Online Voice Recorder — Record Audio Free in Your Browser
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Record audio straight from your microphone with a live waveform, a running timer, and pause/resume so one take can span several sittings. When you stop, play the take back in the page and download it as WebM or as an uncompressed WAV. Everything happens inside the browser tab — the audio is never uploaded, so there is no file-size cap and no queue.
How it works
- 1 Press Record and allow the microphone Click Record. Your browser will ask for microphone permission the first time — choose Allow. The waveform starts moving as soon as sound reaches the mic, which is the fastest way to confirm the right input device was picked up.
- 2 Pause and resume as needed Pause freezes the timer and the waveform without ending the take; Resume continues into the same file. Use it to skip a cough, check your notes, or answer the door without splitting the recording into two files.
- 3 Stop, listen, and download Stop ends the take and shows length, file size, format, and average bitrate. Play it back in the built-in player, then download WebM for a small file or WAV for uncompressed audio that editors like Audacity open directly.
Your data stays private
All processing happens entirely in your browser. No files, text, or data are ever sent to our servers. You can disconnect from the internet and this tool will still work.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the recording uploaded anywhere?
- No. The audio stays in your browser tab as an in-memory blob. There is no upload step, no server-side storage, and no request that carries the audio anywhere. That is also why the recording disappears if you close or reload the tab before downloading it — save the file first.
- What is the maximum recording length?
- There is no hard limit imposed by the tool. The practical ceiling is your device's free memory, since the whole take is held in RAM until you download it. Opus-encoded WebM runs roughly 0.5 MB per minute, so an hour of speech is about 30 MB — comfortable on any modern phone or laptop.
- Should I download WebM or WAV?
- WebM (Opus) is the recording's native format and is by far the smaller file — good for sharing, voice notes, and uploading to Drive or a messenger. WAV is uncompressed 16-bit PCM, typically 10 MB per minute, and is the safer choice when the file goes into an editor, a transcription tool, or a podcast workflow that expects PCM.
- Why does the WAV file come out so much bigger?
- Opus is a lossy codec that throws away what the ear is unlikely to notice; WAV keeps every sample. A five-minute take is roughly 2.5 MB as WebM and around 50 MB as WAV. Converting WebM to WAV cannot restore detail Opus discarded — it just stores what survived in an uncompressed container.
- Can I record system audio, a video call, or music playing on my computer?
- No. getUserMedia only exposes microphone input, so anything playing through your speakers is captured only if the mic hears it in the room. Recording a call cleanly requires screen or tab capture with audio sharing, which is a different browser permission.
- Which browsers support this recorder?
- Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera on desktop and Android all record WebM/Opus. Safari on macOS and iOS records too, but hands back MP4/AAC — the tool detects that and names the download accordingly. iOS also stops the recording if you switch apps, so keep the tab in the foreground.
- The timer runs but the waveform stays flat — what is wrong?
- The browser is recording from a device that hears nothing: usually a muted mic, a hardware mute switch on a headset, or the wrong default input. Check your system sound settings, then confirm the device name shown next to the timer is the microphone you expect.
- Does pausing create separate files?
- No. Pause and Resume drive the same MediaRecorder session, so the paused gap is dropped and the result is one continuous file. The timer reflects recorded time only, not the wall-clock time you spent paused.