BPM Counter (Tap Tempo)

Find the tempo of any song in seconds: press Calculate and tap along with the beat, on the pad with a mouse or finger, or on the space bar. The counter shows the BPM live and settles on a steady value; it stops by itself three seconds after your last tap. You can also enter beats you counted against a clock. Results include milliseconds per beat, the classical tempo marking and a table of note lengths for setting delays.

How to use this tool

1. Leave "Tap along" selected and press Calculate.
2. Tap the pad or press the space bar on every beat while the music plays; 8–16 taps are enough.
3. Stop tapping: after 3 seconds (or 32 taps) the result appears.
4. Or choose "Beats counted over a time", enter the beats and seconds, and read the BPM.

Formula

BPM = 60,000 ÷ average tap interval (ms) · BPM = beats × 60 ÷ seconds · ms per beat = 60,000 ÷ BPM

The last 8 intervals between taps are used. Intervals more than 25% away from their median (a missed or double tap) are left out, so one slip does not spoil the reading. Steadiness is 100% minus the spread of the intervals (standard deviation ÷ mean). Tap times come from the browser's event timestamps, which are accurate to well under a millisecond.

Example

Taps 0.48 s apart give 60,000 ÷ 480 = 125 BPM, or 480 ms per beat; an eighth note then lasts 240 ms and a dotted eighth 360 ms. Counting 30 beats in 15 seconds gives 30 × 60 ÷ 15 = 120 BPM.