Guide

What BPM is

BPM means beats per minute. If the metronome is set to 60, you hear one beat each second. If it is set to 120, you hear two beats each second. The number is a pulse, not a judgment of how “hard” a piece feels.

On this site the online metronome uses the BPM you type as the conducted beat. In 4/4 that beat is the quarter note. In 6/8 that beat is the dotted quarter — see the 6/8 guide.

The tap tempo tool turns a series of taps into BPM. It stores the last four to eight intervals, averages them, and shows a rounded value plus the raw average. A gap longer than two seconds is a pause, so the next tap starts a new series. That keeps a long rest from looking like a very slow tempo.

Song length uses the same BPM: seconds = bars × beats per bar × (60 / BPM). Empty BPM or 0 BPM is an error on the field. The tools will not print Infinity.

None of this requires a recording. You can tap a pulse you hear in the room, then start the in-browser click. The site does not download songs.