Noise Cancelling Mic Test: How Much Noise Gets Through?

How to test a noise-cancelling mic

1. Start the test in the place where you take calls, with the noise that bothers you running: the fan, the air conditioning, the street, your keyboard. This page starts with the browser’s noise suppression and auto gain off, so the first readings show what the mic itself delivers. If your headset cleans up its microphone on its own, that still happens: it works inside the headset, before the browser gets the audio.
2. Say a sentence or two at your normal volume, so the test knows how loud your voice is.
3. Stay silent and click Measure with noise suppression off. After 3 seconds the noise floor lands in the comparison table, with how far your voice rises above it.
4. Click Measure with noise suppression on. The test turns the browser’s filter on and gives it a moment to settle. Switching starts a fresh measurement, so it asks you for a sentence again, then for 3 seconds of quiet. The line under the table says how many decibels the filter took away.
5. To compare two mics, pick the other one in the list at the top and repeat both measurements. Record 5 s with each one as well, because what the noise sounds like matters as much as how loud it is.

Keep the noise the same for every row: same seat, same distance, same fan speed. The table keeps your last eight measurements until you leave the page.

Reading the comparison

The noise floor is the level the mic sends while nobody talks. Below −60 dBFS is quiet, −60 to −50 is fair, and above −50 listeners will clearly hear the background. Voice above noise is the gap between your talking level and that floor: 25 dB or more is comfortable, under 15 dB your voice competes with the room.

To compare mics, go by voice above noise rather than the floor alone: a mic with its input volume set lower shows a lower floor, but your voice drops by just as much. The line under the table ranks mics that way when every row has a voice level.

A good noise-cancelling headset shows its work in the first row, with suppression off: a lower floor than your laptop’s built-in mic in the same room, with your voice just as loud. If the floor only drops once the browser’s filter is on, the headset isn’t doing much itself, and a call app’s filter will be doing the work. Measure with the noise you actually have: a filter that handles a steady fan well can do far less against a keyboard, a dog or other people talking.

Noise filters in call apps

Every call app puts its own filter on top of what your mic sends; the Noise suppression box here stands in for that layer.

• Zoom offers background noise suppression at Auto (the default), Low, Medium and High. High also removes background speech from other people and may use more of your computer’s processor. Music needs a different setting, covered on the mic test for singing and music.
• Microsoft Teams has Auto (the default), Low for persistent noise such as a computer fan or air conditioner, High for all background sound that isn’t speech, and Off. Find it under Settings and more › Settings › Devices › Noise suppression.
• Google Meet noise cancellation removes typing, a closing door, room echo or construction noise, but not voices from a TV or people talking. On a computer it needs one of the Google Workspace editions that include it or a Google One plan with 2 TB or more.
• Discord uses Krisp, which runs on your device and is free inside Discord, including in Chrome and Firefox on a computer. Switch it under User Settings › Voice & Video › Noise Suppression.

Noise-cancelling headphones are not a noise-cancelling mic

Active noise cancelling (ANC) on headphones quiets what you hear. It is a different job from cleaning up what the microphone sends, which is what the people on your call hear. A headset can do one, both or neither, and the only way to know what reaches the other side is to measure the mic, which is what the table above does. If the background is still loud with everything on, get the mic closer to your mouth and turn the input volume down: your voice gets louder relative to the room, and every filter has an easier job.

For echo rather than noise, use the mic echo test. A Bluetooth headset that sounds muffled on top of noisy has a different problem: check it with the Bluetooth mic test.

How this page is set up

This is the same microphone test as the standard mic test, opened with different settings. You can change any of them once the test is running. Like the standard test, the page remembers only which microphone you picked.