How to test your keyboard
- Pick the layout that matches your keyboard: full-size, TKL (no number pad), 75% or 60%, the Windows/Linux or Mac legends, and ANSI or ISO shape. Chrome and Edge detect your keyboard language automatically and relabel the keys (QWERTZ, AZERTY and so on).
- Press every key once. Each key turns dark green while you hold it and stays light green afterwards, so anything still white hasn’t registered yet. The Keys tested score counts down to the last few.
- If your keyboard lacks a key that’s drawn (a laptop without Insert, say), click it in the picture to mark it as missing.
- Use Copy report to paste the results into a support ticket or a return request.
While the keyboard picture is on screen, the page stops keys from scrolling or triggering browser shortcuts. To use your keys normally again, hold Esc for one second or scroll the tester out of view.
Reading the results
A key doesn’t light up
If a key stays white no matter how you press it, the switch, the keycap stem or the circuit under it isn’t sending anything. Before blaming the hardware, check for a stuck Fn lock, a Win-lock or “game mode” (common on gaming keyboards, which disables the Windows key) and keyboard remapping software. Try another USB port or cable, too.
Chatter: a key types twice
Chatter is when one press registers as two, so “hello” comes out as “helllo”. The detector flags any key that sends two separate presses closer together than the threshold (40 ms by default). Even fast typists need roughly 80 ms or more between two presses of the same key, so gaps of 5–30 ms point to a bouncing switch. Mechanical switches can often be fixed with compressed air, contact cleaner, a firmware update with a longer debounce time, or a switch swap on hot-swap boards.
Rollover and ghosting
Rollover is how many keys the keyboard reports at once. Many office keyboards manage only 2–3 keys in some combinations, 6-key rollover (6KRO) boards report 6 regular keys plus the modifiers (Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Win), and N-key rollover (NKRO) boards report every key. Ghosting is the opposite problem: a key you didn’t press shows up, or a pressed key is blocked. Hold the combinations you use in games (for example W+A+Shift+Space) and check that every key lights up.
Keys a browser can’t see
- Fn is handled inside the keyboard and never reaches the computer, so it’s drawn dashed and never counted. Test it through the keys it changes, like the media or F-keys.
- System shortcuts such as Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Alt+Del, the Windows key or ⌘Tab are taken by the operating system first. Capture system keys switches to full screen and uses the Keyboard Lock API, which lets Chrome, Edge and Opera pass most of these (and Ctrl+W or ⌘Q) to the page. Ctrl+Alt+Del is always reserved.
- Print Screen on Windows only sends a key-up event. The tester counts it anyway.
- Media keys and macro keys are often handled by the system or the keyboard’s own software. If they arrive, they appear under “Other keys detected”.
Tips
- Nothing happens at all? Click the page once so it has focus, then try again.
- Wireless keyboards: a key that works only sometimes can be a weak battery or interference. Move the receiver closer, onto a USB extension if needed.
- The event log shows each key’s
key,code, legacykeyCodeand location, which is handy for developers and for remapping tools.
Testing the rest of your setup? Check clicks, scrolling and polling rate with the mouse tester, find stick drift with the controller tester, or see how fast you react with the reaction time test.