Bluetooth Audio Delay Test
How far behind are your earbuds? Tap along to a beat and get your audio delay in milliseconds. Run it on wired audio first and the test tells you exactly how much Bluetooth adds.
12 taps after a short warm-up · about 10 seconds
- 1. Run it once on wired headphones or your device’s speakers, then press Save as baseline.
- 2. Connect your Bluetooth earbuds and run it again.
- 3. The difference is the delay Bluetooth adds. Tap with the sound, not with the flash.
measured delay
—ms
browser-reported latency
—
What the browser thinks its own output delay is. It often can’t see the Bluetooth link, which is why the tap test exists.
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Where you notice the lag
Bluetooth audio is always a little late: the sound is compressed, sent over radio and buffered so it doesn’t drop out. Whether that matters depends entirely on what you are doing.
- 01
Video
Usually fine. Players delay the picture to match the sound, so lip-sync holds.
- 02
Games and music
Noticeable from around 100 ms. Look for a game mode, or use wired.
- 03
Calls and translation
Rarely a problem. Speech tolerates a short delay far better than rhythm does.
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Common questions
How much delay do Bluetooth earbuds have?
Usually somewhere between about 100 and 300 milliseconds, depending on the earbuds, the codec and the phone or computer. Wired headphones are close to zero by comparison. Gaming or low-latency modes on some earbuds cut the delay noticeably.
How does this test measure latency?
It plays a steady click and you tap along. The page knows exactly when each click left the browser and when you tapped, so the gap is the time the sound took to reach you plus your own timing. A baseline run on wired audio removes your timing from the result.
Why do I need a baseline?
Everyone taps slightly early or late out of habit, and that habit can be worth 20 to 50 milliseconds. Measuring once on wired headphones or speakers, then on Bluetooth, cancels it out and leaves the delay Bluetooth itself adds.
Why does video look fine if my earbuds lag?
Video apps know about the delay and hold the picture back to match the sound. Games, music apps, calls and anything you play live cannot do that, which is where Bluetooth delay is noticeable.
How can I reduce Bluetooth audio delay?
Turn on a game or low-latency mode if your earbuds have one, keep the phone close with nothing between it and the earbuds, update the earbud firmware, and close other apps using Bluetooth. For music production or rhythm games, wired is still the only near-zero option.
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A translator in your ears
OmniTalk speaks each translated sentence into your earbuds as the conversation happens, in 60+ languages. Share one pair with Split Ears and each person hears their own language. A few hundred milliseconds of Bluetooth delay doesn’t matter there — it’s a conversation, not a drum solo.
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