A Free Tap BPM and Delay Calculator for Any Song

Sometimes you need a song's tempo and no database has it. Maybe it's a live recording, an old record, or something playing in the room right now. The fastest answer is the oldest one: tap along with the beat.

That's what the Tap BPM & Delay Calculator does. It's free and runs in your browser. There's no account, no app to install and no microphone, and nothing you tap is recorded or sent anywhere.

Why Tapping Still Beats Detection Sometimes

Automatic BPM detection is handy when it works, but it can misread syncopated rhythms and half-time feels, and a live band that speeds up in the chorus doesn't fit one tidy number. If you can hear the beat, you can measure it. That makes it useful for obscure tracks, noisy rooms, and double-checking a number that feels off.

How It Works

Tap the big round button, or press the space bar or any letter key, in time with the music. The first five taps show "Analyzing. Keep tapping." From the sixth tap you get the BPM, rounded, with one decimal next to it.

The number comes from the median of your recent taps, so one early or doubled tap barely moves it. You also get Half Time, Double Time, and the length of one bar of 4/4 in seconds, which helps when a song feels slower or faster than the first reading.

Stop for two seconds and the next tap starts fresh. There's a Reset button too. Already know the tempo? Type it in, anywhere from 20 to 300 BPM, and skip the tapping.

For Producers and Guitarists

Timing effects to the song is a common studio habit. Delays that match the tempo pulse with the music instead of fighting it. The Delay Times table gives you 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 notes, each as straight, dotted and triplet, in milliseconds. It also shows Hz, which is handy for syncing an LFO.

At 120 BPM, a quarter note is 500 ms, a dotted quarter is 750 ms, and a quarter triplet is 333.3 ms. Click any row to copy its millisecond value, then paste it into a plugin or dial it into a delay pedal.

The Reverb Times table covers 1/4, 1/2, 1/1 and two bars. Each row lists pre-delay (a 1/64 note), decay, and the total in milliseconds, so the tail ends on the beat instead of smearing across the next one.

For DJs, Dancers, and Runners

DJs can tap a live recording or an older track that drifts to see where it sits before mixing it in. Dance teachers and choreographers can tap a track, then check Half Time or Double Time to match the count dancers actually feel. Runners who build playlists around cadence can tap a song to see how it lines up with their steps per minute.

Find Songs at the Same Tempo

If the tempo you land on has a page on our site, a link like "Songs at 128 BPM" appears under the result. It leads to songs at that tempo, which is a quick way to build a set or a playlist.

If you have a title instead of a beat, the Song Key & BPM Finder looks up the key, the BPM and the Camelot code by song name.

A Few Tips

• Keep tapping for eight beats or more. The number settles as you go.

• If the result feels twice as fast or slow as the song, check Half Time and Double Time.

• For a song with several tempos, tap each section separately.

You can open the Tap BPM & Delay Calculator on your phone or your laptop and start tapping. And if the song in your head is one you can't name, that's what Song IQ is for on iPhone and Android.