tempo, and a speed trainer that brings a passage up to tempo a few BPM at a time. Nothing to install.
- 20–300BPM, on the audio clock — not a JavaScript timer
- Subdivisions, per-beat accents, speed trainer
- Nothing to install — works offline once loaded
Keyboard Space starts and stops · ↑ ↓ change by 1 · ← → by 5 · T taps the tempo
- Nothing to install Runs in the browser, on any device. Once the page has loaded it keeps working without a connection.
- Nothing tracked No account, no signup, no settings sent anywhere. Your tempo lives in the page address, so you can bookmark it.
- Free, no limits No trial, no premium tier, no cap on how long it runs.
A clock you can practise against
Sample-accurate clicks, any metre, accents you set by hand, and a trainer that brings a passage up to speed a few BPM at a time.
Clicks that land where they should
Most web metronomes fire their click from a JavaScript timer, which drifts and stalls the moment the tab is busy or in the background. This one books every click in advance on the Web Audio clock at its exact sample time — the same technique a DAW's metronome uses — so 120 BPM is 120 BPM, whether you are watching the page or not. The beat lights are booked to the same clock, so what you see is what you hear.
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Accents you set by hand
Click any beat to cycle it between accent, normal and silent. That is how 6/8 gets its two strong beats, how 5/4 and 7/8 get their grouping, and how you drop beats out to test whether your time holds up when the click goes quiet. Every metre comes with its conventional accents already set.
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Subdivisions
Beats, eighths, triplets or sixteenths, at a softer click so the pulse stays clear. Switch between them while it runs to check a rhythm against the grid.
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Speed trainer
Set a step and a number of bars, and the tempo climbs — say 5 BPM every 4 bars — until it reaches your target. The way teachers bring a passage up to speed: small enough steps that you never notice the jump. It can run downwards too, for the start-fast-and-settle exercise.
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Tap tempo
Tap the button or press T along with a recording, or with your own playing, and the metronome reads the tempo from the last eight taps, discarding a long pause. Four taps gets close; eight is stable.
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Keyboard shortcuts
Space starts and stops. Up and down change the tempo by one, left and right by five, T taps. Practising with an instrument in your hands, you should not need the mouse.
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Four sounds, tempo markings, a shareable address
Click, woodblock, digital and bell, each with a distinct accent. The Italian marking for the tempo is shown under the number, and the presets set the usual tempo for each. The tempo, metre and subdivision are kept in the page address, so a bookmark or a shared link opens the metronome set up the same way.
Set a tempo in three ways
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Type it, slide it, or tap it
Type a number into the big display, drag the slider, use the plus and minus buttons, pick a tempo marking, or tap the tempo in. The marking under the number tells you where you are on the Italian scale.
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Set the metre
Choose a time signature, then click the beats to set accents — or silence some. Add a subdivision if you want the eighths, triplets or sixteenths marked.
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Start, and let the trainer work
Press Start or the space bar. Switch on the speed trainer to raise the tempo a few BPM every few bars until it reaches the target you set.
Looking for something different?
This is a metronome: a click to practise against. If what you want is to hear or slow down an actual piece, start somewhere else.
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You want to practise a piece at a slower tempo
The MIDI player plays any file, or 400 pieces from the library, at 50–200% with falling notes.
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You want to find the tempo of a recording
Tap along with the tap-tempo button above — eight taps give a stable reading — or transcribe the recording to MIDI and read its tempo.
Why the clicks land where they should
The Web Audio clock, a lookahead scheduler, and synthesised clicks.
Timing
A lookahead scheduler on the Web Audio API clock. A timer wakes every 25 milliseconds and books every click that falls within the next 120 milliseconds at its exact time on the audio clock, which is driven by the sound card rather than the page. A stalled timer — a background tab, a busy page, a phone that throttles JavaScript — delays the booking of future clicks, not the clicks already booked, so the beat does not drift. This is the design described in Chris Wilson's "A Tale of Two Clocks" and it is how browser-based DAWs keep time.
- Clock
- AudioContext.currentTime (sample-accurate)
- Range
- 20–300 BPM, whole numbers
- Metres
- 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8, 12/8
- Subdivisions
- 1, 2, 3 (triplets), 4 per beat
- Accent levels
- Accent, normal, silent — per beat
Sounds
Synthesised, not sampled, so nothing loads and the click is ready the instant you press start. The click is a short sine ping; the woodblock is a pitched tap plus a burst of band-passed noise; digital is a square wave; bell is a sine with one inharmonic partial. Accents are higher and louder, subdivisions lower and softer.
