Free online tool

Online Metronome with Time Signatures and Subdivisions

Q: Why can't I hear anything?

Browsers only start audio after you click or tap something on the page. Press Start yourself rather than relying on a link that opened the page. If you still hear nothing, check the device volume, the silent or mute switch, and that the browser tab is not muted.

Q: What is the range of a mechanical metronome?

A traditional wind-up pyramid metronome is marked from about 40 to 208 BPM. The Online Metronome goes from 30 to 300 BPM in steps of 1, so it covers slower and faster speeds than most mechanical models.

Q: What BPM is Allegro?

Wikipedia gives Allegro as 120 to 156 BPM. Real scores are usually slower. The median metronome mark next to the word Allegro is 100 BPM in 27 art songs (OpenScore Lieder) and 110 BPM in 52 Mutopia scores. Composers did not use these words as exact speeds.

Q: How should I practise a passage with the metronome?

Start at a speed you can play cleanly. Repeat the passage until it sounds even, then raise the tempo by a small step, such as 4 to 5 BPM. Use Stop after bars to practise a fixed section without watching the clock.

Q: How do I count 7/8 on a metronome?

Press the 7/8 button: the metronome then clicks seven eighth-note pulses per bar, with the accent on the first. For other odd meters, Custom lets you choose anything from 1 to 16 beats.

Q: What if I don't know the tempo of a piece?

Press Tap tempo in time with the music several times, and the BPM number will update to match your taps. Then fine-tune it with the slider or the + and − buttons until the click sits under the beat.

Q: Is it free and does it need an account?

Yes. The Online Metronome is free and needs no sign-up or account. It runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install. Nothing you enter is uploaded. The only thing it keeps is your last tempo, which is remembered on the device you use.

Q: Can I use it on a phone?

It runs in the web browser, so you open it on a phone the same way you open it on a computer. The controls are the same: the slider, the − and + buttons, the BPM box, Start and Tap tempo. Tap tempo works by tapping, so it suits a touchscreen. The space bar and arrow keys are keyboard shortcuts, so on a phone you would use the on-screen controls instead.

Free online metronome, 30-300 BPM: accent on beat 1, 2/4 to 12/8, eighth, triplet and sixteenth clicks, tap tempo and a stop-after-N-bars timer.

120 BPM Allegro

Stopped

BPM

Time signature

Subdivision Accent beat 1 Stop after bars

0 = keep going.

Keys: Space start/stop, ↑→ faster, ↓← slower (hold Shift for 5).

Tempo markings: textbook range vs. what composers actually used

Quarter-note beats per minute. The first column is the range usually quoted; the other two are medians of the metronome marks printed in real scores (with the number of marks and the middle half in brackets). Press a tempo to set the metronome to it.

Term	Quoted range (Wikipedia)	Art songs (OpenScore Lieder)	Scores (Mutopia)
Largo	40–66	n < 5	n < 5
Lento	40–60		n < 5
Adagio	44–66
Larghetto	44–66	n < 5	n < 5
Andantino	80–108
Andante	56–108
Moderato	108–120
Allegretto	112–120
Allegro	120–156
Vivace	156–176	n < 5
Presto	168–200	n < 5	n < 5

Datasets: 1,462 OpenScore Lieder songs, 217 of which carry a metronome mark (126 count here: quarter-note marks next to an opening tempo word), and 1,258 Mutopia scores with a readable tempo (BPM of the quarter-note). Beats per minute are for the quarter note. Real marks are what editors and composers printed, not how fast anyone plays. Sources: OpenScore Lieder Corpus (CC0 1.0); The Mutopia Project (per piece: public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA (only counts are shown here)); Wikipedia (excerpts) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Full analysis and distribution charts: Tempo markings with real BPM.

About the Online Metronome

The Online Metronome is a free metronome that runs in your web browser. It clicks at any tempo from 30 to 300 BPM (beats per minute), with an accent on beat 1, time signatures from 2/4 to 12/8, and eighth, triplet and sixteenth clicks. It also has tap tempo and a timer that stops after a set number of bars. There is no sign-up, and nothing you enter is uploaded.

Use it to practise scales, exercises or pieces at a steady speed, or to find the tempo of a song by tapping along with it. A metronome 4/4 setting, a 3/4 waltz or a 6/8 jig can all be set up on the same page.

How to use the Online Metronome

Set the tempo. Drag the slider, use the − / + buttons (one BPM) or −5 / +5, type a value in the BPM box, or use the arrow keys (hold Shift for steps of 5). If you do not know the speed, press Tap tempo in time with the music and the BPM follows your taps.
Pick a time signature. Press one of the buttons from 2/4 to 12/8, or Custom for any number of beats from 1 to 16. If you want the beat divided, choose a Subdivision.
Turn on the accent. Tick Accent beat 1 to hear the first beat of every bar louder. The row of circles lights up beat by beat, so you can see where you are in the bar.
Press Start or the space bar. To practise a fixed section, set Stop after bars (0 keeps going) and the click stops on its own.

Open the page with ?bpm=96 at the end of the address to start at 96 BPM. Your last tempo is remembered on this device, so the next visit starts where you left off.

To get the most from this metronome, practise in small steps rather than jumping straight to your target speed.

Start below the speed you can play cleanly, and repeat the passage until it sounds even.
Raise the tempo by a small step, such as 4 to 5 BPM.
Turn on a Subdivision such as sixteenths to check that your short notes are even rather than rushed.

What does BPM mean on a metronome?#

BPM is beats per minute, the number of beats or clicks in sixty seconds. At 60 BPM there is one click every second. At 80 BPM the gap is 750 ms, at 100 BPM it is 600 ms, and at 120 BPM it is 500 ms. The formula is simple: milliseconds between clicks equals 60000 divided by the BPM. The number you set is the speed of one beat, not of the whole bar.

How are 3/4 and 4/4 counted on a metronome?#

In 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4 the beat is a quarter note. A 3/4 setting clicks three times per bar, with the accent on the first click, and a 4/4 setting clicks four times. The BPM tells you how fast those quarter notes go, so 3/4 at 90 BPM and 4/4 at 90 BPM have the same click spacing but different bar lengths.

How are 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 counted on a metronome?#

Compound meters are counted differently. In 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 the music is felt in dotted quarter notes, so the metronome counts 2, 3 or 4 beats per bar. Each beat is a dotted quarter made of three eighths. The BPM is the speed of that dotted quarter. Choose the eighth-note subdivision to hear the three small clicks inside each beat. The 6/8 metronome setting therefore gives two big clicks per bar, not six.

What does the subdivision setting do on a metronome?#

Subdivision adds quieter clicks between the main beats. Eighths add two clicks per beat, triplets add three and sixteenths add four. In compound meters, the choices are the three eighths or six sixteenths inside each beat. Practising with the subdivision on is a standard way to check that short notes are even rather than rushed, because you can hear the gaps between them.

How does the metronome stay in time?#

Each click is scheduled ahead of time on the Web Audio clock, which runs on the audio hardware. It is not fired by a JavaScript timer. A timer only wakes up every 25 ms to queue the next 100 ms of clicks, so timer jitter never reaches the sound. The result is a steady pulse even when the browser is busy with other tasks.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I hear anything?