Metronome Online – Free Accurate BPM Click with Beats Per Bar

Use the free Metronome Online below: set a speed in BPM, pick beats per bar, press Start, and follow the steady clicks. Sound starts only after you press Start.

How to use the metronome

Set the speed slider to the tempo you want, from 40 BPM to 240 BPM. BPM means beats per minute. Choose beats per bar: 2, 3, 4, or 6. Then press Start metronome. You hear a click on every beat, and the big circle pulses on every beat. The first beat of each bar is higher and red, so you can feel where each bar starts. The other beats are lower and green. Press Stop metronome when you finish. You can change the speed while it runs, and the next beats follow the new speed.

The tool uses lookahead scheduling for accurate timing. A small timer checks every 25 milliseconds and schedules each click 0.1 seconds ahead on the audio clock. This means clicks stay on time even if the page is busy, because the audio clock, not the screen timer, decides the exact moment of each click. A plain timer alone would drift when the browser gets busy, so this method is the standard way to build a metronome on the web.

Worked example: 120 BPM means 2 beats per second

Set the speed to 120 BPM and beats per bar to 4, then press Start. You hear 2 beats every second, with one beat every 0.5 seconds. The circle pulses red on beat 1, then green on beats 2, 3, and 4, then red again on the next bar. Count with it: one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. This is a normal walking pace and a common practice speed for many songs. Now move the slider to 60 BPM. You hear only 1 beat per second, with one beat every full second, which feels slow and calm. Move it to 180 BPM and you hear 3 beats per second, which feels fast and urgent. The maths is simple: beats per second equals BPM divided by 60, and seconds per beat equals 60 divided by BPM.

Try a second test with beats per bar. Keep 120 BPM, change beats per bar to 3, and the red accent comes every third beat, which gives a waltz feel: one, two, three, one, two, three. Change it to 2 and the accent comes every second beat, which fits a march. Change it back to 4 for most pop and rock songs. The speed never changed in this test, only the grouping of the beats, yet the music feels different. That is why beats per bar matters as much as speed.

What you can use it for

Musicians use a metronome to practise at a steady speed. Start slow, play a piece cleanly at 60 BPM, then raise the speed a little each day until you reach the full tempo. This builds clean technique instead of fast mistakes. Singers use it to hold a steady rhythm while they learn a song. Dancers use it to learn steps at a fixed pace before dancing to music. Teachers use it in lessons to show students what tempo means and to keep a whole class in time.

You can also use the metronome outside music. Runners use a steady beat to set a cadence. People who practise speeches use it to slow down and avoid rushing. Anyone learning a new physical skill, from typing drills to juggling, can use a slow beat to keep practice even and calm. Start slower than you think you need, because slow practice with a steady beat beats fast practice with mistakes.

Honest limits

Sound starts only after you press Start, because browsers block sound before you click anything. Timing accuracy depends on your device, and very old phones may drift a little at high speeds. This metronome plays clicks only, so it cannot play drum patterns, melodies, or a backing track. It also cannot listen to your playing and tell you whether you are in time. For that, record yourself and listen back against the clicks.

Frequently asked questions

What speed should a beginner start at? Start at 60 BPM. It is slow enough to play cleanly, and one beat per second is easy to count. Raise the speed by 5 BPM only when you can play the passage cleanly three times in a row.

Why is the first beat higher than the others? The higher red beat marks the start of each bar. Without it, you would hear a flat stream of clicks and lose track of where each bar begins, which matters in real music.

Does the metronome stay accurate if I switch tabs? The clicks are scheduled on the audio clock, so short tab switches usually stay in time. Very long background use can still drift on some phones, so keep the tab open for long practice sessions.

Why is there no sound until I press Start? Browsers block sound until the user clicks, to stop sites from playing sound without permission. Pressing Start is the click that unlocks sound, and this is normal on every browser.

Spanish version: Metrónomo Online