The speed trainer
At the end of every N bars the tempo moves one step towards the target and never past it. Because the next bar is booked at the new tempo before it starts, the change is clean — no half-length beat at the join.
- Step: 1–20 BPM per change.
- Interval: every 1–32 bars.
- Target: any tempo above or below the current one.
- The display and the address bar follow the trainer, so you can see where it got to.
Good to know
- The first click needs a tap or a key press — browsers do not let a page start audio on its own.
- On a phone, make sure the ringer is not on silent and the media volume is up — browsers play the click through the media channel.
- Tempo, metre and subdivision are stored in the page address (?bpm=120&ts=6/8&sub=2); nothing is stored anywhere else.
Frequently asked
How do I use this online metronome?
Set a tempo, set the metre, press start:
- Type a number into the display, drag the slider, pick a marking, or tap the tempo in.
- Choose a time signature and click the beats to set accents. Add a subdivision if you want eighths, triplets or sixteenths.
- Press Start or the space bar. Switch on the speed trainer to raise the tempo automatically.
Is it accurate?
Yes — to the sample. Clicks are booked on the Web Audio clock rather than fired by a JavaScript timer, so they are not affected by the page being busy or the tab being in the background. The visual beat is booked to the same clock.
What is a metronome for?
For playing in time and for finding out whether you do. A steady click exposes rushing and dragging that you cannot hear in your own playing, lets you learn a passage slowly and bring it up to tempo, and gives an ensemble a common reference. Practise with it, then without it, and listen for the difference.
What do the subdivisions do?
They add softer clicks between the beats: two for eighths, three for triplets, four for sixteenths. They are for checking a rhythm against the grid — where a syncopation falls, whether your triplets are even — and for practising fast passages at a slow tempo without losing the pulse.
How do I set accents, and why would I silence a beat?
Click any beat in the bar to cycle it: accent, normal, silent. Accents mark the grouping of a metre — 6/8 as two groups of three, 7/8 as 4+3 — and they are set for you when you choose a time signature. Silencing beats is a classic exercise: mute beats 2 and 4, or a whole bar, and see whether you come back in on time.
What is the speed trainer?
Automatic tempo increase. Set how much to change and how often — 5 BPM every 4 bars, for instance — and a target, and the tempo climbs in steps until it gets there. It is how you take a passage from the tempo you can play cleanly to the tempo you need, without ever making a jump you notice. It can also count down, to practise settling into a tempo from above.
How does tap tempo work?
Tap the button, or press T, in time with the music or with your playing. The tempo is the average of the intervals between your last eight taps; a pause of two seconds starts a new run. Four taps gives a close reading, eight a stable one.
What do Largo, Andante, Allegro and the other markings mean?
They are the traditional Italian words for tempo, from Grave (very slow, around 20–40 BPM) through Largo, Lento, Adagio, Andante, Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro and Vivace to Presto and Prestissimo (200 BPM and up). The boundaries are conventions rather than rules, and different books draw them slightly differently. The marking shown under the number follows the most common scheme, and the presets set a typical tempo for each.
What BPM is one beat per second?
60 BPM. Beats per minute divided by 60 is beats per second, so 120 BPM is two per second and 90 BPM is one every two-thirds of a second.
Which time signatures does it support?
2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 9/8 and 12/8. In the compound and odd metres the click is on the written note value (an eighth in 6/8), with accents marking the groups; set your own accents for other groupings.
Can I use it on my phone?
Yes, in any current mobile browser. The first click needs a tap on the Start button, because browsers do not let pages start sound on their own. Make sure the phone is not on silent and the media volume is up.
Does it work offline?
Once the page has loaded, yes. The sounds are synthesised in the browser, so nothing is fetched when you press start.
Can I share a tempo with someone?
Yes. The tempo, metre and subdivision are written into the page address as you change them — ?bpm=96&ts=6/8&sub=2, for example — so copying the link, or bookmarking it, opens the metronome set up the same way.
What tempo should a beginner practise at?
Slower than feels necessary. Pick a tempo at which you can play the passage with no mistakes — often 60–80 BPM for something you are learning — and use the speed trainer to climb from there. Speed you cannot play cleanly is not speed.