How many taps do I need for an accurate BPM?

Two taps give a first reading, but it is only as good as those two taps. After eight to sixteen taps the average settles, and the tool tells you when your taps are steady. It always uses your last sixteen taps, so if the song speeds up the reading follows.

Why does the tempo show a decimal?

Your taps are averaged, so the exact figure is rarely a whole number. Most pop, hip-hop and dance music is produced at a whole-number tempo, so round to the nearest one. Live recordings without a click track really can sit at 117.6 BPM and drift a little.

Should I tap the kick drum or the snare?

Tap the beat you would clap or nod your head to. In most songs that is every kick and snare together, four per bar. If you tap only the snare on beats two and four you will get half the tempo, which is what the half-time value is for.

Does tap tempo work on my phone?

Yes. Tap the big pad with your thumb; the tap registers the moment your finger touches the screen, not when you lift it, so the timing stays tight. On a computer you can also press the space bar anywhere on the page.

How do I check that the BPM is right?

Press Check with a metronome while the song plays. If the clicks stay locked to the beat for a few bars, the tempo is right. If they slowly run ahead or fall behind, nudge the tempo with the plus and minus buttons until they stay together.

Is the song I play uploaded?

No. The song you choose plays from your own device inside the browser and never reaches our servers. Tapping and the metronome also run entirely in your browser.

Tap Tempo

How to use tap tempo

Play the song, either in another tab or with the song player above.
Tap the pad, or press the space bar, on every beat. Keep going for at least eight taps.
Read the BPM. When the taps are even enough, the tool says the reading is steady and shows the exact value with one decimal.
Press Check with a metronome. If the clicks stay on the beat for a few bars, you have the right tempo.

Stop tapping for two seconds and the next tap starts a fresh count, so you can measure another song, or another section of the same one, without pressing reset.

Tips for an accurate tap BPM

A tap tempo is only as steady as your hand, so give it a little time. These habits make the biggest difference:

Listen for a bar before you start. Count "one, two, three, four" in your head, then tap from the next downbeat.
Tap with the drums, not the vocal. Singers phrase around the beat; the kick and snare sit on it.
Keep a light, small movement. Big swings of the arm make every tap a little late in a different way.
Use more taps on slow songs. At 70 BPM each tap is almost a second apart, so one early tap moves the average more than it would at 140 BPM.
Check by ear. The metronome is the fastest way to catch a reading that is off by one or two BPM.

Half time, double time and how to count

The same song can be counted at two speeds. A trap beat at 140 BPM feels like 70 when you follow the slow, heavy snare; a ballad at 75 BPM can be counted as 150 if you follow the hi-hats. Neither count is wrong, which is why the tool shows the half-time and double-time values next to your result.

For production and DJ software, use the count that matches the grid the song was made on. As a rule of thumb, most pop, hip-hop and dance songs fall between 70 and 180 BPM, and most listeners tap the faster of the two counts in songs with a busy drum part.

Tap tempo or BPM finder?

Tapping is quick and works for anything you can hear: a song on the radio, a video, a live band or a beat you are humming. It is also the better choice for live recordings, rubato intros and songs that change speed, because you follow the music the way a musician would.

If you have the audio file and want the exact figure without tapping, use our free BPM & Key Finder. It analyses the file in your browser and also tells you the key and the Camelot code for harmonic mixing.

BPM to milliseconds for delay and reverb

Once you know the tempo, you can set effects that breathe with the song. A delay timed to a 1/8 note, or a reverb tail that ends just before the next beat, sounds tight where an arbitrary time sounds messy. The chart under the tool updates with your tempo; the formula behind it is simple:

One beat in milliseconds = 60,000 ÷ BPM. At 120 BPM a quarter note is 500 ms, an eighth note 250 ms, a sixteenth 125 ms and a full bar of 4/4 two seconds. Dotted values are one and a half times longer, triplets two thirds as long.

Using the tempo for a music video

Video editors use the BPM too. Cutting from one shot to the next on the beat, every bar or every two bars, makes a music video feel planned rather than random. At 120 BPM a bar lasts two seconds, so a cut every bar keeps a fast, energetic pace, while a cut every two bars suits a slower, more cinematic edit.

If you would rather not cut it by hand, AIMusicVideoGen turns a song and one photo of the singer into a finished music video, with every scene cut to the beat and lip-synced close-ups where the vocals come in.