Record your voice online

The recording never leaves the page

A recorder that uploads has to: the audio is sent to a server, converted there and sent back, which means a copy of your voice exists on someone else’s machine. Here the microphone feeds the browser directly, the MP3 is encoded on your own processor, and there is no upload endpoint to send it to. Nothing is stored either – close the tab before you download and the recording is gone, which is the trade for not having an account.

We tested 15 online file tools: 14 upload your files

Clean up, or raw

The Clean up setting turns on the browser’s own echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain. For speech that is almost always what you want: it removes room echo and keeps a steady level as you move. For music it is the wrong choice – noise suppression treats a sustained note as noise and fades it, and automatic gain pumps the volume between loud and quiet passages. Record an instrument on Raw.

Why you get an MP3 and not a .webm

Browsers do not record MP3. Chrome, Edge and Firefox record WebM with the Opus codec; Safari records MP4 with AAC. Both open in a browser and in very little else, which is why a recording downloaded from most sites will not import into older editing software or play on a car stereo. The recording here is decoded and re-encoded to MP3 (or WAV) before you download it, so the file opens everywhere.

If the microphone does not work

Three things cause almost all of it. The browser blocked permission – click the microphone or padlock icon in the address bar and allow it, then press Record again. Another program is holding the microphone – a meeting app keeps it open even when minimised, so quit it. Or the wrong input is selected: the browser follows your operating system’s default input, so change it in the sound settings rather than looking for a setting on this page.