Discord Mic Test

This Discord mic test shows what Discord's voice settings will do to your voice before you join a channel. Discord's input sensitivity works like a gate: sound above the threshold is sent, sound below it is cut. Set it too high and your friends lose the start and end of your words, set it too low and they hear your keyboard and fan. The tester measures your voice and your room, draws the threshold as a line you can drag, and reports the share of your speech that line would cut. It also checks your level, clipping, background noise and sample rate. This tester is independent and is not affiliated with Discord.

How to use the Discord mic test

1. Press Start test and allow the microphone. Pick the same input you use in Discord.
2. Set the three switches to match your Discord settings. They start on, because Discord's voice settings include all three: echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain control.
3. Talk as you would in a game for about ten seconds, with short pauses between sentences.
4. Watch the Input sensitivity bar. Green means Discord would send that sound. Orange means it falls below the line and would be cut.
5. Drag the yellow line, or focus it and use the arrow keys, and read Speech cut. Under 3% is good.
6. Press Use suggested to put the line between your quiet words and your background noise.
7. In Discord, open User Settings, then Voice & Video. Turn off Automatically determine input sensitivity and drag the slider until your quietest words still light the bar.

What the readouts mean

The verdict also warns when background noise crosses the line while you are silent, which is when your friends hear your room.

Discord cuts off the start or end of your words

The threshold sits too close to your voice. Soft consonants such as f, th and h can be 20 dB or more quieter than the vowels around them, so they fall under the line first.

• Move the line left until Speech cut drops under 3%, or turn on Automatically determine input sensitivity in Discord.
• Raise your input volume or move closer to the mic. If your speaking level here is under -35 dB, a gate will always struggle. The mic test explains how to raise it on Windows and Mac.
• Turn off Krisp for a moment. Strong noise suppression can swallow quiet speech along with the noise.

Background noise opens your mic

If keyboard clicks, a fan or a TV keep lighting the bar while you are silent, the threshold is below your room noise.

• Move the line right, just above the noise, while checking that Speech cut stays low.
• Turn on Krisp in Discord's Noise Suppression setting. It filters the sound you send, so it removes fans and typing that a plain threshold lets through.
• Use Push to Talk in noisy rooms. Set it under Input Mode in Voice & Video and pick a key.

To see which of your keys the mic hears loudest, run the keyboard noise test.

• If the readout shows your voice less than 15 dB above the room, no threshold can separate them, and Push to Talk is the only clean fix.

Your voice does not reach the call

Discord's Let's Check plays your mic back to you outside any channel. When it works but your friends hear nothing in a call, check these:

1. Input Mode. Push to Talk is on and you are not pressing the key, or the server requires Push to Talk in that channel.
2. The threshold. Your voice never crosses it. Watch the small green ring around your avatar in the call: if it never lights, it is the threshold.
3. Mutes. Your own mute button, a server mute from a moderator, or a missing Speak permission in that channel. Another user can also turn your volume down to 0 on their side.
4. The wrong input. Set Input Device to your real mic instead of Default, especially after plugging in a headset.
5. Windows privacy. Discord is a desktop app, so Let desktop apps access your microphone must be on in Settings, then Privacy and security, then Microphone.

The full list, including the mobile and console apps, is in the discord mic not working guide.

Discord does not detect your mic at all

If the bar in Discord never moves but it moves here, Discord is using another device or cannot open it. Pick your mic by name in Input Device, then try Audio Subsystem near the bottom of Voice & Video on Windows: switching between Standard and Legacy fixes many USB mics and headsets. Confirm the change, and restart Discord if it does not restart by itself. Reset Voice and Video Settings, on the Debugging tab of Voice & Video, puts every voice option back to default.

Your voice sounds robotic or keeps dropping

Record 5 seconds here and play it back. If the recording sounds clean, the mic is fine and the problem is the connection.

• Network. Robotic, choppy voices come from lost packets. Use a wired connection, close downloads, and try turning off Enable Quality of Service High Packet Priority on the Voice tab of Voice & Video, which some routers handle badly.
• Bluetooth. If the sample rate reads 16 kHz, your headset is in hands-free mode, which sounds like an old phone call. Use the computer's mic with the Bluetooth headphones, or a wired or USB headset. The headset mic test checks both halves of a headset.
• Automatic gain. If your level pumps up and down here with Automatic gain on, turn off Automatic Gain Control in Discord and set the input volume by hand.

What this test cannot copy from Discord

The gate here follows the threshold you set, with a short hold after each word, like most voice gates. Discord's own detector, its Krisp processing and its compression differ from what the browser does, so treat the suggested threshold as a starting point and fine-tune it in a quiet moment in a real channel. To score the recording itself for noise, hum and clipping, use the mic quality test.

Discord mic test questions