Online Metronome
A steady, drift-free beat with tap tempo, time signatures and subdivisions.
A metronome that keeps time the way audio software does: clicks are scheduled ahead on the browser’s audio clock instead of being fired by a UI timer, so the beat does not wobble when the page stutters. What you set is what you get — at 30 BPM for slow practice all the way to 300 BPM.
Tip: press Space to start / stop. Sound starts after your first tap — browsers require a gesture before playing audio.
Related tools: Interval Timer (Tabata & HIIT)
How to use
- Press Start (or hit Space) — the first tap unlocks audio, as browsers require a gesture before any sound plays.
- Set the tempo with the slider, the −/+ buttons, the BPM box, or tap the Tap tempo button in rhythm — it averages your last taps.
- Pick beats per bar and a subdivision: eighth notes, triplets or sixteenths tick between the main beats, quieter than the beat itself.
- Leave “Accent the first beat” on to hear where each bar starts; turn it off for an even practice pulse.
About this tool
Everything runs locally in your browser with the Web Audio API. No audio files are loaded, no account is needed, and nothing about your practice session is recorded or sent anywhere.
Built for practice rooms and everything like them: piano scales, drum rudiments, guitar exercises, speech pacing and running-cadence drills.
How it works
Tempo is counted in beats per minute (BPM): one beat lasts 60 ÷ BPM seconds. At 60 BPM each beat is exactly one second; at 120 BPM, half a second. Subdivisions split every beat evenly — eighth notes halve it, triplets cut it in three, sixteenths in four — so a 4/4 bar at 90 BPM with sixteenth subdivisions produces 16 clicks in about 2.7 seconds.
Accuracy comes from when clicks are scheduled, not from the timer that requests them. A naive metronome fires a click every time a JavaScript timer wakes up, and timers wake up late whenever the tab is busy — that is the wobble you hear in cheap online metronomes. This one uses the Web Audio lookahead pattern: a lightweight timer runs every 25 ms and schedules clicks 0.12 seconds ahead on the audio clock, which does not drift with UI load. The visual pulse is rendered from those same scheduled times.
The accent pattern follows the time signature: the first click of each bar is higher and louder (when the accent is on), subdivision ticks are quieter and lower. That hierarchy is what lets you feel 6/8 as two groups of three instead of six equal ticks — try 6 beats per bar with the accent on, then 2 beats with triplet subdivisions, and compare the feel.
Worked examples
Piano scales without rushing: Set 72 BPM, 4 beats per bar, eighth-note subdivisions. Play one scale note per subdivision; the accent marks each new bar so you always know where the cycle restarts. Raise the tempo by 4 BPM only when two full passes are clean.
Running cadence drill: Distance runners often aim for roughly 170–180 steps per minute. Set 176 BPM with the accent off and match one step to each click for one minute — most people find their stride shortens and softens within a few intervals.
Learning a triplet feel: At 60 BPM with triplet subdivisions, count “1-trip-let, 2-trip-let” against the three even ticks inside each beat. Ten slow minutes of this rewires shuffle and swing patterns far better than jumping straight to performance tempo.
Quick reference
| Marking | BPM range | Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Larghissimo | under 40 | Slowest; meditative practice |
| Largo | 40–60 | Broad and slow |
| Larghetto | 60–66 | Slightly faster than Largo |
| Adagio | 66–76 | Slow, stately |
| Andante | 76–108 | Walking pace |
| Moderato | 108–120 | Moderate |
| Allegro | 120–156 | Fast and bright |
| Presto | 156–200 | Very fast |
| Prestissimo | over 200 | As fast as playable |
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is this metronome?
Clicks are scheduled on the Web Audio clock with a 0.12-second lookahead buffer, the same technique DAWs use. Timing error is well under a millisecond in normal conditions — far steadier than metronomes driven by a plain JavaScript timer, which drift whenever the tab gets busy.
Why is there no sound until I press Start?
Browsers block audio before the first user gesture on a page — an anti-autoplay rule, not a bug. Your first press creates and unlocks the audio context; after that, starting and stopping is instant.
What do the tempo words (Allegro, Andante…) mean?
They are the classical Italian tempo markings, shown under the BPM number as a guide: Andante is walking pace (about 76–108 BPM), Moderato a moderate 108–120, Allegro a bright 120–156. Composers wrote these words before BPM numbers existed; the full table is in the reference section below.
Can I use it for running or workouts?
Yes. Runners often target a cadence around 170–180 steps per minute — set 170–180 BPM with the accent off and one click per step. It also works for jump-rope, rowing strokes and rehab exercises.
Does it keep playing if I switch tabs?
In most browsers, yes — the audio clock keeps running in the background, though some mobile browsers throttle or pause audio in hidden tabs to save battery. For critical practice, keep the tab visible.
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