Drag the tempo slider (or tap tempo), pick beats per bar, then click Start click for audible ticks; a visual beat lamp pulses on load.
Visual beat is running. Click Start click for audible ticks (Web Audio).
Online Metronome
Set a BPM and hear a steady practice click in the browser.
This page does not keep time after you close the tab and does not offer swing patterns.
What Start, Stop, and the tempo slider actually change
Metronome runs two independent things at once: a visual beat lamp that pulses from the moment the page loads, and an audible click that only plays after you press Start click. Pressing Stop turns off just the audible click - the visual beat lamp and the row of meter dots underneath it keep pulsing at the same tempo, so you can keep watching the beat with the sound off. Dragging the tempo slider while the click is already playing updates the tempo right away; Metronome does not need a Start/Stop restart to pick up a new speed. Switching the Beats per bar selector while the click is stopped rebuilds the row of meter dots to match and resets the count back to the first beat of the bar, so the accent lines up with beat one again. The tempo slider itself is limited to 40-240 BPM, and Tap tempo clamps a tapped speed into that same range if your taps land faster or slower than the slider allows.
How Metronome's click sounds and looks
Metronome accents the first beat of every bar: it plays at a higher pitch and slightly louder than the other beats, and it lights the beat lamp and the matching meter dot in a different color (the accent flashes blue, the other beats flash red) so you can see the downbeat as well as hear it. Every click, accented or not, is a short blip that fades out in about 55 milliseconds rather than a sustained tone, which keeps a fast tempo from sounding like one continuous buzz. Tap tempo only looks at your most recent 6 taps when averaging a speed, so an old, unrelated tap does not keep skewing the result. If your browser does not support the Web Audio API that the audible click depends on, pressing Start click shows an inline error message instead of doing nothing - the visual beat lamp keeps working either way since it does not need Web Audio.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is there no sound until I click Start?
Browsers block audio until a user gesture. The visual beat runs on load; Start click enables Web Audio ticks.
Is anything uploaded or recorded?
No. Timing and audio run in this tab. The microphone is not used.
What BPM range is supported?
40 to 240 BPM, plus Tap tempo to match a pulse you hear.
Does the click keep running in the background?
No. Background tabs may throttle timers, and closing the tab stops the click.
Does Stop also turn off the visual beat lamp?
No. Stop only ends the audible click; the visual beat lamp and meter dots keep pulsing at the same tempo.
Can I change the tempo while the click is already playing?
Yes. Dragging the tempo slider updates the tempo immediately, with no need to press Start or Stop again.
What happens if I change Beats per bar while the click is stopped?
The row of meter dots rebuilds to match the new count, and the beat count resets back to the first beat of the bar.
Can I set the tempo below 40 or above 240 BPM?
No. Both the tempo slider and Tap tempo clamp any value outside 40-240 BPM back into that range.
Why does the first beat sound and look different from the others?
The first beat of every bar is accented: it plays at a higher pitch and louder volume, and lights the beat lamp and meter dot in a different color than the rest.
Is the click a continuous tone?
No. Each click is a short blip that fades out in about 55 milliseconds, not a sustained tone.
How many taps does Tap tempo use to calculate a speed?
It averages the gaps between your most recent 6 taps.
What happens if my browser does not support the Web Audio API?
Pressing Start click shows an inline error message instead of doing nothing. The visual beat lamp still works, since it does not depend on Web Audio.