ParrotNotes

BPM Detector

Find the tempo of a song or recording in beats per minute. Drop the file and the page listens for the beat, shows the BPM with its half and double, and plays a click along so you can check it by ear. No file at hand? Tap along to the beat below.

Find the BPM of a file

Drop a song or recording here or click to browse

MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, OGG, OPUS, FLAC, WEBM or MP4, up to 100 MB and 30 minutes.

Songs that speed up, slow down or have no steady beat give an average or no result.

The file is processed in your browser and is not uploaded.

Tap tempo

Tap the button along with the beat, or press the space bar or T. The tempo is the average of your last 16 taps.

–BPM

0 taps

How to find the BPM of a song

File analysis and tap tempo on one page, both in your browser.

  1. 1

    Drop the song

    MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC and other common formats up to 100 MB and 30 minutes. The page reads the whole file and finds the tempo between 60 and 200 BPM.

  2. 2

    Check it by ear

    Press Play with click: the song plays with a click on every beat. If the clicks stay on the beat, the number is right. If the intro is quiet or the tempo changes, analyse just the chorus.

  3. 3

    Or tap it

    Tap the big button or press the space bar along with the music. The BPM is the average of your last 16 taps; stop for 2 seconds and the next tap starts over.

What the BPM detector does

  • Finds the tempo in the file

    It follows where new sounds start, such as drum hits and plucked notes, and looks for the gap that repeats most steadily. The result is shown to a tenth of a BPM.

  • Gives half and double

    A song at 140 BPM can be counted at 70, and one at 87 at 174. The page shows both alternatives next to its pick, so you can choose the count your app or your dancers expect.

  • Plays a click along

    The click follows the beat it found, at a low volume you can turn up. It is the quickest way to tell whether the number is right.

  • Tap tempo

    Tap along on a phone, a tablet or the keyboard to measure a song playing in the room, a band, or a beat in your head.

When you need the BPM

  • DJ sets and mixes

    Knowing each track's tempo tells you which songs mix into each other and how far you need to pitch one to match the next.

  • Workout and running playlists

    Pick songs whose tempo matches the pace you want, or build a playlist that gets faster as the session goes on.

  • Practising an instrument

    Set your metronome to the song's tempo, then slow it down with the Audio Speed Changer and work back up to full speed.

  • Music for a video or a podcast intro

    Cut on the beat: the time between beats is in the table below, so a scene or a voice-over can start right on one.

Slow a song down to practise it with the Audio Speed Changer. Making a podcast? See how to write podcast show notes.

BPM and the time between beats

One beat lasts 60,000 ms divided by the BPM:

TempoOne beatHalf a beat
60 BPM1,000 ms500 ms
90 BPM666.7 ms333.3 ms
100 BPM600 ms300 ms
120 BPM500 ms250 ms
128 BPM468.8 ms234.4 ms
140 BPM428.6 ms214.3 ms
174 BPM344.8 ms172.4 ms
Handy for cutting video or audio on the beat, and for setting delay effects in time.

Why it may say half or double the tempo

Most music has a pulse at several speeds at once: the kick and snare, the claps, the hi-hats in between. Which one counts as the beat is partly taste: the same track can be counted at 174 BPM or felt at 87, and a slow song at 70 can be counted at 140.

The detector picks the count that repeats most steadily, leaning towards the middle of the usual range when two are equally strong, and keeps every result between 60 and 200 BPM. If your DJ app or playlist uses the other count, take the half or double shown under the number.

How accurate it is, and when it struggles

The more steady and clear the beat, the closer the result: on a steady click track it lands within a few tenths of a BPM. The confidence label tells you how steady the beat was in the part analysed, and the click lets you hear whether the number is right.

Songs that speed up or slow down, live playing that drifts, music without a steady beat and speech give an average tempo or no result at all. Analyse a stretch of at least 5 seconds where the beat is steady, or tap along instead.

Making a podcast or a video?

Found the music for the intro? Record the episode or the planning call with ParrotNotes and you get the transcript and a summary when it ends, ready for the show notes.

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Related tools

BPM Detector FAQ